HICKS NURSERIES, WESTBURY, L. I. 



Tree-Moving Department 



The ball of earth 6 to lo feet in diameter has roots radiating from, 

 it 30 to 40 feet wide. Tree-mover No, 20, all steel 



by Operating a nursery of large trees that it is possible to have such trained 

 men available at all times. As they develop skill by working in the nursery, 



HE transplanting of large, old trees has reached a very 

 high development at the Westbury Nurseries. Machines 

 have been invented, tested, discarded or improved for the 

 past forty years. There has developed a fund of accurate 

 information as to the results with various species and 

 individual trees when moved in different ways and under 

 various treatments during convalescence. This store of 

 knowledge is yours for the asking. But do not get accurate 

 advice and then leave out the essentials, and have the 

 trees grow poorly, making an ugly blot on the landscape, 

 or die. 



Transplanting is a surgical operation and, therefore, 

 on an important tree it should be done with the greatest 

 skill with the most improved apparatus and receive the 

 best care. For important citizens, the most skilled sur- 

 geons are consulted. 



The development of the tree-moving machinery is 

 under the charge of Edward Hicks, who started the work 

 in 1870, moving trees to make a shelter-belt for the arbo- 

 retum of the late Charles A. Dana, and planting in Garden 

 City, w^here the late A. T. Stewart was founding a village 

 on a treeless prairie. 



We have foremen who have been at the work ten to 

 twenty-two years and several crews of men who have had 

 five to ten years' experience. They have reached a high 

 degree of skill in dissecting out the fibrous roots 

 and operating the tree-movers. As we keep 

 one hundred men the year round, these 

 crews are available 

 at any time. It is only 



The superintendent said that our 16 horses started together as if you had thrown the lever. This tree was 75 feet broad, 52 feet high, 24 

 inches in diameter, 45 feet spread of roots. Note the wheels 2| feet wide, to enable the tree to be pulled across plowed ground. The rear 

 wheels are steered by a wheel, enabling trees 80 feet high to get around sharp corners. Where teams could not pull it direct, they were put on 

 a wire cable and pulleys which multiplied the power. 



they are promoted to the tree-moving 

 •crews. We send out full crews, or we 

 can send out a small crew of foreman 

 and three to eight experienced men to 

 work with the local inexperienced men 

 of two or three times the number. We 

 can send out all the teams necessary, 

 these being horses trained to pull to- 

 gether, or we can use local teams. 



We have sometimes had out five crews 

 scattered from Massachusetts to Vir- 

 ginia, besides several working on Long 

 Island. The extra expense for freight, 

 carfare and board is overcome by the 

 adequate apparatus, skillful, quick 

 work, and knowledge of what is best 

 to move and not to move. For these 

 •distant jobs, it is best to have several 

 trees moved, so as to distribute the ex- 

 pense of freight on the apparatus. 



The traction engine has advantages over teams under some circumstances, in pulling a 

 tree more slowly underneath wires, stopping just where wanted and allowing them to be dis- 

 entangled. The traction engine can pull out of difficult places by anchoring a cable ahead, 

 and winding on a windlass, pulling both itself and the trees. 



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