OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 31 



My own practice has been to move large trees with balls. I, for one, would like very 

 much to hear of the actual experience of some of our members with the other method of 

 tree moving. There are practical men who strongly advocate the moving of such trees 

 as maples in the spring, just before the buds break, using the process of raking out and 

 saving all the roots. 



Speaking of what others advocate, we doubtless all have met the tree mover who 

 will undertake to "move trees any month of the year, but who prefers not to move in 

 July and August." Has any one of us ever had the nerve to move trees in midsummer? 



Big tree moving as applied to conifers is an even more serious problem. In this 

 region we look upon the conifers as among the most difficult of our trees to plant and 

 raise, and I think very few want to undertake the transplanting of really large ones. 

 There are regions, however, where the conifers grow more readily and the climate seems 

 kinder to them, where one comes to have little more hesitation in handling the native 

 evergreens than we feel here with the maple. Experience on the New England coast 

 has hardened me to transplanting conifers, which I would not do more than dream about 

 handling in this region. I am confident that on certain portions of the New England 

 coast, at least, there is no difficulty at all in transplanting conifers 20 or 25 feet in height 

 with entire safety. They are best taken with frozen balls. 



I have seen a planting made two years ago down east by one of the founders of this 

 society, in which a large quantity of spruce and pine from 15 to 25 feet in height were 

 used. This planting has been very successful and is looking well. The one responsible 

 for it can doubtless give us some valuable information, based on his experience, if he is 

 so inclined. I feel quite sure that if the planting referred to was near New York many 

 of the larger trees would have had to be replaced. 



Big evergreen moving is a very different problem in New Jersey from what it is on 

 the Maine coast. I think one reason for this is the climate; the damp, foggy weather 

 of Maine is more favorable to conifers. Another reason fies in the steady cold of the winter. 

 One can count there upon a couple of months or more in which the roots will remain 

 frozen, and balls of the trees will be solid lumps of ice and frozen dirt. The contractors up 

 there think nothing of hauling a lot of trees out, either deciduous or evergreen, and leaving 

 them around on the ground like so much building material, until they are ready to plant 

 them. I must admit that while it gives one a shock to see this, yet when everything is 

 frozen solid and the entire ball is absolutely inert and remains so, whether in the air or 

 in the ground, I can find no very strong argument against allowing the trees to stand 

 around awaiting the convenience of the planter. AH this is very different from the anxiety 

 with which we hurry trees into the ground in this region in winter weather for fear a thaw 

 may come, if for no other reason. I have, however, at this writing, two or three deciduous 

 trees stranded in the snow-drifts along a roadside in New Jersey. I have not abandoned 

 hope, but I have ceased worrying about them. 



I feel that it is entirely feasible to move moderate-sized evergreens in this region 

 up to, say, 15 or 20 feet in height, by proper handling, provided great care is given them; 

 but, when it comes to large trees, the only way to move them successfully, if at all, is to 

 treat each tree as an engineering problem and take all that belongs to it. To be sure, we 

 occasionally see large pines and spruces moved even here. I have in mind some spruces 

 which I happened to pass when they were being moved last fall, not far from New York, 



