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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 TRANSPLANTING TREES. 



Mr. Editor : The season is approaching which 

 many persons will improve for the transplantation of 

 fruit" and forest trees ; bnt others, whose lands may 

 be well prepared by the spring ploughing, will defer 

 this work until the ensuing fall, in the belief, that 

 the autumn is the most favorable season for the re- 

 moval of trees of every description. Which is the 

 best season for setting trees ? This is a question 

 which is often raised. In the fall of 184G, I made 

 this inquiry of many experienced agriculturists, and 

 their opinions upon this siibjcct left me quite as 

 undecided as I was before I put the interrogatory. 

 Their recommendations, alternately of spring and fall, 

 nearly balanced each other, and produced in me a 

 state of indecision, which I, at last, removed by con- 

 sulting my own convenience. I deferred the work 

 until the spring of 1847. I then transplanted five 

 or six hundred fruit and forest trees ; and the suc- 

 cess which resulted from this labor I will in-oceed to 

 communicate. 



One piece of land, on which I set between one and 

 two hundred apple-trees, had not, for many years, 

 been improved. It was an exhausted soil, aiid con- 

 sidered as of little value. The field has a south- 

 ern inclination, the upper part dry and loamy, while 

 the lower portion is wet, and, in some places, even 

 boggy. The land was ploughed in the fall of 1846. 

 In the following spring, thirty loads of stable manure, 

 and twenty-five of meadow mud, which the frost of 

 the preceding winter had rendered friable, were 

 spread upon it and ploughed in ; the trees were then 

 set at a distance of two rods. These trees all lived, 

 and grew vigorously, even the first season. They all 

 put forth the second spring, and grew very thriftily 

 through the season, with the exception of a single 

 tree, which was injured by the tillage. Many of 

 these trees, at the close of the second season, had 

 attained to the height of eight feet, and their stalks, 

 at the surface of the ground, Avere six inches in 

 circumference. These trees have, at least, quintu- 

 pled their size by two years' growth. 



On another piece of ground I set three to four 

 hundred fruit and forest trees, and shrubs. This 

 land had been improved as a field for several years, 

 o.nd was in a nuich better condition than the former 

 lot ; yet, as this was designed for a house site, and as 

 it was desirable to produce from it a variety of fruit 

 at the earliest possible day, a much larger quantity 

 of manure was bestowed upon it ; and upwards of 

 one hundred apple, pear, peach, cherry-trees, &c,, 

 were transplanted into it, with great care, in the 

 spring aforesaid. Tliese trees, with the exception of 

 two cherry and one pear-tree, put forth leaves the 

 second season. They lioed, but they do not grow. 

 Many of these, the pears especially, produced but a 

 few small leaves ; the bark looks sickly, and spots of 

 moss appear on the trunks. I indulge the hope that 

 by still more liberal manuring, and by washing the 

 bark with potash water, they may yet be reclaimed, 

 and become thrifty. The difference in the appear- 

 ance of the trees, on the two lots before named, has 

 developed to me a rule which, if it had been suggest- 

 ed to me at an earlier period, would have been of 

 great service, and which 1 will now lay down, in 

 the hope that it may still prove beneficial to others. 

 The apple-trees in the ground first named were 

 from Rhode Island, from a light soil, commingled 

 with sand ; and they were set in land which, 

 although not very well prepared, was still better 

 than that from Avhich they were taken. The trees 

 upon the other lot, which was made much richer, 

 were taken from nurseries in the vicinity of Boston, 

 from a soil much stronger than that to which they 

 were transferred. In view of these facts, then, I 



will venture to say, let fruit trees never be removed 

 from a rich to a poorer soil. 



In the last day of April, and the first of May, 1847, 

 I also transplanted several hundred shade and ever- 

 green trees ; but my success with these was rather 

 indifferent. The pine, cedar, balsam fir, arhor vita, 

 and Norway spruce, generally lived, but grew but very 

 little, even in the second year. Of about forty hem- 

 locks, I saved only some ten or twelve ; and I have 

 several hollies which survive, but which, as yet, jjut 

 forth but a thin and sickly foliage. Perhaps I ought 

 to say here, that the July succeeding the season in 

 which the evergreens were transplanted, was very 

 dry, and the trees were not well attended and wa- 

 tered during this period. The shade trees, set in 

 April, 1847, succeeded rather better. The elm, ash, 

 and maple, all leaved out the first year, and grew 

 well the second season. Of my sassafi-as I lost one 

 half; of my oaks, about two thirds. I have suc- 

 ceeded, but at the expense of great care, in preserv- 

 ing two fine shagbarks, or hickory trees. These were 

 removed from their natural position, and reset by an 

 experienced hand, and watered, almost daily, for the 

 first summer. About one third of my beech-trees 

 were saved. And here I beg to say a word in praise of 

 the beech, a tree not generally esteemed, in this part 

 of the country, for shade or ornament. It is a 

 shajjely, cleanly tree, yielding a delicious nut, which 

 becomes larger, and even sweeter, by cultivation ; 

 and it retains its leaves to a later period in the fall 

 than almost any other tree of the deciduous class. 

 Homer and Virgil have noticed this tree. It was a 

 beech which stood at the Scean gate of ill-fated 

 Troy ; and it was under a wide-spreading beech that 

 Tityrus breathed forth his amorous strains on his 

 slender pipe ; and the first parks of Europe, relying 

 on reports which have been often made, are stocked 

 with this tree, and esteemed as highly as any of the 

 shades in the country, not excepting either the oak 

 or the elm. 



All the lesser trees, and flowering shrubs, which 

 were set in the season aforesaid, have done well, 

 with the exception of the purple beech. These put 

 forth a few scattering leaves in June, but they soon 

 fell, and the shrubs were clry and dead before the 

 close of summer. 



My experience, in regard to fruit trees, induces 

 me to recommend the spring season for their trans- 

 plantation ; but I am not fully satisfied with the 

 result of my labors in relation to shade trees and 

 evergreens. Perhaps the last would have done 

 better if their removal had been deferred until the 

 last of May or first of June ; and it may be that 

 both are more likely to succeed when transplanted 

 in the fall. I hope, Mr. Editor, some of your corre- 

 spondents, who have tried different seasons of the 

 year for transplanting shades and evergreens will 

 communicate the results of their trials through the 

 nuidium of vom- paper. Let the experiments of the 

 past, in matters of agriculture, be collected into a 

 common fund, for the benefit of the farmer in his 

 future operations. ABRAHAM T. LOWE. 



Bridgewaier, March 20, 1849. 



For the Ne.io Emjland Farmer. 

 TALMAN SWEETING-SOUTHERN TREES. 



Mr. Editor: I see by the newspapers that the 

 subject under consideration, at the last agricultural 

 meeting, was fruit trees, transplanting, &c. A sub- 

 ject of more importance could not be brought before 

 you. I read the remarks of one of yoiir speakers, 

 recommending a number of kinds of apples that 

 should be cultivated, and among them the Talman 

 Sweeting. My experience in the cultivation of 



