The general impression that evergreens are very difficult to
transplant is not well founded if one will observe a few directions.
_The best time for transplanting_ is when the tips begin to show fresh
growth in spring. This is exactly the reverse of directions in English
books, which denounce spring, and enjoin fall transplanting—in the
climate of England, doubtless with good reason; and it is a good
illustration of the caution necessary before imitating, in our
climate, the most skillful foreign practices.
A friend informs us that he has always totally lost all his fall
transplantings; not saving ten in a hundred; and other men say they
have had similar experience, and _it is a settled fact that fall
transplanting of evergreens is bad practice_.
_The best method_ of removing is to lift the plant with as many roots
and fibres as possible. More care should be used in this respect than
in the removal of fruit-trees; indeed, there is little risk when good
roots are obtained and kept in a moist condition. In planting, the
most successful operators that we have seen, mix about half and half
common soil and old rotten wood from the forests, filling it in
carefully about the roots and covering the surface with substances
which will prevent too much evaporation of moisture, as litter,
decayed wood, sods grass side down, etc., etc.
The old wood employed should be thoroughly decomposed; and that of the
hackberry, maple, and beech are preferred. The decayed wood of the
black walnut and oak do not seem congenial to plants.
When large trees are to be removed it is often done with success in
the winter, by opening a trench about the tree and permitting the ball
of earth to freeze pretty thoroughly. The tree is then undermined and
upon a sledge easily removed to its destination. The hole for its
reception should have been dug while the ground was unfrozen, and it
will be necessary to wait until it thaws before it can again be filled
in about the tree.