SECTION VIII. 



TAKING UP AND TRANSPORTATION OF THE TREES. 



If there be any one thing more than another in the 

 removal of trees, that places the superiority of the preser- 

 vative system in a striking point of view, it is the manage- 

 ment of the roots. Few planters, in the taking up of trees, 

 make much account of roots, provided that a large mass 

 or ball of earth only adhere to them. Marshall, one of 

 the most judicious writers who has treated the subject, in 

 giving directions on this point, says that the length of the 

 roots, properly speaking, should not be less than the fourth 

 part of the whole height of the tree ; although probably, 

 from a want of the means of extricating them from the 

 soil, he did not contemplate the possibility of applying the 

 rule to trees of any magnitude.'''' Had he been better 

 acquainted with vegetable physiology, he would have seen 

 that, by the law of nature, roots and branches must in 

 every case be relative and correlative ; and that the stan- 

 dard of judging with respect to roots is not the height of 

 the plant, but the actual length of the side branches. If 

 we mean that our subjects should fully possess the pro- 

 tecting properties, in respect to those two important con- 

 servative organs, they must possess them relatively in 

 such proportions as nature confers on all trees which are 

 found to thrive in open exposures. 



* See Rural Ornament, vol i. p. 367. 



