386 Hints on the Planting of Ornamental Trees. 



loaded up, and the third, carried to the best market. The 

 day is hot, the sun scorching, the wind parching, but they 

 are nothing but elm trees, and will receive no great damage. 

 After a weary ride of twenty miles, the owner hauls up at 

 some public place, — if in Boston, probably in front of the 

 Exchange. Customers at first appear slowly ; morning passes 

 away, noon, and afternoon, and only half a dozen are sold 

 out of a lot of twenty or more. The disappointed owner 

 drives off, to reappear again the next day. But the trees, or 

 the roots, look dry and must be refreshed. The nearest 

 pump furnishes a supply of water, and a few pailsful give the 

 moisture which they so much need. Another day they are 

 taken to the same stand, and are finally disposed of at some- 

 thing less than the price of the first day, the purchaser think- 

 ing he has a decided bargain by means of a day's delay. 



The trees are taken to the place where they are to be 

 planted — for they are destined for a new street forty feet 

 wide — and thrown down upon the sidewalk in the scorching 

 heat. The seller makes his way home to haul out a fresh 

 stock, and reappears at his old stand in a few days time. 



But the purchaser had never seriously thought of buying a 

 tree ; and probably it would not have occurred to him to do 

 so had he not seen them standing in front of his office, or 

 passing his door. Of course, no preparation has been made 

 for planting. The holes are not dug, no soil is provided, and 

 when the trees are brought home, there they must lay till a 

 planter is found, and everything made ready for them. This 

 we have known to be deferred two or three days, the sun 

 scorching and the wind drying the roots all the while. How- 

 ever, the work of planting is at last accomplished, but as 

 good and careful men are scarce, a common laborer is pro- 

 cured, and the work done under the purchaser's eye. 



But how is the work done ? In this wise. First the tree 

 is lopped of every branch to within fifteen or twenty inches 

 or so of the main stem ; scarcely anything left but a bare 

 pole. The hole is dug out of a sandy, gravelly, or clayey 

 street, just large enough to receive the roots, and filled with 

 the same earth thrown out : no fresh loamy soil is provided, 

 in which the young fibres may ramble and find the food they 



