100 ELEMENTARY FORESTRY. 



transplanting or by cutting around the tree with a spade or 

 tree digger. It is especially desirable to do this to trees that 

 are not easily moved on account of their long branching roots 

 such as the Birch, or to those that have tap roots like 

 the Oak and Walnut. It is on account of their having had 

 their roots shortened so they can all be moved with the tree 

 that nursery-grown trees are generally superior to others. 



Fig. 18. Extra pood roots on a forest 

 grown Elm, used as a street tree. 



In transplanting it is important to take up a sufficient 

 amount of roots to support the plant, and as a rule the more 

 roots the better the conditions for growth. Very long roots 

 should be shortened unless the tree is removed to a permanent 

 place, in which case all the good roots should be left on the 

 tree. All bruised or broken roots should be cut off in either 

 case, and the top of the tree shortened to correspond. In 

 transplanting trees they should be set one or two inches lower 

 than they formerly stood and the roots should be spread out 

 in the holes without crowding. It is customary to plant many 

 kinds of small trees in furrows made with a plow. 



Very large trees, those over six inches in diameter, are 

 sometimes successfully planted in winter by taking them up 

 with a ball of earth. This is done by digging a trench around 

 the tree late in the autumn, deep enough to cut most of the 

 roots but far enough away from the tree to leave a large ball 

 of earth. The trench is then filled in with a mulch of some 

 kind, and when the ground is frozen the tree is moved with 



