234 UPON THE PRUNING AND MANAGEMENT OF TRANSPLANTED TREES. 



mode of practice is, I think, in its full extent, quite eligible to the greater 

 number of cases ; the one being too prejudicial to the growth of the tree, 

 by occasioning the production prematurely of an unusual profusion of 

 blossoms ; and the other being, even when most successful, attended with 

 an unnecessary loss of time : and I have found, in very extensive experi- 

 ence, that transplanted trees generally succeed permanently best, and as 

 standards take the best forms, when their lateral branches, instead of 

 being suffered to retain their whole length, or pruned off closely, are all 

 shortened to the length of a few inches, and the top of the tree reduced 

 to a single annual shoot. Under these circumstances the leaves become 

 dispersed upon the stem, so as to afford nutriment to the bark of different 

 parts of it ; and the power of the wind to prevent the tree re-establishing 

 itself is small (owing to the situation of the leaves), comparatively with 

 the extent of the foliage which the tree exposes to light. The trees 

 under this mode of treatment also bear as much fruit as they are capable 

 of feeding, as soon as under any other that I have hitherto tried or seen ; 

 and within three or four years their branches generally become more 

 widely extended than those of similar trees which are planted without 

 being pruned. The same mode of pruning is equally well adapted to fruit 

 and forest trees ; and oaks, which I have planted when ten or twelve feet 

 high, have not only begun immediately to grow with luxuriance, but they 

 have within a very years wholly lost the character of transplanted trees. 



The great error of modern practice is that of suffering, when the trees 

 are not headed down, many small branches to form the summit of the 

 transplanted tree ; which branches expend its sap in the production of 

 tufts of leaves, where those, owing to their distance from the roots, 

 operate least beneficially in the performance of their proper office, and 

 most injuriously by being most exposed to the influence of winds. 



Whenever the roots of transplanted trees have been very much injured, 

 or have been very long out of the ground, the number, as well as the 

 extent of the lateral branches, should be reduced, and not more than a 

 few inches of the leading annual shoot should be suffered to remain ; but 

 in all cases where trees are to be sent a great distance, this retrenchment 

 of their branches should be made in the nursery from which they are to 

 be removed ; and, if it be properly executed, trees may be conveyed to 

 great distances, under more disadvantageous circumstances than is usually 

 supposed, without endangering life, provided they be subjected to proper 

 subsequent management. 



I received in the last spring some apple-trees from America, which 

 were forwarded to me from London by a wrong waggon, and consequently 



