*^^ MECHANICAL MEANS 



of little consequence, if the latter is not attended to. We 

 know, indeed, that some plants will live with the rudest treat- 

 ment, and bear the most severe mutilation without much 

 suffering ; but those are special instances of extreme tenacity 

 of life, and do not affect general principles. The value of 

 great attention to the roots, in the operation of shifting, has 

 already been pointed out (p. 448), and transplanting is only 

 shifting under another name. It would be the duty of the 

 gardener to save every minute fibre of the roots, if it were 

 practicable; but, as that is not the case, his care must be 

 confined to lifting his trees with the least possible destruction 

 of those important organs ; remembering always that it is not 

 by the coarse old woody roots that the absorption of food is 

 most energetically carried on, but by the youngest parts, and 

 especially the spongioles. The mechanical means by which 

 this is best effected do not belong to the present subject; I 

 may however remark, without quitting the limits of theory, 

 that, as the greater part of the young fibres is produced at the 

 circumference of the circle formed by the root, the earth should 

 be first removed at some distance from the stem, so as to insure, 

 as far as possible, their being taken up entire ; if this is not 

 done, but the spade is struck into the earth near the stem, or 

 if the rude nursery practice, justly enough called drawing, is 

 employed, a large part of the most valuable roots must neces- 

 sarily be cut off or destroyed by tearing.* The greatest 

 difficulty, beyond that of mechanical removal, in transplanting 

 trees of considerable size, is this preservation of roots ; and, if 

 it were possible to carry without injury such heavy masses as 

 old forest trees, there would be no physical obstacle to trans- 

 planting them, if the extrication of the fibrous part of the 

 roots could be secured. As, however, the latter is a trouble- 

 some and very difficult operation, even when trees are only ten 

 or twelve feet high, it has been, from time out of mind, the 

 custom of sldlful planters to prepare such trees for removal by 



* The violent maimer of transplanting trees by MoGlashan's machinery, in which 

 large roots are torn up with much laceration, is, however, very favourably reported on. 

 But so far as very large trees are concerned it stills stands at the bar of public opinion, 

 and will have to be judged hereafter. 



