£WTry h o 
Yol. LIX. No. 2612. NEW YOKE, FEBRUARY 17, 1900. 
SI PER YEAR. 
Isaac Hicks & Son, of the 
Westbury Nurseries, West- 
bury, N. Y., have probably 
had a more extended experi¬ 
ence in moving large trees 
than most eastern nursery¬ 
men, as the numerous 
wealthy owners of Summer 
homes on Long Island are 
often willing to incur con¬ 
siderable expense to gain 
immediate landscape effects, 
by planting large and well- 
developed trees about their 
lawns. The Messrs. Hicks 
have invented and patented 
several most powerful and 
ingenious movers for hand¬ 
ling these enormous trees. 
The writer had the pleasure 
of witnessing the planting 
of a 50-year-old Ailantus 
tree, which was being trans¬ 
ferred from one portion of 
a lawn to another, in order 
to make room for an en¬ 
larged residence. The tree, 
which had grown exposed to 
the coast winds, had twin 
trunks, each more than a 
foot thick. It was about 50 
feet in height and spread of 
branches. The roots were 
cut in a circle 30 feet in 
diameter, and carefully fol¬ 
lowed up without injury. 
Under the tree a number of 
thick roots grew straight 
down in the gravelly sub¬ 
soil, and were left about six 
feet long. No attempt was 
A BABY CARRIAGE FOR A GROWN-UP TREE. Fig. 33. 
TWO LARGE TREES MOVED IN 1893. PHOTOGRAPHED THREE YEARS LATER. Fig. 34. 
MOVING LARGE TREES. 
A BABY CARRIAGE FOR GROWN-UP TIMBER. 
How It Is Done. 
We are all familiar with the reasons for planting 
young trees in preference to larger and older speci¬ 
mens. A practical nurseryman or fruit grower will 
always prefer thrifty yearlings to older trees, because 
a larger percentage of roots can be secured, and 
there is less general shock to the tree from removal. 
It is often of advantage to move large trees in orna¬ 
mental planting, for the 
sake of producing at once 
effects that would require a 
considerable portion of a 
lifetime, if the ordinary 
course of nature is to be 
awaited. Large trees, 50 or 
60 years old, with a height 
of 60 feet or more, trunks 
two feet in diameter, and a 
spread of branches and 
roots of 40 feet, can be suc¬ 
cessfully moved many miles, 
and replanted in the chosen 
position, with scarcely a 
check to their growth. Quite 
a number of shade trees of 
the largest dimensions were 
successfully planted on the 
grounds of the Columbian 
Exposition at Chicago in 
1892, and have since con¬ 
tinued their growth in a 
satisfactory manner. 
made to preserve a ball of earth about the roots, 
though the Messrs. Hicks find that the retention of 
a ball is of advantage with large evergreens, as new 
soil cannot be so closely packed among their numer¬ 
ous roots. 
The huge mover received the tree on its hinged 
cradle, and its wheels, with an eight-inch tread, 
enabled four horses to draw the heavy load across 
the lawn with little injury to the surface. Arriving 
at the hole dug for its reception, which was 35 feet 
across and seven feet deep, the tackle and guy ropes 
were adjusted, and the tree quickly pulled in place, 
though a stiff wind had commenced to blow. The 
work of filling in was carefully done, good top soil 
being worked in among the roots, and well rammed 
with packing sticks, until it was brought up to the 
required level. The ends of the roots were freshly 
pruned as the operation proceeded, the top trimmed 
back moderately, and a number of anchorage wires, 
guarded by rubber hose where attached to the tree, 
were fastened to strong stakes driven at proper points 
in the ground, to hold it in position until firmly es¬ 
tablished. I was informed 
by the owner of the place 
that the cost of the removal 
was $150. The after treat¬ 
ment of these huge trees 
consists simply in keeping 
the soil over the whole ex¬ 
tent of roots as moist and 
mellow as a Canna bed, for 
a season or two, until a fair 
top growth starts. If the 
soil is allowed to dry out the 
tree may quickly perish. 
The picture shown at Fig. 
33 shows how the large 
trees are packed on the tree 
mover. The body of the 
truck is close down to the 
ground, and the tree itself 
is so bound and padded that 
the bark is not seriously in¬ 
jured. Fig. 34 shows two 
large trees three years after 
moving. The house was 
probably built about the 
time the trees were moved. 
But for these trees there 
would have been no shade 
around it for years. 
w. v. F. 
FOUR-LEAVED CLOVER 
OUTLONE.—J. M. Lewell- 
ing, Newberg, Ore., sends us 
some remarkably fine speci¬ 
mens of multiple-leaved 
clovers. Besides the usual 
four and six-leaved types, 
there are others showing, 
respectively, seven, nine, 11 
and 13 leaflets. It is alto¬ 
gether the finest collection 
that has come to our notice. 
We know but little of the 
actual < auses of these de¬ 
partures from the normal 
standard. Theoretically, 
there is an indefinite num¬ 
ber of plant cells in every 
leaf bud, which may under 
certain conditions of nutri¬ 
tion develop into an addi¬ 
tional leaf or even into a 
branch or growing axis. Just 
how or why it does so, we 
cannot tell, but it is sup¬ 
posed that all variation in 
plant life, often leading to 
the formation of distinct 
and permanent features, be¬ 
gins in this way Mr. Lew- 
elling says that only a por¬ 
tion of the seeds from mul¬ 
tiple-leaved plants will re¬ 
produce the feature again, 
but no doubt rersistent se¬ 
lection from the most per¬ 
fect individual plants for 
several generations would 
fix the tendency to a con¬ 
siderable extent. 
