34 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



Mr. Parsons: I am one of the individuals who does not believe in moving big trees. I believe that a 

 tree, if properly prepared (that is, by one, two, or three years' root-pruning) and properly nourished and 

 stimulated to develop a new set of fibers (which is very rarely done) can be moved with a reasonable degree 

 •of success. But, when I say that I do not believe in moving large trees, I am governed by the experience 

 I have had. I commenced to move large trees twenty-five years ago for Mr. Dana. Some of them were 

 ■eight, ten, and eighteen inches in diameter. I moved one large cut-leaved beech (or superintended it) at that 

 time that was probably forty feet high and thirty-five feet in diameter. It took ten horses to move it on a 

 sled, and three days, and that tree stands today on Mr. Dana's lawn and is alive. But I do not want such 

 trees. In that whole time these trees have not grown as much as three or four feet, and they have a certain 

 stunted appearance. They are not good trees, and it is of no use pretending that they are good trees. I 

 ■contend that the percentage of trees that really thrive in transplanting — and I mean by "thrive," grow — 

 is so small that it is not just to spend money in that way for a client. If those who move trees always took 

 ■exactly the right tree, with the right roots, and the right condition of fiber and used the right appliances, 

 and had the necessary experience, — and I do not deny that the ideal tree can be found, — it might be reason- 

 ^le to spend money on it. The percentage of large trees moved successfully is, however, likely to be very 

 small, as these ideal trees are very rare. The chances of success are too small, therefore, for me to believe 

 in using large trees. 



Miss Jones: My experience in moving' large trees has been very much the same as Mr. Parsons, — 

 that the largie trees do not grow, and they do not pay for themselves in any way. 



The question that interests me, especially, is the moving of trees from low-lying, wet ground to upland 

 situations, which I have done with considerable success; that is, trees which are as large as I care to move, 

 say eight inches in diameter. I have moved some maples from a swamp in which they grew so that their 

 roots were up in the ground, to an upland hill, quite dry, some years ago, and those trees have done as well 

 as if they were still in a swamp. As to other trees, I have no knowledge, as I have never transplanted them. 

 I thought I would try these trees, as they were out of the ground, and two of them were needed on a hill. 

 My practice is not to cut back the branches, but to leave the tree as it comes out of the ground, so as to 

 see which branches will grow, and then, of course, to thin out the ones that die. I have never topped trees, 

 simply because I have never happened to plant big trees where they needed to be topped, and I should 

 certainly dislike to do it very much. Mr. Greenleaf does not say that failure was due to topping, but he sus- 

 pects that this was the case. In all my personal experience, I have never laid tile around the ball, nor have 

 I put tile into the ball to carry water. The trees have always been watered carefully — ^at least the men have 

 been told to water them carefully every evening; and, then, of course, where it is possible, the tree is prepared 

 for about two years in advance. Personally, I try to move trees without the balls — without the frozen 

 balls — because my experience has been that trees moved with the roots taken out succeed better than those 

 moved in winter, with the exception of a very few which I have moved in Maine, and there the winter 

 is so long that you run no risk of having the ball thaw away. It seems practically the only sensible way 

 of having them moved in that part of the country, and there it succeeds admirably. 



Mr. Leavitt: I feel, with regard to large tree moving, that it is desirable only where quick results 

 are absolutely demanded. I have occasionally transplanted trees from eight to ten inches in diameter 

 successfully, but I have very rarely attempted it. Wherever I have done it, I have always tried to plant 

 small trees in case of failure, as I did not have any confidence in it. I feel that the moving of trees in the 

 ■west, or dry countries, is practically impossible, as the evaporation from the bark and the lack of moisture 

 to replace the evaporation impose too severe a strain. Furthermore, from some observations that I have 

 made in Colorado, I am convinced that not only the trees which are planted, whether small or large, but 

 -also the trees which are growing naturally are put to a severe test every spring by lack of moisture, on 

 account of the frozen ground. The ditches from which these trees are irrigated are almost entirely cut off 

 late in autumn, and the water not turned in again until the spring, and the people wonder why the trees 

 ■die. As a matter of fact, they are without any moisture at all, for the cold period, in Denver, and I under- 

 stand that this is so in other irrigation districts, though I am not familiar with them. In regard to moving 

 trees with a ball, or by means of taking out the roots and tying them up, my experience has been that it 

 is better to try the ball in any case, and then handle as many of the roots as you can beside, since the roots 

 are so bruised and twisted by attempting to take care of them, and they are so dried out and exposed ordi- 

 narily, that they are rendered practically useless. If a proper cradle can be made, and the roots absolutely 

 protected by moss or burlap, I think that the theory of doing away with the ball would be practicable; but 

 it is so difficult to get workmen to do it that it is almost out of the question. 



