Retrospective Criticism. 643 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notice. 

 Ripe Grapes have been sent from Boston, U. S., to Chatsworth, packed in 

 cotton wadding, and arrived in a sufficiently good state to admit of testing 

 their flavour. (Gard. Chron., 1841, p. 732.) It would thus appear, that, by 

 means of steam and railroads, many of the fruits of one hemisphere might be 

 distributed over the other ; and thus, not only the comforts, but the luxuries, 

 of life will in time be in a great measure equalised all over the world. — Cond. 



Art. II. Retrospective Criticism. 



TRANSPLANTING large and small Trees. — I perceive that your Suburban Hor- 

 ticulturist has reached its 14th number; and, though you promised to conclude 

 the work with the 12th number, it cannot be a disappointment to your 

 readers, as every new number bears evidence of practical utility. My prac- 

 tice in transplanting large and small trees, however, leads me to differ from 

 you, in both cardinal and minor points, either for immediate or Tor future 

 effect. That your mode of transplanting, by " heading in," will succeed to the 

 satisfaction of a proprietor who has not seen any other mode practised, and 

 that good flourishing trees may be obtained, I have not the least doubt : but, 

 that trees of the same age may be taken up and transplanted, and succeed 

 better in giving immediate effect, and certainly as well, if not better, for the 

 future, without the least mutilation of their branches, I am certain ; putting 

 out of the question the chances of having unsound timber in the former case, 

 while in the latter there is no more risk to run in this respect than there is in 

 timber produced from seed on the ground where it was sown. Though I 

 practise the " heading-in" mode with young trees from the nursery, after being 

 planted out one or two years, I feel certain that it is as unsound as it is un- 

 natural. A seed is put into the earth in a nursery, take an acorn for instance, 

 surrounded by others in such a manner that when its cotyledons expand, the 

 pressure of its neighbours is such that it has difficulty in protruding its cor- 

 culum. When it has succeeded in this task, and appears above the surface of 

 the ground, its foliage is almost smothered by the crowded state of the plants. 

 It stands here one or two years, as the case may be, and then it is trans- 

 planted into a nursery line. Here it remains till it has undergone another 

 degree of smother. After this it is more than probable that it ge|s transported 

 to a clayey soil (where the proper drainers have never shed their balmy influ- 

 ence), and there planted in a hole 12 in. by 12 in., which had probably been 

 made three months previously, by way of preparing the soil for the reception 

 of the young plant, and which hole had held water the whole of that time, as 

 would an India-rubber slipper. This is a very curious cradle to rear the 

 wooden walls of old England in, but so it has been, for I have witnessed such 

 a state of things frequently. Is it surprising, then, that if this plant, so impro- 

 perly reared to this stage, does not die the first year after planting, that it 

 remains almost stationary for two or three years ? Certainly not. Not to men- 

 tion the sudden change which the root of the plant has undergone, the top 

 becomes paralysed by the extremes of temperature ; and constricted bark is the 

 consequence, which no effort of its broken down energies can remedy : but, 

 by the time above specified, the soil having got condensed about its roots, it 

 sends out lateral shoots from the collar; hence the notion of "heading in" 

 suggested itself. That " heading in" is here necessary must be apparent to 

 every person of the least pretensions to arboricultural knowledge ; but, that 

 it would not be necessary after a more natural treatment of the infant plant, I 

 have not the smallest doubt. I am not supposing, for a moment, that the 

 above opinion is new ; on the contrary, hundreds of practical persons are well 

 aware of the fact, and I only mention it here, by way of showing that these 



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