28 



TRANSPLANTING TEEES. 



succeed on clay and the reverse ; this, if they will only use reason, 

 and study the nature of obtaining food by the tree, they will see, 

 at once, has no foundation in fact ; but a tree taken from the rich 

 ground of a well kept nursery, and placed in a barren, half-starved 

 soil, amid grass and weeds, has no more chance of continuing in 

 vigor and health, than an animal raised upon the rich pastures of our 

 western country would have, transplanted to some of the bleak, bar- 

 ren hills of New England. Food for the plant is therefore requi- 

 site, and this should be prepared, in a well and previously cultivated 

 and enriched soil, and not expected to be supplied in a raw state, by 

 application of animal manures immediately to the roots ; this should 

 never be done ; but, Prof. Lindley says, " that a small quantity of 

 super-phosphate of lime, as it is called, that is to say, a mixture of 

 oil of vitriol and burnt bones, mixed with dry mould, and thrown 

 in round the roots of a newly-transplanted tree, will generally aid 

 in the formation of root fibres, and, consequently, assist very much 

 in establishing the plant in its new situation ; or, if scattered over 

 the soil next the roots, the rains will distribute it to the places where 

 most required." 



How to Plant. Having prepared the place and the soil, we next 



proceed to plant the tree. 

 Supposing that the roots, 

 in removing, have been 

 carefully preserved, our 

 tree will present, when 

 placed in the hole pre- 

 pared for it, the appear- 

 ance represented in our 

 fig. 17, the upper root 

 being about four inches 

 lower than the level of 

 the surrounding soil. If 

 the roots are broken, 

 prune, by a cut from the 

 *"'". under side of each end. 

 / Now, one man should 

 V scatter carefully in the 

 Fig- 17. fine earth, while another 



holds the body of the tree with one hand, and with the other care- 

 fully presses the earth around and beneath every root, taking care 

 to keep the small roots and fibres, each in its place, lifting them 

 as the work progresses, so that their ends are horizontal with their 

 base. Leave the earth, if the planting be done in Spring, ^ level 

 around the tree, and with the surrounding surface ; if planted in the 

 Fall, earth up a little mound around the stem-end, and over the 



