356 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



and establish themselves in the ground, and be less liable to 

 injury from weeds. When taken from the nursery great care 

 should be exercised not to injure the roots, and if any are 

 wounded they must be cut off with a sharp knife, in a slanting 

 direction, and they will make rapid growth, frequently forming 

 a hedge two years sooner than when treated in the common way. 

 Plants should always be removed to a richer soil than they were 

 raised in, and they will grow vigorously. A strong plant which 

 has grown up quickly, and arrived at a considerable growth in a 

 short time, never fails to succeed better after transplanting than 

 another of the same age that has been stinted, whether the soil 

 in which they are planted be poor or rich. I would therefore 

 invariably select for a nursery the richest spot on the farm, and 

 make the ground richer still when I set them out ; and, in select- 

 ing, would also prefer the youngest and most healthy, to those 

 much older, even if of a greater size. 



If honey locust is intended for the hedge, such plants succeed 

 the best that possess the greatest number of fibrous roots, and it 

 is therefore a matter of importance to adopt such methods as 

 tend to produce such effects while they are in the nursery. This 

 may be effected by transplanting at an early period, as the first 

 or second year, according to the growth, and lopping off all such 

 roots as have a tendency to strike directly downwards, or extend . 

 in a lateral direction. In the fall succeeding the time the locust 

 has been transplanted from the seed beds, the earth between the 

 rows should be dug over with a spade, taking care to go within 

 three inches of the plants and to work with a very sharp instru- 

 ment, the operator always taking care to force his spade straight 

 down, with the back towards the plants, on each side of the row, 

 so as to cut the largest portion of the lateral roots, which will 

 tend to make new fibres branch out into still more numerous 

 ramifications ; and every time the ground is dug dig in the same 

 manner, though at a greater distance from the plant ; this will 

 keep the fibrous roots so near the stem that when the plant is 

 lifted to be placed permanently in the hedge, it will not fail to 

 be provided with such an abundance of mouths to imbibe nour- 

 ishment, as not to be in the least danger of suffering greatly by 

 the operation. 



In collecting plants for forming honey locust hedges, it has 

 been the custom to prefer such as are small and young ; but it is 

 far' better, as well as more expeditious to have them older and 



