October 31, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



43i 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York, 



Conducted by 



Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article :— Transplanting Trees 431 



Climbing Plants on Boston Buildings Sylvester Baxter. 432 



Foreign Corkespondence :— London Letter W Watson. 433 



New or Little-known Plants :— A Hybrid Walnut tree (With figure.). C. S. S. 434 



Plant Notes 43 6 



Cultural Department:— Saving Seed ...Professor Taft. 437 



Indoor Work in Autumn W. H. Taplin. 437 



The Linarias Entile Mische. 438 



Notes from Baden-Baden !\Iax Leichtlin. 43S 



Forcing Strawberries William Scott. 438 



Correspondence:— The Persimmon 7- IV. B. 439 



Birds which Injure Apples... J. G. Jack. 439 



A Double May-weed Bessie L. Putnam. 439 



Recent Publications - - 439 



Notes 44° 



Illustration :— Juglans regia X cinerea. Fig. 69 435 



Transplanting Trees. 



A CORRESPONDENT inquires whether deciduous trees 

 transplanted after the ist of November will live in 

 this latitude. To which we reply that, if every needed 

 preparation has been made and a tree is properly lifted and 

 set, it can be removed successfully as long as the ground 

 continues warm enough to insure the output of fresh root- 

 lets in sufficient numbers to supply the water which is 

 wasted from the trunk and branches by evaporation during 

 the winter. But whether or not a tree will be likely to sur- 

 vive — that is, whether its chances of life barely outweigh 

 the dangers of death in the operation of removal — is not 

 the question which an enterprising planter ought to dis- 

 cuss. He will not be satisfied with a tree simply because 

 it has vitality enough left to put forth leaves. What he 

 wants is a tree with an unshattered constitution, a vigorous 

 life, a promise of longevity and conditions which insure its 

 best development in size, in beauty and in characteristic 

 expression. Small trees can be moved successfully at any 

 time of year by one who knows just how to do it. But in 

 this latitude the transplanting of trees ought not to be 

 postponed until as late as the middle of November. Cer- 

 tainly, no tree ought to be transplanted after this date unless 

 the ground has been thoroughly and intelligently prepared 

 beforehand. If trees must be dug or purchased now it is 

 better to heel them in carefully and at once begin to pre- 

 pare the place where they are to live permanently. 



We have often explained why a large pit should be ex- 

 cavated for a tree. A wholesome tree needs a great deal 

 of food, and it must stand in a soil whose texture will make 

 that food available. Where trees are to be planted in 

 groups the whole ground should be trenched to a depth 

 of two feet, and for a single long-lived tree an excavation 

 which is ten or fifteen feet across and three feet in depth 

 is none too spacious. The surface-soil should be placed 

 to one side and the stones removed from the hardpan. 

 This subsoil should be returned to the pit, and it will be all 

 the better if a little rich soil and peat can be mixed with it, 

 and then the surface-soil should be placed on the top as 

 before. During the winter all this will settle and become 

 firm, while the action of the frost will reduce the size of the 



particles. Next spring the trees can be lifted and placed 

 in a small hole made in the centre of the large one, care 

 being taken as the roots are covered to ram the ground 

 tightly about them. If we wait till spring to dig these holes, 

 or if the tree is planted in them now when they are freshly 

 dug, the soil will settle away from the roots as the tree 

 sways in the wind, or the rain will wash it away, leaving 

 air-spaces about the roots, which are fatal to the tender 

 feeding fibres already formed and which offer no -encour- 

 agement for others to take their places. If the trees are 

 properly heeled in a sheltered place to prevent evaporation, 

 a sufficient number of roots will form to keep the branches 

 plump during the winter ; thescars, wherebruised rootshave 

 been cut away, will have become calloused over, and they 

 will suffer no shock when removed to their abiding place 

 in spring, but will continue to grow as if they never had 

 been disturbed. If trees are to be brought from a distance 

 it is, therefore, better to procure them in the autumn than 

 to wait until spring, and everything will be at hand for 

 prompt action at a time when work of many kinds is press- 

 ing. If it is too late to secure the trees in time to heel 

 them in while the ground is still warm and open, they 

 should be procured at once and wintered in a cellar or pit. 

 If they are heeled in they should be placed in a rather shal- 

 low trench and in an inclined position, and far enough 

 apart to allow fine soil to penetrate every portion of the 

 space occupied by the roots without leaving any unfilled 

 interstices. The ground, of course, should be dry and well 

 drained ; no stones, clods or sods should be used in the fill- 

 ing, nothing but finely pulverized soil. A portion of the 

 stems, as well as the roots, should be buried and the sur- 

 face rounded, and it is better to dig a trench around the 

 whole area occupied by the tree-roots, because mice will 

 not be liable to push up under the snow against an inclined 

 bank of earth. 



All this is elementary counsel which has been more than 

 once given in this journal, but the letters we receive and 

 the half-starved sickly trees we see on every side prove 

 that there is little danger of repeating it too frequently. 

 Many a man who realizes the necessity of a skilled gar- 

 dener to plant his flower-border, feels that any laborer who 

 can handle a spade is competent to plant a tree. He keeps 

 a gardener busy all the season among his flower-beds, 

 but never dreams that a tree demands a moment's atten- 

 tion after it is once set in the ground. Even farmers, who 

 know the value of care and cultivation for their crops in 

 field and garden, will plant an orchard, leave it for years 

 without any care, and then wonder why their unhealthy 

 trees yield no crops of fruit. The fact is, that one tree 

 well planted, either for ornament or use, is better than a 

 dozen carelessly placed in the ground. The time and money 

 spent in tree-planting is worse than wasted unless the work 

 is done in the best manner from the very beginning, and 

 unless the care which follows is intelligent, determined and 

 unceasing. 



Upon the details of this care it is not our present purpose 

 to enlarge. We have over and over explained why every 

 young tree should have room for its roots to feed ; room 

 for its branches to spread and for its leaves to catch the air 

 and sunshine ; why it should be anchored fast until its 

 roots have taken firm hold of the ground ; why its wounds 

 should be covered to exclude fungi, which would carry 

 death into its trunk ; why the surface of the soil about it 

 should be kept loose or mulched to guard the roots against 

 injury by drought or sudden changes of temperature ; how 

 the rubbing away of a leaf-bud here and there in summer 

 or the pinching of a young shoot will preserve the symme- 

 try of the tree and prevent the necessity of more serious 

 amputation when it gets older, with other rudimental 

 teaching which should never be neglected. But, perhaps, 

 novices who have already planted young trees should be 

 reminded that this is a favorable time, just as the leaves 

 have fallen, and before icy weather makes work among 

 them unpleasant, to cut away limbs which chafe each 

 other or to remove dying branches from such as seem to 



