340 THE WALNUT. 
adapt them for removal it is necessary to transplant them 
when one, or at most when two years old, pruning off the 
extremities of their tap-roots, in order to promote that bushi- 
ness of fibre so necessary to the safe removal of plants. The 
same mode of transplanting should be practised every second 
or third year, allowing the plants additional space, according 
to their size, till they are placed into their final situations. 
In a deep, dry soil, with a good climate, the tree in early life 
grows rapidly. Where it is not retarded in its progress by 
being removed, it usually attains the height of twenty feet in 
twelve years; at that age it generally begins to yield fruit, 
when its upward progress becomes more slow and the figure 
of the tree more ramified. 
The vigorous tap-root which the tree naturally strikes into 
the ground renders it particularly suitable for some situations; 
wherever the surface is bad and the subsoil of good quality, 
the walnut is more likely to suit than almost any other tree. 
Its propensity to form a vigorous tap-root exceeds even that 
of the oak. It sometimes occurs, through the influence of 
wind or the sudden overflow of rivers, that spots of rich 
ground are rendered barren by a deposit of sand-drift or of 
débris. These may be turned to good account by the walnut 
raised from seed on the ground, and by such other trees as 
draw their support from a great depth. In the roughest 
situation the common walnut maintains a well-balanced head, 
and when it is raised from seed, and not transplanted, it is 
less likely to be uprooted by wind than almost any other tree. 
Striking deep into the ground, its roots do not obstruct the 
cultivation of the fields, and it is perhaps the most common 
hedgerow fruit-tree throughout the Continent. Cultivated, 
however, for the sake of its fruit, in most situations it is all 
the better of being transplanted. Trees that have never been 
removed seldom ripen their fruit so early in the season as 
those that have at some period undergone the check of trans- 
plantation. Frequent removal has also the effect not only of 
making the trees bear sooner, but it improves the quantity 
and the quality of the fruit. This is on account of the roots 
