OF TKANSrLANTING LARGE TREES. 315 



Taking up and Transporting of the Trees, 



Of all points in the removal of the trees, the most 

 important is the preservation of the roots. If pos- 

 sible, not a fibre should be lost ; and the process, 

 therefore, requires not only manual skill, but a very 

 considerable degree of care and patience. The im- 

 plements to be used in the operation are the spade 

 and the tree-picker. The latter is an instrument 

 resembling a miner's pick, but it has only one prong, 

 which is more inclined to the handle than in the 

 miner's implement. The prong is fifteen inches 

 long, and is made extremely light, as is likewise the 

 handle, which is two feet and a-half long, the joint 

 weight of both being about four and a-half pounds. 



Before proceeding to take up a tree, the boundaries 

 of the root must be ascertained. This is easy when the 

 tree has been surrounded by a trench, as the trench 

 will mark the termination of the fibres. In other 

 cases there is greater difiiculty, and the extremities of 

 the roots must be sought for with the picker, at least 

 as far from the tree as the branches have extended. 

 The necessary scrutiny being made, and the object 

 of it accomplished, open a trench at the utmost 

 limit of the root, two feet and a half wide, and as 

 deep as the roots have penetrated. The bank must 

 then be undermined on the side where the roots lie, in 



