PLANTING and PLANTATIONS, Planting is the operation of placing in the soil the roots of a plant which has been previously removed; and the preservation of the roots is the first thing to be attended to. It should be kept in mind that the spongioles, or delicate extremities of the fibres, are the parts by which the chief supply of food from the earth is absorbed by the plant. Their tissue being tender and almost naked, they are very susceptible of injuries from mechanical action ; and being adapted for performing their functions in a humid medium, they readily suffer from being kept for any length of time exposed to free air and drought. In taking up the plants, therefore, the roots should be loosened in such a manner as to receive the least possible violence in the operation. Plants in pots can be shifted from one place to another without exhibiting symptoms of deranged functions; and if it were possible to preserve the spongiolee of a large tree as entire as those of a plant in a pot, the same successful result would follow. But as it is next to impossible to do this, we can only attempt to preserve them as far as circumstances will permit. If the tree be large, a trench should be opened beyond the extremities of the roots, of sufficient width and depth to allow the proctss of under mining to be freely carried on. The roots should be gradually set at liberty by a round-pronged fork, the prongs tapering so as to be easily inserted, yet not by any means so sharp as to prick the roots. As the fork is being used, the soil from among the roots will fall into the open trench ; but as it accumulates there it must be cleared away, and at the same time the portion of roots set at liberty will require to be slightly tied together with pieces of matting, and, if necessary, sup ported by temporary stakes, or held to one side by an assistant, whilst the planter proceeds in liberating others. If there be, as is frequently the case, a tap-root extending to a much greater depth than the other roots, and if the latter have been carefully preserved during the ope ration, the tap-root may be dispensed with, for it could only be raised in a mutilated state, owing to the great solidity of the earth at such a depth.
Although it is very desirable to preserve the greatest possible quan tity of sound roots, yet all that are bruised or lacerated should be cleanly amputated up to the sound parts. Cross-roots are apt to gall the others when they become large, and therefore the sooner they are removed the better. When the plants are young, and in the course of being occasionally removed in a nursing state, all irregularities in the roots should becorrected, which can then be done with comparatively little injury, as the roots of young plants bear a greater proportion to the top than seems to be the case at a more advanced period of growth, and the loss of any of them is consequently felt less. In the early stage of rearing trees, while the proportion of roots predominates, it may be found advisable in various MRCS to shorten not only the tap-root, as above mentioned, but also judiciously some of the other strong roots, in order that subdivisions of. a more fibrous nature may be pro duced, and a number of rootlets substituted for large root-branches. Even in the case of large trees this principle has been acted upon for centuries, and latterly it has been strongly advocated and put in prac tice for the purpose of producing immediate effect in park or landscape scenery. A trench is cut out round the tree, and tho roots shortened wherever they happen to traverse this trench, so as to leave it quite clear. This being done, the trench is filled up, either with its own excavated soil, or, in very particular cases, with fresh soil. The tree has still a aufficient number of undisturbed roots to keep it alive ; and in fact it ought not to be merely kept alive, but as many roots should be left as will ensure its continuing in a healthy though not a vigorous state of growth. In the course of a year or two after this operation has been performed, a number of young roots will have been protruded from the various amputations into the loosened soil of the trench; and partly from the possibility of preserving these roots, and partly from the top becoming habituated to a more limited supply of food, the tree feels comparatively little the change consequent on transplantation.