44 
yf. ^anneH ^ ^on6' Autumn ^atafo^ue. 
more likely to recover from the dangerous operation and soon put forth fresh growth, without the 
annoying sight of brown and yellow leaves and dead branches ; but to let all the top remain, most 
serious consequences will be almost sure to occur. I know to reduce a beautiful tree would be 
painful, but it is one of those cases where knowledge and common reasoning must reign 
supreme and be master of the situation. Act at the right place and time, at this critical moment, and 
in a year or so the plant will show plainly the good results of such forethought and skilful work. 
Always choose warm weather with continuous showers, which are the great secret in assisting trees 
over such removal and mutilation of roots ; if a dry summer, do all you can to supply the moisture by hand. 
f9~ Laurels and all kinds of evergreens require far more care and skill than a deciduous tree, for 
this reason, they not only have the wood to maintain but the foliage also ; this makes them require so 
much more sustenance than a leafless tree. It is contrary to their nature for evergreens to be bare of 
foliage, they therefore require most thoughtful treatment to prevent suffering. 
R05E5. 
Oeder these early in the autumn, persist in having place and soil ready and trees in by the end of 
October, never mind their having green foliage, young growths and a flower here and there; have them 
planted quite by the end of that month and immediately prune as per cross-cuts in the engraving, 
the remaining wood will then keep green, eyes plump, and the woody roots will put forth two 
or three inches of now white roots supplying sap more or less throughout the winter. By the 
spring time, if the plants were skilfully taken up and packed from the nursery, planted and staked, 
there will not be much difference between these and those planted a year previously, and they will 
give you some bloom buds well nigh if not quite good enough for showing. Exactly the same applies to 
fruit and all trees ; of course new soil that they are to root into must be quite as good and as much better 
as you like ; this being so and all well-firmed down by treading, you can rest assured of seeing living 
trees in the summer, and you can proudly say that these are the result of careful, common-sense 
treatment in transplanting. The following illustration shows the best way to have bush Roses on their 
own roots ; plant all dwarfs so that the base of the budded wood is below the ground line (gee 
engraving); if this is done, the wood grown from the bud will soon make new roots, the original ones 
on the Briar will waste away, and in a year the plant will be flourishing on its own roots. 
WHY PLANTS LOOK SICKLY AND DIE. 
Often in the autumn in some nurseries a jack-of-all-work is called in to handle a fork or spado, and 
it frequently touches his dignity, or rather his temper ; he is quite indifferent as to whether a tree 
flourishes or not. If so, this is the beginning of a failure, whereas in a large nursery we keep regular 
diggers who do this sort of work by taking up trees with far more ease and skill than a green hand. 
When planting they will break up, pulverise and powder the soil ; this is better for the roots, which 
should by no means be exposed to light, the sun in particular, for if so they soon become dried and 
withered, the woody roots harden, and the important white fibrous ones are destroyed. As an 
instance, we often see at railway stations straw bundles with roots protruding ; when so you can see a 
failure coming. This often occurs when plants are bought at auctions, through cheap advertisements, 
or from nurseries where there is often a scarcity of packing material or inexperienced packers. Such 
will be dear even if they only cost the charge of carriage. It is said that there are not a dozen firms 
in the kingdom that keep competent packers with proper tools and materials to carry out this work, 
whereas we have competent order clerks and staff, and, again, we grow our own straw, osiers and moss, 
make our own baskets and boxes, and it is quite a profession to do this work well. [See letter from a 
gentleman who sent 2s. 6d. for our packers.] It is also necessary to have stakes, wire and old 
sacking in readiness at planting time for keeping the trees in their proper upright position and steady 
for months after planting we have often seen them lying sideways or nearly flat on the ground. Then 
in the spring the nurserymen, or something other than the actual common-sense cause, is blamed for 
trees doing badly. The secret is to induce new fibrous roots to take hold of the soil quickly. 
Let them remain at the railway station for days after arrival, the porter tells you he has taken care 
of them under cover, whereas had they been turned out in the rain, it would have revived life, they would 
