312 



TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 



is the sun more powerful, but drying winds generally prevail, which have a 

 constant tendency to drain the young branches of a tree of their moisture. 

 These drying winds are much more injurious to newly transplanted ever- 

 greens than to deciduous trees, as will afterwards appear. 



704. Different modes of transplanting large trees and shrubs. — To lessen 

 the injuries which every large tree must receive in transplanting, from 

 the mutilation of its roots, six different modes of performing the opera- 

 tion have been adopted : viz., 1. by retaining large balls of earth attached 

 to the roots ; 2. by previously preparing the roots, so as to furnish them 

 with new fibres and spongioles ; 3. by previously shortening the roots, and 

 treating them so as to heal over and granulate the wounds made in their 

 extremities ; 4. by simply thinning and pruning the roots and the branches 

 at the time of transplanting ; 5. by removal without previous preparation ; 

 and 6. by shortening the roots and heading in the branches. 



705. Transplanting with large balls of earth, — In this case the head of the 

 tree is generally preserved entire, and the ball of solid soil is made so large 

 as to include as many of the roots as possible. When carefully planted in 

 fresh rich soil, consolidated hy watering, and secured by stakes, by guy 

 ropes, or by any other means, if the tree survives the first summer, the 

 quantity of foliage which it will produce will return a large quantity of sap 

 to the roots, and thus occasion the production of numerous fibres and 

 spongioles, and the tree will continue to live and grow ; but whether with 

 the same vigour as it did before being transplanted, will depend on the 

 quantity of roots, in proportion to the head, taken up in the ball — on the kind 

 of tree, on the moisture or dryness of the climate and of the season, and on 

 the state of the soil and the nature of the situation. In general, more 

 depends on the climate and on the soil than on the situation. No large tree 

 taken up from a moist soil will thrive if transferred to a dry one ; and, on 

 the contrary, a tree taken up from a dry soil, that would do little good 

 when transferred to another dry soil, will yet thrive if planted in a soil 

 that is moist. No tree taken up and transplanted with all its branches in 

 the manner described could exist through the ensuing summer in the dry 

 climate of the South of France; but in the moist, warm atmosphere of 

 Devonshire, and the humid region of the west of Scotland, trees taken up 

 with all their roots and branches, as far as practicable, and transplanted with 

 ordinary care, seldom fail to grow, and in a few years to acquire the same 

 vigour as they had before transplanting. (See Nash in Gard. Mag. for 

 1838, p. 507.) 



706. Transplanting by shortening the roots, so as to induce them to throw 

 cut fibres. — This is effected by digging a circular trench round the tree, one 

 or two, or even there or four years before transplanting, cutting off all the 

 roots whic?i extend as far as the trench, and filling it up with prepared soil, 

 01 with the surface soil and subsoil mixed. The distance of the trench from 

 the stem of the tree may vary with its size, the kind of tree, and other cir- 

 cumstances ; but a good general rule would be, where the tree is to stand from 

 two to four years, to make the diameter of the circle included within the trench 

 of as many feet, as the diameter of the trunk of the tree at the surface of 

 the ground is in inches. Thus, for a tree with a stem six inches in diameter, 

 the trench should be made at the distance of three feet from it on every side ; 

 and for one of eighteen inches in diameter, the distance of the trench from 

 the stem should be nme feet. The width and depth of the trench should 



