BALL PLANTING. 309 



In the next place, success depends on the completeness of con- 

 tact between the ball of earth containing the roots and the sides 

 of the pit. This contact is extremely difEcult, if not impossible, 

 to secure in stiff or hard soils, which undergo strong shrinkage or 

 expansion according to the varying amount of moisture present. 

 Hence the effectiveness of the method is necessarily in proportion 

 to the free nature of the soil. 



Provided the two conditions just discussed are favourable, ball- 

 planting is usually the most certain of all possible methods, since 

 in it the roots suffer a minimum amount of injury. It yields ex- 

 cellent results in sandy soils, whether these are moist and even wet 

 or very dry or entirely wanting in cohesion ; also in frosty locali- 

 ties and where destructive insect grubs abound. And it is the best 

 method to adopt in areas in which the soil changes so abruptly 

 from point to point that no one of the other methods of planting 

 can be uniformly employed there. 



It is not adapted for shallow or stony soils. The well-nourished, 

 soft-tissued and therefore delicate roots still contained within the 

 rich original soil, continue growing in the same generous manner 

 as before, but the moment they reach the rock or stony soil im- 

 mediately ouside, they receive a suddent check, which is moreover 

 aggravated by the extreme sensitiveness of the rocky and stony 

 elements to the rapid sub-aerial fluctuations of temperature, and, 

 if the subsoil is impermeable, also by the excessive moisture after 

 a fall of rain. This sudden check is fatal to the vitaUty ot the new 

 roots and to the general vigour of the entire root- apparatus. But 

 the effect on the crown is even worse, for the crown continues, 

 even after the roots have ceased to grow, to expand rapidly at the 

 expense of the reserve material in the plants ; and, when this is 

 . at length exhausted, thef succulent, imperfectly lignified extremi- 

 ties of the overgrown twigs and branchlets suddenly wither up and 

 die. This reacts on the already weakened, diminished and tmhealthy 

 root-apparatus. The end of it all is that the plants either die di- 

 r(!Ctly or reach such a condition of debihty that they easily succumb 

 to other causes of injury, or become hide-bound and unable to 

 make any appreciable progress. 



Ball planting is also unsuited for very stiff soils, except such as 

 remain constantly moist. 



The chief objection to the method lies, however, in the great 

 cost not only of lifting up and transporting the plants, but of 

 raising them, for the large quantity of rich, highly prepared soil 

 removed along with the roots has to be replaced, and the inevitable 



