Those who intend to plant in the fall should immediately attend both to the preparation of the ground and selecting the trees. With regard to the latter, a better estimate can be made of the general habit and health of a plant before the fall of the leaves. It may be necessary to caution beginners against the prevailing error of selecting the largest trees. Medium sized trees come up with better roots, are easier handled, less liable to casualties in transportation, and grow faster than those that have been drawn up tail, weak, and unshapely in nursery rows. Old trees have strong roots, and these must necessarily be cut in removing. The tops must then be pruned down, to correspond with this mutilation, in order to secure a healthy start. So that there is nothing gained in the way of size. Even should they live, it is only an eking out a miserable existence for two or three years; meanwhile the smaller tree far exceeds it both in health and height.

The question as to whether autumn or spring planting is most successful, has been often discussed. The arguments favoring autumn planting are based upon the well-known fact that the roots and branches may be separately excited to growth. This is well exemplified in the rooting of slips or cuttings. To favor root formation the cuttings are placed in soil kept warmer than the surrounding atmosphere. In the fall the soil is warmer than the air; the formation of roots proceeds while the branches are dormant; when spring arrives, the balance of the tree being in a great measure restored, growth commences vigorously, and the plant becomes established and able to bear up against summer aridity.

But to insure these good results, planting should be proceeded with immediately after the leaves have fallen; if delayed beyond October success will be less certain.

Holes should be made 6 or 8 feet in diameter and 14 to 18 inches deep. In clayey subsoils, breadth should be considered of more importance than depth. A portion of well pulverized soil should be in readiness when planting season arrives. It is poor economy to pay a couple of dollars for a tree and then begrudge a shilling for planting it.

Planting Trees #1

The system of removing large trees with balls of frozen earth, is frequently practised, and occasionally may be recommended; but is a very expensive process, and by no means justifiable as a general system. No amount of soil, frozen, or otherwise, will compensate for the destruction of roots, and to remove all the soil occupied by them is simply impracticable. The larger and older the tree, the further will the roots extend, and, consequently, the fewer of them can he secured in a limited space. There is great want of discriminating judgment shown in this matter of lifting large trees. It seems to be an opinion with many that, provided they lift a ton or two of soil with a tree, success must be certain. The stunted appearance of such trees, even if they live, ought to convince planters that the process will not pay. To secure a healthy growth, the branches must be reduced in a corresponding ratio with the reduction of roots. It is roots, then, and not soil, that ought to be removed; and the roots can only be traced and secured when both the soil and the air are free of frost. The amount of pruning that the branches require, must be left to the judgment of a competent and experienced planter.

During the progress of removal, he will ascertain the amount of root mutilation, and he will be further guided by the kind, age, and health of the tree that, is being operated upon, all of which will exert a special influence in controlling his future management and care. Occasionally, we meet with instances where success has been all that could be desired; but all practice not founded upon principle is empirical. Such practice may be successful, because it may, by chance, be founded upon a natural law; but this being unknown, no continuance of success can be secured, and all the future is uncertainty.

Planting Trees #2

Many kinds of trees (among others, the Norway Fir, Arbor-Vita, Hemlock Spruce, Maples, &co.) thrive best on a clayey subsoil. Indeed, all plants seem to attain greatest size and age on soils of this description, doubtless because, in them, there are abundance of the special substances they require for building up their structure, and in which light, sandy soils are deficient. The only evil in clayey soils is their liability to retain moisture to an injurious extent, and their frequent resistance to roots. Braining obviates all this.

PINUs LAMBERTIANA.