EVIL OF TRANSPLANTING* 



^05 



and will have thrown out a few insignificant lateral 

 shoots only, of two, or at most of three, inches long. 

 Nor will the superiority of growth of the un trans- 

 plan ted oaks end with the first year. Next season 

 they will still outstrip the others considerably, and 

 they will continue to do so for several successive sum- 

 mers ; so that if both be allowed to remain in their 

 situation till they are six years old, the difference 

 between them will be found to be much greater 

 than it was the second autumn. And it will not 

 only be the inferiority in size of the transplanted 

 oaks which will, at this time, constitute the distinc- 

 tion between them and the others: The transplanted 

 oaks will be bushy at top, and have their shoots and 

 branches in a horizontal direction, so that the skill 

 of the pruner, exerted even at this early period, will, 

 in many cases, fail in training them up to be 

 straight and handsome trees : The un transplanted 

 ones, on the contrary, will have strong upright lead- 

 ers, which, with comparatively little trouble, may 

 be made to grow perpendicularly, till they arrive at 

 the height of twenty or thirty feet. 



According to the best method of propagating oak 

 which has yet been practised in Scotland, that tree 

 undergoes transplantation twice ; once in the nur- 

 sery, and again when it is removed to its final des-- 



