704 



APPENDIX. 



plants dibbed in the wrong way may be easily detected by giving them a slight pull, 

 when they will be found to draw up easily, while those properly fastened at the 

 roots retain their hold. If dry weather succeed the operation, almost all of those 

 fastened at the surface only will die. Trees planted with the dibber are best for 

 plantmg out again, as the roots are found spread out equally on both sides, while 

 those trench- planted with the spade are found to have the roots all on one side, 

 from the manner they are laid in, and the ground being beat back with the spade 

 in the act of cutting the trench ; they are generally also bent in the root, when the 

 trench is sloped to make the plants lie, which facilitates the work but hurts the 

 plant. 



730, in p. 326. — Sha)iing a tree up at the time of being planted, to settle the 

 soil about the roots, is a very bad practice ; it draws the roots from their proper 

 position, and, when the tree is again let down m its proper place, they are bent in 

 an unnatural manner, and the throwing up of suckers is the consequence. — H. C. O. 



735, i7i p. 328. — In watering box edgings, &c., newly planted in dry weather, it 

 is of great moment when the earth is trod firmly to the roots, and before levelling 

 on the remainder of the earth, to saturate the soil completely, all round the roots, 

 with water, with an unsparing hand, and then finish by spreading the dry soil 

 above. When water is poured on the surface of the soil in dry weather, the deluge 

 of water runs the surface of the soil into a paste, which again hardens by the sun 

 into a cake, obstructing thus the free entrance of the atmosphere into the soil, 

 without which no plant will thrive. When straw or moss, or any of the other 

 articles you mention, is spread on the surface, it obviates this fault. Where this 

 cannot be done, it is better to open holes in the soil, or pare up a portion of the 

 surface, saturating the soil below, and then adding the dry soil when the moisture 

 begins to subside. One such watering will be better than ten surface waterings, 

 which often do more harm than good. Where none of these plans can be adopted, 

 the direct beams of the sun should be kept from the surface, by a covering open at 

 the ends for shade. 



740, in p. 330. — Such bare-rooted plants as white-broom, double-flowering whins, 

 some pines and oaks, &c., which are very difficult to transplant and remove, are 

 found to succeed better by being nursed in pots ; but the roots have acquu-ed such 

 a tendency of matting together, and twining round one another, that it is a long 

 time after planting before they shoot away freely again into the soil ; and till this 

 is done the growth will not be vigoi'ous. The fibres may be parted again, but the 

 roots have got a tendency to matting they do not recover for some time ; and part- 

 ing the ball destroys in some measure the capability of being easily transplanted. 

 It should only be resorted to with scarce and valuable plants or shrubs, not trees. 



752 in p. 336. — One of the specific principles of pruning is also the stimulus 

 given to vitaUty. When the leading branch of a small tree, which, perhaps, has 

 not been growing well, but has got the roots fully established, is cut back to one 

 bud, not only is the rush of sap which should have supplied the whole buds diverted 

 into the one, and the shoot made thus more vigorous, but the vitality of the tree 

 has acquired an impetus that it did not formei'ly possess. Fi'om a lazy slow- 

 growing plant it has been converted into one of a quick, healthy, vigorous growth, 

 a stimulus is given to the roots also to increase, and the tree is entirely reno- 

 vated. The benefit is lasting, not temporary, and will continue, if circumstances 

 are favourable, and no check of bad soil or bad weather ensues to counteract its 

 vigour. It is thus that the forester cuts back his oak plants in the forest, after 



