ArRii, iS, iS88.] 



Garden and Forest. 



85 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY PY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



[ LIMITED.] 



Office : Trihune Building, New York. 



Conducted bv Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, i? 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Tree-planting. — An American School of Forestry. — 



Easter Flowers in New York. — Note 85 



Landscape Gardening as a Profession 87 



A Temple in Japan (with illustration) 88 



Spring in Mobile Dr. Karl Mohr. 88 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W]iu Goldrhig. 88 



New or Little Known Plants : — Cypripedium fasciculatum (with illustia- 



tion) Servno iVatsoii. 90 



Aquilegia longissima Win. Falconer. 91 



Cultural Department : — Small Fruits for Home Use E. Williams. 91 



The Kitchen Garden gi 



Transplanting — Begonia gracilis, var. Martiana. — Hardy Shrubs for 



Forcing. — Consider the Lilies. — Peonies 92 



The Yellow-wood (with illustration) C. S. S. 93 



The Forest: — Influence of Undergrowth on the Increase of Timber. 5. E. Fernow. 93 



Underplanting a Larch Forest 94 



Correspondence : — A List of Books on Landscape Gardening Charles Eliot. 94 



Periodical Literature 95 



Notes g6 



The Philadelphia Flower Show 96 



Retail Flower Markets : — New York, Philadelphia, Boston g6 



Illustrations : — A Temole in Japan 89 



Cvpripedium fasciculatum. Fig. 16 90 



The Yellow-wood, Fig. 17 , 92 



Tree-planting. 



THE operation of planting trees requires deliberation 

 and care. It slrould be done thoroughly or not done 

 at all. Economy in tree planting means the proper prepara- 

 tion of the ground to be planted, and the use of well selected 

 and well grown trees. The insufficient preparation of the 

 soil and the use of badly-grown and badly-rooted plants 

 is extravagant and wasteful, because such a course must in- 

 variably fail to produce satisfactory results. William Cobbet, 

 who more than si.xty years ago wrote what still remains the 

 best book on planting which e-xists in the English language, 

 exclaims, in speaking of the necessity of a thorough pre- 

 paration of the soil, " How many millions have heen/hroivn 

 away in planting ! How many thousands of plantations 

 have, at the end of twenty or fifty years, made a beggarly 

 exhibition ; and how many of them have wholly failed ! 

 Yet, no truth is more evident to my mind than this : that 

 no plantation ever failed, except from the manifest error of 

 the proprietor. It is worse than useless to plant, unless 

 you do the whole thing well ; because, instead of creating a 

 source of profit and of pleasure, you create a source of 

 loss and mortification." 



Trees may be planted in this latitude in spring or in 

 autumn ; in more northern parts of the country they can 

 be safely planted only in spring. Whether they are planted 

 in spring or in autumn the ground should be prepared in 

 advance. This should be done for spring planting the year 

 before. This will give time to the soil to settle and become 

 pulverized, and it will enable the planter to consider care- 

 fully what trees he will plant and just where he wants to 

 set them. These are questions which should not be left 

 unsettled until the short planting season arrives. The com- 

 position of an ornamental plantation — that is, the proper 

 grouping together of different varieties of trees in a har- 

 monious arrangement — requires much consideration and 

 study. Satisfactory results will never be obtained if the 

 arrangement of a plantation is left until the trees arrive on 



the ground. The proper preparation of the soil is the 

 foundation of good planting. The best results will be at- 

 tained by trenching by hand the area to be planted to a 

 depth of two feet. The ground in this way is thoroughly 

 broken up and loosened and the roots of the trees 

 can extend freely in all directions. Care must be taken in 

 trenching to keep all the surface soil on top andnotto mix 

 it with the subsoil. Hand trenching is a slow and expensive 

 operation, and few people will undertake it on a large 

 scale in this country. When the ground is not trenched a 

 hole must be dug for each tree. The larger and deeper they 

 are made, the better the trees will grow. Holes twenty feet 

 across and three feet deep are not too large, if large, long- 

 lived and healthy trees are expected. It is impossible to 

 provide too much healthy nourishment for a tree. Small 

 and shallow holes mean small, stunted and short-lived 

 trees. All holes for spring planting should be dug during 

 the previous autumn. As soon as dug the loam should be 

 put back in the holes, and if the land is gravelly or rocky 

 the poor soil should be replaced by loam or peat carefully 

 mixed through it. Peat furnishes valuable food to trees, and 

 almost all varieties enjoy a liberal supply of it. The soil 

 will be thoroughly settled in the holes by spring and all 

 ready for planting, and the small, shallow hole actually 

 necessary to receive the roots can be made then easily 

 and quickly in the prepared soil. 



It is always better to plant small trees than large ones. 

 They are more easily and cheaply moved, recover sooner 

 and grow more rapidly. A transplanted tree two or three 

 feet high will soon overtake and surpass a much larger one, 

 and will grow into a more vigorous and beautiful speci- 

 men. A vast amount of money and a great deal of time is 

 wasted every year in tr3nng to transplant large trees. 



It is not essential in digging up trees to preserve a 

 large ball of earth about the roots. A very heavy mass of 

 earth often breaks the tender roots, and is, therefore, a 

 danger rather than an advantage to the tree. It is essen- 

 tial, however, to preserve as many of the small feeding 

 roots as possible, and care must be taken in digging a tree 

 not to unnecessarily break or mutilate them. All broken 

 roots should be carefully cut away with a sharp knife be- 

 fore the tree is replanted. Care must be taken not to ex- 

 pose the roots to the drying influence of the sun and wind. 

 They should be covered as soon as the tree is dug with a 

 piece of cloth or matting, or they may be dipped in wet 

 mud until they become thoroughly coated. The secret of 

 successful transplanting is to have the soil brought into 

 close and immediate contact with the roots. It is better, 

 therefore, to plant in dry, and not in wet, rainy weather. 

 The coating of mud not only protects the roots from dry- 

 ing, but helps the earth thrown about them to adhere more 

 closely. Two men are required to plant a tree. The hole 

 should be twice the width of the mass of roots, and the bot- 

 tom should be worked fine with a spade. One man should 

 then hold the tree erect, with its roots carefully spread out 

 in all directions in the hole, while the second man should 

 break the soil taken from the hole, so as to make it as fine 

 as possible, and then let it fall from the spade down upon the 

 roots, while the first man should lift the tree gently up and 

 down that the fine earth may penetrate and fill all ca-\'ities 

 about the roots. When the hole is nearly filled in this way 

 the earth should be pressed down with the foot, beginning 

 at the outside of the hole and working in towards the stem 

 of the tree. The hole may then be filled and the soil 

 rammed down solid. Tall trees should be carefully and 

 securely staked as soon as planted. The operation is then 

 finished. It is not uncommon to see water poured into the 

 hole while it is being filled up. This practice does harm 

 rather than good, as it washes the fine soil away from close 

 contact with the roots. 



Some planters recommend transplanting coniferous trees 

 during the month of August, but this plan has little to 

 recommend it ; and it is certainly safer to move them in 

 the spring, IVIany people believe, too, that they can only 

 be safely moved late or after they have begun their annual 



