The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-06-18
After TranspIanting.

IrODaDly tnOusandS OF trees and plants
are lost every year because of careless
digging in the nursery, or of equally care
ed. Thousands are lost because care
lessly or ignOrantly transplanted. Many
seem to think that If they once get the
roots buried, however careIessly or i'm
properly, in the earth, their responsible
ity ceases, and they may attend to more
pressing labors. This is serious mistake,
and one that brings disappointment to
thousands of planters.
We are so liable, under the climatic
influences which have prevailed latterly,
to have severe summer drouths, that it is
quite as important to give trapsplanted
trees and plants proper after care, as it
is to dig and transplant after the most
improved methods. Iftransplanting II was
done, as it very probably was, when the
soil was rather wet, it may have since so
hardened over the surface as to be nearly
impermeable to the atmosphere. In such
IN No~'S AcC1Ch UP hllC nul1dCC Will a
pronged hoe, and at the same time you
will destroy such weeds as have germin-
ated. And here word of caution may
be timely. In hoeing plants, strawber-
ries for instance, especially where they
were not properly trimmed before plant
ing, workmen, to save little hand
Nuaadinnr ara xrarxy NJ 10 haa TOO ,,aor
the plant, and striking dead runner or
dead leaves with the hoe, jerk the plant
out. The plant can be reset, but the
growth is retarded, and its liability to
fail entirely increased.
Perhaps the trees or plants were not
sufficiently pruned before planting. Go
over your plantations of raspberries and
blackberries, and if you find that some
of the old cane was left on, and is bud
ding and growing, take pair of sharp
pruning-shears-using knife might pull
up the plant by the roots-and cut it of,
close TO the ground, so that all the canes
that grow shall start from crown or root,
and consequently be biennial; otherwise
you might find that all the strength of
the root will go to sustain leaves and
branches that will perish in autumn.
Look over your perennial shrubs and
vines, and if your currants, gooseberries, |
grape vines and the like, planted this /
season, were not cut back to two or three i
good buds, cut them back now, and their
chances for living and making a good /
growth will be multiplied. Give similar
attention to newly planted trees, and if
the tops were not reduced before trans
planting enough to compensate for loss
of roots, which will be indicated by the
buds making feeble start, prune them
back now, and, at the same time, see
that the branches are not starting out
too thickly, to have sufficient room in
coming years. You can remove a branch
in the bud, with much less injury to the
tree, than after il becomes two or three
inches in ndiameter.
But after all that it is possible to do,
in the way of digging and pruning, to-
ward saving the life and promoting the
growth of the recently transplanted tree
and plant, has been done, there is an
other recourse, when the intense heat
and drouth comes on, and this is mulch
ing. Mulching will retain the moisture
and secure an equable temperature,
when other means fail. For mulch, al
most anything that will cover the ground
can be used. Even boards or stones are
better than no protection, but such
mulch as will slowly decay and furnish
manure TO the soil is to be preferred.
Coarse barn-yard manure, partially de-
cayed leaves, mown grass, or even weeds,
cut when green, may be used. With the
after care indicated above, but a small
percentage of the trees and plants trans
planted ought to fail-American Rural
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