Transplanting Large Trees.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 171, 8 July 1909, Page 4

Transplanting Large Trees.

Referring to a request for information as to the best method of moving his row of eight-year-old apple trees, I will tell howjl have often movedjieach, cottonwood, live oaks and other trees with bodies from four to six inches in diameter, not only without loss of a single tree, but with resultant growth so vigorous as to renew their heads in a few years. I have never planted an apple tree older than two years, but see no reason why his eight-year-old trees could not be moved just as well as those named. In fact no tree takes more kindly to root pruning than the apple. Next fail, as soon as the leaves have fallen,let him cut back the heads to a single stem about eight feet high and with a sharp axe cut straight down about six inches or less from the trunk all round.driving the axe so as to sever all collar roots, but removing no soil from the surface next the tree. Then remove the.earth outside the ring as deep as the cut,and drive the axe down as before all round, and clear the soil from the circle for a space of eight or ten inches so as to allow the next cut to be made sloping toward the tree. Continue until all side and vertical deep roots have been cut, leaving the tree standing in the hole with a ball of compact earth from 12 to 15 inches or more in diameter every way. Then dig boles about six inches wider than the ball, rounding the bottom so as to fit the bottom of the ball somewhat and scattering well pulverised soil to an inch or more in depth to pring the ball in close contact with the hole. But by no means dig or loosen the bottom soil, under the delusion that the roots cannot penetrate it just as easily as all tree seeds do the firm surface in a state of nature. Gradually fill the holes with well pelverised moist surface soil, working it under the ball firmly with the bands and packing with a blunt stick or dibble. When half full, ram the earth as for a fence post; complete filling to the surface and again ram so as to leave a depression of four or five inches which should be filled with water and allowed ot sink away several times, until the ball and earth are saturated. Next fill the hole level ,but do not tramp, and mulch with strawy manure deep enough to prevent freezing or heaving. If desired, a taller trunk can be left, but strong vigorous shoots will spring from the top and by leaving the upright ones only, a five or six foot trunk could be lengthened several feet, (f one has the faith to follow these directions bis trees will establish themselves on strong tap roots from the lower ends of the old stubs, and in a few years overtake the others. If he plants them with long roots, spread out laterally in wide holes, they will be permanently dwarfed.

A small farm can be made to pro- > duce heaps of money if properly hand- ! led, writes E.N.R. in the Australasij an. The meaning of proper manage- ] ment is differently interpreted by • different people. Many a farmer ; starting off with a fair amount of ' capital, is seized with the idea that j the only way to make money is to j spend as little as possible on improveI mencs, while many another rushes to the other extreme, and, regardless of | cost, makes many unnecessary additi ions to his working plant, which can never possibly return a profit. The result of the one man's parsimony and the other man's extravagance is generally identical. I have frequently not iced that a city business man undertaking farming is more successful than the man who is born and bred on a farm, and who had had no experience outisde the farm. The principles of cultivation are soon mastered, and once they are understood, farming mainly resolves itself into the ordinary everyday business concern of judicious buying and selling, and of cheapening production. ,The business farmer is not tampered by convention or retarded by fallacy. He does not do exactly as bis neighbour does without good reason, and he is not content to accept the soundness of a practice without seeing it demonstrated. That the presI ent system is perfect "and there can I be no improvement upon it, is just ! about the last thing he would believe.