132 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



In all cases it is advisable that the ground should be 

 well drained and trenched ; and where poor, it should 

 be enriched with fresh soil or manure, or both, especially 

 when the shrubs are young and small. Light sandy 

 soils are greatly improved by moderate additions of 

 clayey loam or peat earth. In transplanting shrubs of 

 considerable size, we prefer putting the enriched soil or 

 manure close round the baU, and in contact with the 

 young fibres. In such cases, too, it is useful to prepare 

 the plants by cutting a trench round them a year or two 

 previously, as recommended in relation to forest-trees. 



In lifting evergreen shrubs for transplantation, as 

 many roots as possible should be preserved. When 

 they are large, or a little above the size usually procur- 

 able from nurseries, they should have good baUs ; and 

 if these cannot be secured, at least to a moderate extent, 

 it wiU be proper to reduce the head of the plant, as 

 otherwise many of the branches wiU die bach from their 

 inability to support their former amount of foliage. 

 Perhaps this thinning out of the branches should be 

 resorted to in all cases when large shrubs are shifted ; 

 but it is less necessary when the balls are large, and the 

 roots are well prepared. For the most part there is 

 good economy in the moderate use of the knife, both in 

 respect of time and of appearance. 



All shrubs, and especially large ones, should have an 

 ample supply of water when they are transplanted, and 

 this is most effectively given when the water is run into 

 the new pit in which the plant is placed along with 

 the fiUing-in of the earth, beginning when the pit is 

 about one-fourth filled, and continuing till it is nearly 

 quite full. The quantity of the water should be such 

 as to form a strong puddle round the ball. This mode 



