December 27, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



505 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



of 



SI 'nth 



Day 



of 

 Week. 



DEC. 27, 1S64— JAN. 2, 1865. 



Average Temperature 

 near London. 



Rain in 



last 

 37 years. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Snn 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Snn. 



Day of 



Tear, 









Day. 



Nieht 



Mean. 



Days. 



m. h 



m. h. 



m. h. 



m. h. 





m. 8, 





27 



Ttt 



ST. JOH>" THE EVANGELIST. 



42.7 



296 



36 1 



14 



8af8 



55 af 3 



23 6 



2 3 



28 



1 34 



362 



2S 



W 



Innocents. 



48.8 



29.3 



35 6 



11 



9 S 



55 3 



IS 7 



3 4 



e 



2 4 



363 



29 



Th 



David Don died, 1S41. 



43.0 



33.3 



38 1 



17 



9 S 



56 3 



7 8 



12 5 



i 



2 33 



364 



30 



F 



Roval Societv founded. 



44.7 



32.6 



38.7 



15 



9 8 



57 3 



48 S 



27 6 



2 



3 2 



365 



31 



S 



Joseph Sabine died, 1837. 



44.2 



33.5 



38.9 



11 



9 8 



58 3 



23 9 



44 7 



3 



3 31 



S66 



1 



Stra 



1 Sunday aftkr Christmas. 



43.4 



31.3 



37.4 



12 



9 8 



59 3 



19 10 



22 10 



4 



4 



1 



2 



SI 



Laurustinus flowers. 



42.5 



3L3 



37.4 



15 



S 8 



4 



45 10 



39 11 



5 



4 28 







From observations taken near London during the last thirtv-seven vears, the averase day temperature of 



the week 



is 43.2° 



and its 



night 



temperature 



31.5°, The greatest heat was 5S° 



Da the 2Sth, 1S55 ; and the lowest cold, l c below zero, onth.o2Sth, 1860. The greatest fall of 



rain was 0.70 inch. 













ml 



ENG Aj\*D TEANSPLANTING. 



EKEEALLT speak- 

 ing the removal 

 and planting of 

 trees and shrubs 

 is an operation to 

 be performed in 

 the months of Sep- 

 tember, October, 

 and November, ac- 



".-•.- ^^SjSf&^ils&Kfr- COl'ding to oniio- 



< WJ WBSS^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ? ^' dox rules. But, 



then, as regards 

 myself, I happen to be one of those selfwilled individuals 

 who follow no conventional rules in connection with gar- 

 den operations, and as gardening is a matter of business 

 with me, the fraternity will probably stigmatise me as 

 perverse and headstrong. Be that as it may, whenever 

 I find it desirable or necessary to remove and transplant 

 trees or shrubs, and I have a convenient opportunity, I 

 put aside all considerations as to the time of year, and 

 submit only to the negative dictates of frost and much 

 wet. I have transplanted trees and shrubs in the middle 

 of summer and in the middle of winter, in spring and in 

 autumn, the after-treatment, of course, being influenced 

 by the weather, and never have I found that the success 

 or failure of the operation could be directly or indirectly 

 traced to the mere season of the year at which it happened 

 to be performed. 



This assertion may be diametrically opposed to the 

 opinions of many of the most able and experienced gar- 

 deners, I nevertheless adhere to it, and even deny that 

 the best time to remove trees is when there is plenty of 

 moisture in the ground ; in other words, when there is 

 sufficient moisture in the soil to cause it to hold together 

 in solid spits. I like it best when it will crumble, and 

 run in among the fibres and roots, and this I find it will 

 do best in the summer time, when the ground is com- 

 paratively dry. Much, I am aware, depends on the 

 nature of the soil, and if it is naturally crumbly and 

 light, probably the best time to plant trees in it is the 

 autumn or winter ; but even this I will not venture posi- 

 tively to assert, for I have invariably found that, no 

 matter what the soil is, newly-planted trees are likely to 

 do best when the roots start into action immediately 

 after planting. This is certainly not done in the winter, 

 unless the season happen to be_ unusually mild ; and 

 although the trees may sustain no injury from remaining 

 a long time inactive, it does not disprove what I affirm. 



Some years ago I assisted in removing a number of 

 evergreen shrubs from one garden to another : they were 

 taken two or three at a time on wheelbarrows to a dis- 

 tance of about half a mile, and the weather was both hot 

 and dry, the period of the year being about midsummer. 

 As each was planted a basin was formed around it, the 

 soil being in a crumbly state. This basin was filled up 

 twice with water, which seemed to run the soil in amongst 

 No, 193— Vol. VII New Series. 



the roots, and leave them as though they had never been 

 removed. They took to the soil immediately, and I never 

 knew fresh-planted shrubs do better. I thought at the 

 time that it was incurring too great a risk, as the shrubs 

 were fine specimens ; but the result proved that all my 

 fears were groundless, and if since then I have had occa- 

 sion to remove trees or shrubs at any period of the year 

 I have never hesitated to do so. The weather subsequent 

 to the operation will suggest such precautions as are 

 necessary to insure safety — that is, in the way of shading, 

 syringing, mulching or watering, and staking in case of 

 high winds. These precautions are often necessary, and 

 the neglect of them is more frequently the cause of failure 

 than the supposed v-rong time of the year. 



I would not, however, have it understood that I am 

 advocating summer planting in preference to autumn or 

 winter planting. There are cases in which it would be 

 entirely out of the question to perform such operations 

 in the summer on account of the pressure of other work"; 

 nor does what I assert affect this matter in the least. 

 What I would recommend is not to be bound by usage, 

 nor to be led by would-be clever theorists, who describe 

 minutely how the tree should be taken up, how the hole 

 should be dug, how the soil should be trodden over the 

 roots, the month, the week, or even the day on which 

 transplantation should be performed, and such matters of 

 detail as are far better left to the discretion of the operator. 



Many gentlemen lay out large sums of money in the 

 purchase of trees and shrubs, and make extraordinary 

 mistakes in the planting and disposition of them, simply, 

 it appears to me, for want of a few practical lessons, and 

 partly, perhaps, from being unacquainted with the nature 

 of the trees which they plant, or their knowledge being 

 confined to the simple fact that trees should be planted 

 with their roots downwards. This is rather a limited 

 knowledge of vegetation ; but judging from the manner 

 in which many trees are treated one would think that it 

 was also the extent of the knowledge possessed by the 

 planter. For instance : a gentleman owns a field or 

 paddock, and desires to have a belt of trees round it. 

 He goes or sends to a nursery for one or two hundred 

 young forest trees, and they are planted, the turf being 

 replaced close around their stems. While the owner is 

 congratulating himself on the pleasure he will experience 

 in soon having a plantation of vigorous young trees, 

 some of them are dying, and the rest do not grow. How 

 is this ? The nurseryman who supplied them is blamed ; 

 it must be his fault in supplying bad trees. What else 

 can be the reason ? Trees are pointed out as growing 

 vigorously in neighbouring fields, with the grass extend- 

 ing up to their trunks, just as he would like his own to be, 

 and he cannot see why they should not. £Tow, I would 

 simply inform him that the grass growing under an old- 

 established tree is merely there on sufferance, the tree 

 has the mastery, and will not allow the grass to attain 

 more than a certain degree of strength ; but with fresh- 

 planted trees the case is different, the grass pushes out 

 fibres long before the tree, and the roots are down among 

 those of the tree before the latter have made a single fibre. 



N... 848.— Vol. XXXII., Old Series. 



