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THE planter's GUIDE. 



within the two last centuries, have been widely propa- 

 gated, and as keenly supported ; and, as the mass of 

 mankind never think for themselves, it so happens that 

 the art of transplanting has its friends and its enemies, 

 its advocates and its opponents, among the learned and 

 the unlearned. 



Without entering into so extensive and intricate a 

 question as the above, (which, however, might lead to 

 many interesting details,) let us see what the objections 

 of so judicious a writer as Miller are, to the transplanting 

 of trees of considerable magnitude ; because, if we either 

 admit those objections as relevant, or obviate them as 

 unfounded, it will pave the way for some rational theory 

 of the art. 



The objections brought forward by Miller seem to be 

 three in number. The first and radical one, as above 

 noticed, is to the lopping or cutting off the tops or side 

 boughs, or both, at the period of removal, as utterly ruin- 

 ous to trees. This objection, he says, is obviously so well 

 founded, that no one will stand up for the safety of the 

 practice who is acquainted with the way in which the 

 circulation of the sap is carried on ; for in that case he 

 must know, that branches being organs just as essential 

 as roots to the nourishment of trees, it must be doubly 

 destructive to mutilate both, at one and the same time. 

 If any one, he adds, doubt the fact, let him try the experi- 

 ment on a healthy subject of the same age, not intended 

 for removal, and he will find that mutilation will so stint 

 its growth that it will not recover till after several years, 

 if it recover at all ; and it will never attain the same size 

 and figure, or produce the same sound and perfect wood, 

 as others on which the branches have been left in an 

 entire state. Or otherwise, let him make the trial on 

 two trees of equal age and health, and cut the boughs 



