EOOT-PEUNING. 867 



more should be taken off than the exigency of the case olmously 

 requires ; and, if the operation of transplantmg has been well 

 performed, there will be no necessity whatever. In the case of 

 the transplantation of large trees, it is alleged that branches 

 must be removed, in order to reduce the head, so that it may 

 not be acted upon by the wind ; but in general it is easy to 

 prevent this action by artificial means. 



• 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 woundeior bruised root is allowed to 

 remain upon a transplanted tree, it is apt to decay, and this 

 disease may spread to neighbouring parts, which would other- 

 wise 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 

 caimot be any advantage iu the removal. The nursery practice 

 is probably intended to render the operation of transplanting 

 large numbers of plants less troublesome ; and, as it is chiefly 

 applied to seedlings and young plants with a superabundancie 

 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 a plant, are comparatively 

 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, althoagh 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 flowers and fruit. In these 

 cases the excessive vigour is at once stopped by removal of 

 some of the stronger roots, and consequently of a part of the 

 superfluous food to which their " rankness " is owing. The 

 operati6n has been successfully performed on the wall-trees at 

 Oulton, by Mr. Errington, one of our best English gardeners, 



