486 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r November 29) 18881 
ripens earlier in certain seasons than in others, and in some is 
charged more abundantly with those juices which promote decay, 
the keeping is not always alike, even when attempted in the same 
way. A well-perfected fruit may be as forward one season by the 
1st of September, as it will be in another by the end of the same 
month ; while it is almost needless to observe that the ripening, 
and, consequently, decaying influence of a warm month like 
September tells more than an equal length of time later in the 
year. It is not too much to say, that the thirty days in Sep¬ 
tember ought to be accounted equal to the fifty days that next 
follow, taking, of course, average seasons. Hence, fruit that ripens 
so much earlier than usual has but a poor chance of keeping well 
if the weather be warm. Those, therefore, that want to prolong 
the season of any particular fruit must keep it as cool as they can, 
and success will be m accordance with the reduced temperature, 
all other conditions being favourable. In a general way, the place 
most conducive to the good-keeping of fruit is similar to that 
which preserves milk—one with a cool atmosphere and abundant 
ventilation, and free from all vapour, bad smells, and stagnant air 
of all kinds. In fact, a fruit-room ought to be as sweet as a 
dairy.—J. 0. 
PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING. 
Generally speaking the removal and planting of trees and 
shrubs is an operation to be performed in the months of September, 
October, and November, according to orthodox rules. But, then, 
as regards myself, I happen to be one of those self-willed individuals 
who follow no conventional rules in connection with garden opera¬ 
tions, and as gardening is a matter of business with me the 
fraternity will probably stigmatise me as perverse and headstrong. 
Be that as it may, whenever I find it desirable or necessary to 
remove and transplant trees or shrubs, and I have a convenient 
opportunity, I put aside all considerations as to the time of year, 
and submit only to the negative dictates of frost and much wet. 
I have transplanted trees and shrubs in the middle of summer and 
in the middle of winter, in spring and in autumn, the after- 
treatment, of course, being influenced by the weather, and never 
have I found that the success or failure of the operation could be 
directly or indirectly traced to the mere season of the year at 
which it happened to be performed. 
This assertion may be diametrically opposed to the opinions of 
many of the most able and experienced gardeners. I nevertheless 
adhere to it, and even deny that the best time to remove trees is 
when there is plenty of moisture in the ground ; in other words, 
when there is sufficient moisture in the soil to cause it to hold 
together in solid spits. I like it best when it will crumble and run 
in among the fibres and roots, and this I find it will do best in the 
summer time, when the ground is comparatively dry. Much, I am 
aware, depends on the nature of the soil, and if it is naturally 
crumbly and light probably the best time to plant trees in it is the 
autumn or winter ; but even this I will not venture positively to 
assert, for I have invariably found that, no matter what the soil is, 
newly planted trees are likely to do best when the roots start into 
action immediately after planting. This is certainly not done in 
the winter unless the season happen to be unusually mild ; and 
although the trees may sustain no injury from remaining a long 
time inactive it does not disprove what I affirm. 
Some years ago I assisted in removing a number of evergreen 
shrubs from one garden to another : they were taken two or three 
at a time on wheelbarrows to a distance of about half a mile, and 
the weather was both hot and dry, the period of the year being 
about midsummer. As each was planted a basin was formed 
around it, the soil being in a crumbly state. This basin was filled 
up twice with water, which seemed to run the soil in amongst the 
roots, and leave them as though they had never been removed. 
They took to the soil immediately, and I never knew fresh-planted 
shrubs do better. I thought at the time that it was incurring too 
great a risk, as the shrubs were fine specimens ; but the result 
proved that all my fears were groundless, and if since then I have 
had occasion to remove trees or shrubs at any period of the year 
I have never hesitated to do so. The weather subsequent to the 
operation will suggest such precautions as are necessary to insure 
safety—that is, in the way of shading, syringing, mulching, or 
watering, and staking in case of high winds. These precautions 
are often necessary, and the neglect of them is more frequently the 
cause of failure than the supposed wrong time of the year. 
I would not, however, have it understood that I am advocating 
summer planting in preference to autumn or winter planting. 
There are cases in which it would be entirely out of the question 
to perform such operations in the summer on account of the 
pressure of other work ; nor does what I assert affect this matter 
in the least. What I would recommend is not to be bound by 
usage, nor to be led by would-be clever theorists, who describe 
minutely how the tree should be taken up, how the hole should be 
dug, how the soil should be trodden over the roots, the month, the 
week, or even the day on which transplantation should be per¬ 
formed, and such matters of detail as are far better left to the 
discretion of the operator. 
