560 Transplanting large X rees, 



better in five minutes, after seeing the size of the trees to be 

 -removed. The miller or warehouseman's truck, or trolly, 

 on a large scale, is a better machine than that of Sir Henry 

 Steuart. Such a truck, when brought down to the balance, 

 rests on another pair of wheels, and may be transported any 

 where. The origin of the idea is as simple as seeing a boy 

 carrying a young shrub on his spade to transplant it; but 

 when the shrub or tree is large, a pair of wheels, or even two 

 pair, must be fixed to the spade, and the spade must be large 

 and strong in proportion ; four ropes fastened near the top of 

 the tree, and to four staples at the corners of the spade bit, 

 will hold the tree as upright as the mainmast of a ship. The 

 spade handle need not be fixed permanently to the blade or 

 bit, but may be taken out or put in at pleasure, like a hand- 

 spike for weighing a ship's anchor. Sir Henry Steuart has 

 been very fortunate in having so many fine old trees left him 

 by his ancestors, who, it seems, were so " ignorant and self- 

 sufficient" as to plant them all in the wrong places. It will be 

 well if his successors be not so ignorant and self-sufficient as 

 to think they are all in their wrong places now ; and if they 

 do not invent a machine to remove them all back to their old 

 stations. As poor Richard says — 



" I never saw an oft-removed tree, 

 Nor yet an oft-removed family, 

 That throve so well as those who settled be." 



While a tree, or a man, is young, and full of sap and life, 

 they may and ought to be transplanted into various nurseries ; 

 but it is impossible to transplant an old man or old tree without 

 giving them such a shock, or check, as they seldom or never 

 get the better of. It is impossible to transplant a tree of any 

 age, without damaging some of the roots ; and they require 

 a similar deprivation of branches to the loss of roots. This 

 leads me on to that queer word physiology, I think they call it. 

 Some people are of opinion that the branches, twigs, and 

 leaves assist the growth of timber ; and a certain author, , 

 Mr. Withers, compares the leaves of the tree to its mouth, j 

 I would advise such authors to shut their mouths till they can . 

 open them to better purpose. I could have excused him if 

 he had called them nostrils; but mouths — oh, shocking! I 

 should rather call them the mere excrements of the tree, else 

 why does the tree discharge them annually. If the leaves of 

 a tree are its mouths, what shall we call the flowers and fruits ? 

 Answer, they are all alike the offspring of the tree. As the 

 blessed St. Paul says, " they bear not the root, but the root 

 them." A tree in full vigour often kills its own offspring, the 



