202 PERMANENT NURSERIES. 



be prepared with the conical or semicircular transplanter (Figs. 

 49 and 50), or with curved or flat spades (Figs. 51 and 52), or 

 with the common khurpa (Fig. 39) or trowel (Fig. 38), or with 

 an ordinary hoe. The conical transplanter used should be of the 

 same size as that with which the seedlings to be pricked out were 

 taken up ; the earth round the roots comes up as a cylinder of the 

 same diameter as the lower and narrower opening of the implement, 

 while the hole formed with it has the same conical outline as the 

 outer surface of the blade. 



Before the plants are put into the holes or furrows, they may 

 have to be pruned. All broken roots or badly injured portions of 

 roots should be cut with a clean section with a sharp knife. Simi- 

 larly, long roots that require curtailment should be cut down to 

 the required length. The crown also must often be pruned. It is 

 better that the roots should preponderate over the green parts than 

 that these parts should be in excess of the roots, since in the 

 former case the development of some of the buds will at once 

 restore the desired equilibrium, while in the latter the insufficiency 

 of the roots must at once debilitate the entire crown. As it is 

 impossible to secure exact equilibrium, it is advisable to thin the 

 crown a little severely, especially when broad-leaved species are 

 concerned. In doing this, the languishing or less lignified shoots 

 and twigs and half-developed herbaceous leaves should be removed 

 in preference to all others, as they would be the first to suffer from 

 over-transpiration. In the case of conifers the leading shoot should, 

 as a rule, be carefully preserved. 



There is another reason, besides the diminished absorptive power 

 of the roots, for reducing the leaf-surface, and that is that the very 

 fact of the seedlings being removed from their original crowded 

 position to a more free and open situation accelerates transpira- 

 tion in a very remarkable manner. 



Whether we transplant into furrows or pits, good manure should 

 be strewn thickly over the bottoms of the furrows or pits, and also 

 placed at every other point in immediate contact with the roots ; 

 and the soil, before it is put back over the roots, should be mixed 

 with a little manure. 



After the plants have been put in and the furrows or pits filled 

 up, the soil should be carefully pressed down round the seedlings, 

 so as to ensure close contact between it and the roots, and to fur- 

 ther this end water should be given without delay. Unless the 

 soil is pressed in at once, it will afterwards settle down of itself 

 and leave bare the upper portion of the roots, or, at any rate, the 



