UPON THE PRUNING AND MANAGEMENT OP TRANSPLANTED TREES. 235 



did not arrive till near the middle of April, and many weeks after the 

 period at which I ought to have received them. The whole of them 

 appeared perfectly lifeless and dry, and much better fitted for fire-wood 

 than for planting ; and I scarcely entertained the slightest hope of being 

 able to recover a single plant. I nevertheless resolved that no trouble 

 should be spared in making the experiment. 



The American nurserymen had pruned the trees much in the way I 

 wished (though in a very rough and careless manner, and obviously with- 

 out any other object than convenience in packing them) ; and I had 

 therefore little more to do in pruning them than to take away such 

 branches as were broken and wholly dead. The trees, which were about 

 four feet high, were then planted in a situation where they were perfectly 

 screened from the morning sun, and just as much water was given as was 

 sufficient to close the moulds to the roots. Their stems were then 

 sprinkled with water, by an engine, sufficiently to wet the bark ; and this 

 was repeated at six o^clock every morning through the months of May, 

 June, and July ; but no water was given immediately to the roots, 

 previous experience having led me to believe that excess of moisture is, in 

 such cases, generally injurious, and often fatal. 



About midsummer a few of the trees began to exhibit some feeble 

 symptoms of life ; several subsequently shot vigorously, some to the 

 length of eighteen inches ; and out of sixty-four trees, I lost only three. 

 They succeeded, in the aggregate, better than other trees of nearly the 

 same age, which were only removed from a contiguous nursery, but which 

 were not sprinkled with water ; the season having proved cold and dry, 

 and consequently extremely unfavourable to transplanted trees. 



I had previously seen in other instances, though never in so apparently 

 hopeless a case, the good effects of sprinkling the stems and branches of 

 transplanted trees before the sun began to shine upon them in the 

 morning, both in the forcing-house and in the open air. In the forcing- 

 house I have found that water may be also thus applied with advantage in 

 the evening as well as in the morning ; but, in the open air, I have had 

 reason to think its operation injurious, when the succeeding night has 

 proved cold. 



