DEFECTS OF COMMON METHOD. 201 



cultivation most proper for ensuring its speedy and 

 free growth, is, that it belongs to that class of plants 

 which gardeners denominate tap-rooted. When a 

 seedling of one or two years old, it has a root, which, 

 though smaller, is shaped exactly like a carrot, and 

 is nearly as destitute of fibres. Now, it is well 

 known that almost all trees, shrubs, and vegetables 

 of this description, agree very ill with transplanta- 

 tion. Horticulturists and nurserymen are so com- 

 pletely aware of this, that, in removing valuable 

 plants of the kind specified, they lift them, when 

 posssible, with a ball of earth adhering to their 

 roots. This artifice is the best that can be adopted, 

 when only required on a small scale, and when the 

 plants grow in such a manner as to allow of its be- 

 ing easily carried into effect. But to apply it to 

 oaks growing in a crowded seed-bed, or nursery- 

 line, is obviously impracticable ; and, if it could be 

 thus applied, the attempt would be precluded by 

 the expense, which, in forming even an inconsider- 

 able plantation of a few acres, would be enormous. 

 Oaks, therefore, on being transplanted, must under- 

 go the process in the same manner as other plants 

 with which it better agrees, and the consequences 

 are, first, that many of them die immediately after 

 the operation, and, secondly, that those which sur-^ 



