388 Hints on the Planting of Ornamental Trees. 



But the remedy for this evil is what our readers will like 

 to know. This is simple enough. First, never purchase a 

 tree on any consideration, — unless some rare kind one is de- 

 sirous of possessing, which cannot be had otherwise, — which 

 has not been cultivated. One might as well expect to find a 

 savage at once take to the arts of civilized life, as a tree grow 

 kindly and thriftily, torn from its native wilds, Avith its roots 

 rambling in the soft soil of its accumulated and decaying 

 foliage. Nature should be our guide in all operations of this 

 kind. In its native earth a tree does not seek its food imme- 

 diately around it ; all are striving for this, and among so 

 many there is but little, and they have to go far in search of 

 it. Consequently their roots are large, woody, and with but 

 few fibres ; when taken up, they must be cut off, and then 

 little is left for them to take up their food. The tree has, 

 therefore, an entire life to live over. If there are roots 

 enough for it to sustain itself, it will stand still till it makes 

 new fibres, by which it may seek its food ; and as the greater 

 the tree, the longer is this process going on, so the later is it 

 in commencing a vigorous growth. Thus a large tree is 

 always longer in getting established than a small one. 



If these reasons are not apparent to every reasonable mind, 

 then we have studied this subject to little purpose. The only 

 alternative then is to purchase cultivated trees, — that is, trees 

 raised from seed, or procured when very young from the 

 woods, and grown in good soil, yearly dug, hoed, manured 

 and tilled. Then they are provided with an abundance of 

 small fibrous roots, which adapt them to any situation to 

 which they may be removed : the future conditions of growth 

 being only governed by the quality of the soil and after-treat- 

 ment. Thus the average growth of an elm from seed, in ten 

 years, raised in this manner, is about thirty feet ; while the 

 average growth of a tree from the woods twelve feet high, 

 when set out, is not more than ten feet in the same time. 

 We have silver maples in our grounds set out eight years ago, 

 and three years old when planted, which now measure nearly 

 four feet in circumference at the ground. 



All, therefore, who intend to plant trees should bear in 



