TRANSPLANTING. 77 



sume their freshness. Plunging into water, as sometimes 

 practiced, is more liable to induce decay by water-soaking. 



Season for transplanting. Much discussion has arisen on 

 the relative advantages of autumn and spring transplanting. 

 When the work is well done, both are successful. For 

 apple and other hardy trees, autumn is perhaps the best, as 

 the soil becomes well settled about the roots, and the trees 

 commence growing without interruption in spring.* The 

 more tender trees, as apricots and peaches, removed to 

 a colder region, may be in more danger, especially if the 

 roots have been much mutilated and the setting out badly 

 done. A neighbor purchased fifty peach trees in the 

 autumn, and lost half of them the following severe winter ; 

 another bought fifty the next spring, and lost only one. 

 Was this a conclusive proof that spring planting was best ? 

 By no means ; for in the former case they were set out in 

 grass land, and received no culture ; in the latter, they had 

 the best care. The same autumn a neighbor saved all his 

 peach trees by good management ; while the same spring 

 another lost most of his by neglect. We may hence infer 

 that good management is of incomparably more importance 

 than the season of the year.t 



But there are many things to be taken into account in 

 drawing conclusions. It has been remarked that tender 

 trees taken to a colder climate may be in danger of winter 

 frosts. Good, thrifty, and well ripened wood, however, 

 where the trees have grown on high, dry, firm soil, even 

 from a warmer region of country, are much safer than trees 

 of succulent growth and badly ripened wood, from a colder. 

 So again, trees equally hardy, might perish when set out 

 on a low, sheltered place, or on a wet soil, while they would 

 endure the severest rigors of our winters on a drier and 

 more elevated piece of ground. 



Again, success has sometimes attended careless trans- 

 planting ; while on the other hand, the greatest care has 



* The remark of Dr. Lindley that early fall transplanting is decidedly best, by 

 permitting the formation of small roots and a consequent establishment of the tree 

 in the soil before winter, though applicable to the moist climate and long mild 

 autumns of England, is not so here where the growth while it lasts is more rapid, 

 its cessation more sudden, and the dryness of the air unfavorable -to removal before 

 growth ceases. 



t Embanking round the tree, as described on a preceding page, is an excellent 

 protection from frost for tender trees set out In autumn. 



