250 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



In the nurseries it is a universal practice to prune 

 the roots of transplanted trees ; in gardens, this is as 

 seldom performed. Which is right ? If a wounded 

 or bruised root is allowed to remain upon a trans- 

 planted tree, it is apt to decay, and this disease may 

 spread to neighbouring parts, which would otherwise 

 be healthy ; to remove the wounded parts of roots is 

 therefore desirable. ' But the case is different with 

 healthy roots. We must remember that every healthy 

 and unmutilated root which is removed is a loss of 

 nutriment to the plant, and that too at a time when 

 it is least able to spare it ; and there cannot be any 

 advantage in the removal. The nursery practice is 

 probably intended to render the operation of trans- 

 planting large numbers of plants less troublesome ; 

 and, as it is chiefly applied to seedlings and young 

 plants with a superabundance of roots, the loss in 

 their case is not so much felt. If performed at all, 

 it should take place in the autumn, for at that time 

 the roots, like the other parts of the plants, are com- 

 paratively empty of fluid ; but, if deferred till the 

 spring, then the roots are all distended with fluid, 

 which has been collecting in them during winter, 

 and every part taken away carries with it a portion 

 of that nurture which the plant had been laying up 

 as the store upon which to commence its renewed 

 growth. 



It must now be obvious that, although root-pruning 

 may be prejudicial in transplanting trees, it may be 

 of the greatest service to such established trees as are 

 too prone to produce branches and leaves, instead of 



