32 THE CULTIVATED EVERGREENS 



adapted to the purpose. The roots of conifers are very sus- 

 ceptible to injury from exposure to the air, and the utmost vigi- 

 lance should be exercised to keep them covered and moist. 



"The climate of eastern North America is not adapted to 

 the successful growth of many beautiful conifers, and very few 

 of the species toward the Pacific Coast succeed in the East. 

 This is due not so much to the cold as to the fierce, sweeping 

 dry winds of late winters. The precipitation of 

 moisture is much more abundant on the Pacific 

 Coast, west of the Cascade Range, than it is in the 

 Northeastern States." 



"With the exception of the hemlocks and 

 some of the firs," writes George P. Brett from 

 experience in southern Connecticut in exposed 

 situation, "all the evergreens have proved 

 easy to transplant with us. Some of them, 

 indeed, can be moved at any season of the 

 year, but we have usually found our losses 

 less when the trees have been transplanted in 

 the early spring months, this spring plant- 

 ing being superior to fall planting in this 

 section of the country on account of the 

 increasing winds of winter adversely af- 

 fecting the fall-planted tree. Great care, 

 „ „ J , ,. . however, must be taken to keep the roots 



3. Prepared tor shipment. ^ 



constantly wet. They must never be 

 allowed to get at all dry, and when transplanting from the wild, 

 if a ball of earth cannot be obtained, some means must be 

 adopted for keeping the roots wet until they are again planted. 

 The wind is also a great enemy of the transplanted tree, 

 especially of the evergreen, its mass of foliage catching the winds 

 as would a sail, with the result that newly planted trees, unless 



