Planting and Transplanting 



preferred, not only because it is dug more quickly, but also for 

 another reason of greater importance: when the roots, in their 

 natural extension by growth, reach the wall of a circular hole, 

 they are in danger of following the line of the circular wall and 

 thus confining themselves into a space the size of the original 

 circular hole, instead of extending into the wall and thus into 

 the adjoining soil as they will certainly do when the hole is a 

 square one. 



When digging the hole, the best soil should be placed on one 

 side, and the poorer soil on the opposite side. The hole should 

 be made quite as wide at the bottom as at the top and should be 

 deeper at the sides than in the middle, and thus the surplus water 

 will run to the sides of the basin rather than lodge in the center. 



After the hole has been got ready, the plant should be ex- 

 amined. If the top is not uniform and equally balanced, it must 

 be pruned into uniform proportion. It must then be carefully 

 seen that the roots are not matted or crowded. If the roots are 

 found to be matted or crowded they must be disentangled and 

 cut back to sound wood, and, if any of them are bruised, they 

 should be cut back with a sharp knife. The roots should then 

 be placed in the prepared spot to find out whether the hole is of 

 the proper depth. It may be found that the neck of the plant is 

 too high or too low, and the hole must be lowered or filled in, as 

 may be necessary, to remedy this, it being always borne in mind 

 that the bottom of the hole on which the roots are to rest should 

 be of convex form, not only for the reason just mentioned 

 regarding the drainage of the water, but so that the roots will 

 point in a downward direction as in their natural state, rather 

 than in an upward direction as too often happens from neglect 

 of this precaution. The roots should also be as equally dis- 

 tributed over the surface of the bottom of the hole as possible, 

 or as nearly so as they were before transplanting, and as their 

 nature will permit. 



A light spreading of fine, well-pulverized soil should then 