Many gentlemen lay out large sums of money in the purchase 
of trees and shrubs, and make extraordinary mistakes in the plant¬ 
ing and disposition of them, simply, it appears to me, for want of a 
few practical lessons, and partly, perhaps, from being unacquainted 
with the nature of the trees which they plant, or their knowledge 
being confined to the simple fact that trees should be planted with 
their roots downwards. This is rather a limited knowledge of 
vegetation ; but judging from the manner in which many trees are 
planted one would think that it was also the extent of the know¬ 
ledge possessed by the planter. For instance : a gentleman owns a 
field or paddock, and desires to have a belt of trees round it. He 
goes or sends to a nursery for one or two hundred young forest, 
trees, and they are planted, the turf being replaced close around 
their stems. While the owner is congratulating himself on the 
pleasure he will experience in soon having a plantation of vigorous- 
young trees, some of them are dying, and the rest do not grow- 
How is this ? The nurseryman who supplied them is blamed ; it 
must be his fault in supplying bad trees. What else can be the 
reason ? Trees are pointed out as growing vigorously in neighbour¬ 
ing fields, with the grass extending up to their trunks, just as he 
would like his own to be, and he cannot see why they should not. 
Now, I would simply inform him that the grass growing under an 
old-established tree is merely there on sufferance, the tree has the 
mastery, and will not allow the grass to attain more than a certain 
degree of strength ; but with fresh-planted trees the case is 
different, the grass pushes out fibres long before the tree, and the 
roots are down among those of the tree before the latter have made- 
a single fibre. In fact, the grass abstracts all the moisture from the 
ground at the time of the year when the tree requires it most, so* 
that the latter is left to starve, consequently it does not grow. 
The gentleman, however, cannot see this, and blames the nursery¬ 
man ; but if he will take a useful hint, and look nearer home, he 
will find the remedy. When the trees are planted let the ground- 
be kept bare of herbage as far as the roots extend, and this until 
the trees are thoroughly established. 
In another case the trees are planted in gravel or sand, and in 
this they cannot grow for want of nutriment. The nurseryman 
cannot very well be blamed in this case, for the cause of failure is 
obvious, and the want of success is at once attributed to it. In 
consequence of this discovery the owner orders the surface of sand 
or gravel to be removed, and two spadesful of strong manure to be 
placed close to the stem of each tree ; or he orders each to have 
half a pailful of good strong liquid manure ; so they are poisoned, 
and eventually succumb to their fate. Possibly the gentleman 
employs a gardener who well knows that liquid manure beyond a 
certain strength will injure, perhaps kill, his Cabbages, and he will 
possibly suggest that the stuff might be a little too strong. Well, 
then, the gentleman will buy more trees, and treat them to liquid 
manure in a weaker state ; but even then somehow or other they 
do not grow. Now, I would suggest that newly planted trees have 
neither the mouth to imbibe or the stomach to digest liquid or even 
solid manure, and that trees require plain soil to fibre into : conse¬ 
quently if a good-sized hole had been made in the gravel for each 
tree, this filled up with common soil, and the trees planted in it, 
they would probably have done well, and when established pushed 
their roots into the gravel and derived a certain portion of nourish¬ 
ment from it. 
It must not be supposed that I have merely pictured imaginary 
possibilities ; for I have seen instances of what I have described, 
and have known gentlemen purchase valuable shrubs and trees to 
plant on their lawns ; but, as a rule, the practice has been to lay the 
turf close up the stems after planting. Two-thirds of those which 
I have known treated in this way have either died or barely existed, 
and this I can ascribe to no more likely cause than replacing the 
turf over the roots. I have frequently taken off the turf round 
coniferous and other trees, removed some of the soil, and have 
noticed that in almost every instance, except after continued rains,, 
the ground has been hard, dry, and seemingly impervious to any 
amount of rain. It is evident that such are not the conditions in 
which a tree could be expected to grow and flourish ; it is worth 
while, therefore, to take a lesson from the fact, and in planting 
trees, especially those which are valuable, to leave the surface of 
the soil bare for a certain space round the stems when they are 
planted on lawns. Let a neat circle be cut in the turf, and the 
appearance will be quite as good as if the turf had been laid close, 
to the stems. This will go far towards insuring the safety of the 
trees both by permitting rain and artificial waterings to sink down, 
and saving the trees from the drying and exhausting influence of 
the grass, which takes up the moisture for its own support. 
