346 Trees; their General Character and Advantages. 



As a supplement to these general remarks on trees, it may- 

 be well to make a few suggestions concerning a very impor- 

 tant point in practice. In these days men are seldom guilty 

 of the folly of removing trees, without, as far as practicable, 

 saving the entire root. But they commit another error which 

 involves consequences quite as important. I allude to the 

 practice of digging up trees for transplantation indiscriminate- 

 ly from the forest. A perfect tree can seldom be found in a 

 wood, and the only way of insuring the acquisition of good 

 trees, native as well as foreign, is to procure them from a nur- 

 sery. Nursery trees, if proper care has been taken of them, 

 are more perfect, in their form and proportions, than those 

 which have grown up spontaneously among the crowded 

 trees and undergrowth of the woods. These remarks are 

 particularly applicable to the coniferous evergreens, which 

 are worthless if they have lost their lower branches. The 

 greater number that have attained the height of six feet in the 

 woods have met with this loss, which can never be remedied. 



There is the same difference between the trees from the 

 nursery and the trees from the wood, that may be observed 

 between the stout cabbage plants that are grown separately, 

 in a good soil and properly weeded, and others that have be- 

 come slender and elongated by growing thickly and crowded 

 among tall weeds. Neither the elongated cabbage plants nor 

 the slender saplings from the forest can form good heads. 

 The nursery trees have another advantage over the wild 

 ones, in having been accustomed from their first appearance 

 above the soil to what we may call artificial habits. They 

 submit, therefore, more kindly to the treatment they are to 

 receive. The wild-growers are obliged to be "broken in," 

 or naturalized, and many of them must perish in the opera- 

 tion. It is a sort of penny wisdom that would advise one to 

 dig up poor puny saplings from the woods, because they can 

 be had for nothing. The greater amount of labor required 

 in procuring them from the woods, with good roots, will 

 make the expense in the end equal if not greater than that of 

 purchasing them from a nursery, without taking into account 

 the greater comparative number of the former that will perish. 



Beverly, July iOth, 1853, 



