434 The best Season for Transplanting Trees. 



Sub. True, and it is for this very reason that there are so 

 many opinions that I wish to know which season you prefer, 

 and, if not too much trouble, to give the reasons that have 

 guided you in your choice. 



Ed. Willingly. It is a rule we have always adopted in 

 our horticultural operations, never to do anything unless it 

 can be justified upon some principle. This hap-hazard kind 

 of gardening, — doing what others have done before us, — or 

 following the advice of every writer who gives his year's expe- 

 rience to the public, is what we never practice, unless ac- 

 counted for on good and sound reasons. 



Sub. I have not read your Magazine without learning 

 that long ago ; and therefore ask the question in regard to 

 transplanting trees ; for, beyond the mere ipse dixit of the 

 many that the fall or the spring is best because it is, I have 

 been unable to learn why one season is better than the other, 

 or wh}?- both are not good alike. 



Ed. It is natural enough that there should be this variety 

 of opinions ; especially among the mass of the people, who, 

 of course, cannot have the experience of professional men ; 

 and as our general information upon gardening has been de- 

 rived from English works, where the fall may be said to have 

 no end, or the spring no beginning, so far as moving the earth 

 is concerned, we have adopted the views of those writers who 

 generally recommend planting in winter. Loudon says, when 

 treating of the apple, pear, &c., they may be planted " in any 

 open weather from November to February." 



Sub. a very different climate, certainly, from ours. 



Ed. So different that scarcely any rules laid down by 

 English writers will apply in many things to our own practice. 

 Winter, with us, sets in so soon after the fall of the leaf, and 

 the ground continues frozen so late in spring, that there is 

 scarcely more than ten or twelve weeks, counting both fall 

 and spring, to perform the operation of transplanting : of 

 course, I mean in the uortliern portion of the United States. 



Sub. I was hardly aware that the time was so short as 

 you state, though I know it is brief enough to one who has 

 much planting to do. 



