510 



APPEIS^DIX. 



out long shoots would be immense. Add to this, that the nourishment 

 drawn is almost entirely from the fine fibrous roots. Hence, the first 

 operation is to cut off, at a due distance, the long horizontal roots, sup- 

 ply fresh mould, and allow, by waiting two or three years, the tree to 

 form all around those fine fibrous roots, that are to nourish it in its new 

 situation. This, and the actual removal, is all that the tree suffers, in 

 being moved to a new situation ; and on this simple system, he seems 

 the first who has succeeded in any extraordinary degree. 



" There are many very important considerations to be attended to, 

 before that success can be secured, which have escaped others who have 

 attempted to transplant trees. One of the leading points is the choice 

 of the tree, A tree taken from the interior of a plantation will not 

 succeed, nor one of which the branches and spray, as well as the bark 

 and stem, are not all properly prepared and in due proportion. 



" Not less important is the care with which the tree, and all its 

 newly-formed fibrous roots, must be lifted ; and, again, these roots 

 replaced in the new situation as naturally as they were found before the 

 tree was removed. I decline entering into a detail on these important 

 points, because Sir Henry Steuart will, no doubt, favour the Society with 

 a full and comprehensive narrative of his practice. T must, however, 

 observe, that although the detail would occupy many pages, yet when 

 the operation is performed by his experienced workmen, it appears to a 

 bystander perfectly simple and easy to be repeated. 



" I beg to one subject to call the attention of the Committee in a 

 more particular manner, because it has been greatly misrepresented ; 

 and, unless the public be undeceived, the useful and ornamental prac- 

 tice of transplanting large trees never will become general. I allude to 

 the expense. For the present, I set aside the consideration of the 

 planting large portions of ground with young trees, to produce shelter 

 or picturesque eff'ect, which includes the loss of ground, and the 

 expense of fencing, for twenty or thirty years. I confine myself to the 

 mere expense of transplanting the tree without the above comparison. 



" I attended, in March last, most carefully in the Park at Allanton, 

 to the operation of lifting and placing in new situations two trees of 

 about thirty or forty years' growth. The following is the result. Ten 

 workmen began at six o'clock in the morning to remove the two trees, 

 the one twenty-eight feet high, the other thirty-two feet, by actual 

 measurement ; girth from thirty to thirty-six inches. The one tree 

 was removed nearly a mile, the other about a hundred yards, and the 

 whole operation was completed before six o'clock in the evening. The 

 wages of the men amounted to los., so that each tree cost 7s. 6d. A 

 pair of horses was used in dragging the machine, on which the 



