PART I.
PART I. PRACTICAL PART OF TRANSPLANTING.
ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM.
Amona the advantages of transplanting with ‘the tree- ~y lifter’ may be reckoned its cheapness. Its simplicity is such that the whole may be performed, and even single-handed, by a common day labourer. One man may plant one tree per day, of from twenty-five to thirty feet in height. To transplant trees without the ball of earth requires great skill, care, labour, and expense in tracing out the small fibres of the roots, whose extreme points, with their supposed spongioles, could by no delicacy of operation be retained, and which after all are nearly valueless. All transplanted trees are the better for being watered ; but with the ball of earth this is by no means necessary. To trans- plant without the ball of earth, and not to water, for at least two summers, is hopeless. This is a great
e B
2 | PRACTICAL PART Pr. I.
expense, besides staking and tying, which plants with the ball of earth do not need. The growth of trees transplanted with ‘the tree-lifter’ is not checked; but without a ball of earth, trees transplanted, with what- ever care, or at whatever expense, are checked in their growth for eight or ten years, and if they do not die, they become living scarecrows.
In fact, trees transplanted by ‘the tree-lifter’ are very much in the same situation as those prepared for transplanting, as it is called, in the old-fashioned way, by cutting a trench round them. This method was originated in the time of Charles II., by Lord Fitz- Harding, as Evelyn tells us. But the trees trans- planted by ‘the tree-lifter’ gain the great advantage of making their new roots in the ground where they are to remain for ever, and escape the injuries of a subsequent removal. .
The best months for transplanting the generality of _ English trees, with the ball of earth, are July, August, and September.
Over the nursery plant, as a single tree, the trans- planted tree has the advantage of a start of from twenty-five to thirty years, besides saving the expense of the material, and carpenter's work, for at least two fences for each tree.
The system recommended would have peculiar advantages for planting or for keeping up avenues.