Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 43, 18 November 1871, Page 7

Farm and Garden.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR TRANSPLANTING The whole art of transplanting consists in the removal of plants from one pluce to another, and unless this bo done without any material damage to the roots, tho plant must suffer in health, and sometimes die »<lfcogetl e l . Generally speaking, there is not any difficulty in removing plants when young, aud if they were removed every season, they would hardly be the worse for it. When, however, we attempt to remove trees, plants, or shrubs, that have been many years undisturbed, the greatest care must be used to prevent injury from the loss of fibres, which, with all our attention, will bo broken, and the plant must suffer in proportion to the damage done to the roots. Two facts may be relied upon in the consideration of this subject; first, the growth of a tree is always in proportion to the under growth of its roots, and tho head maintained grows as large as the roots will allow it; secondly, that any damage the roots sustain cheeks tho growth of the trees or plants. From these two facls all the art of removing trees and plants should be learned, and upon these two facts all the art is founded. In transplanting seedlings of any kind, there is not any difficulty, because the roots being easily removed whole, the plants suffer nothing. In seedlings of all kinds there is a strong disposi tion to make new roots, and if the fibres be damaged, but little mischief accrues. It is when plants have stood some time, aud their roots have made considerable progress, that tho difficulty of removal begins to arise. Here, then, we have particular duties to perform; the first is by carefully removing the earth to the very end of the roots, in order to get the plant up with as little damage as possible, and secondly, to curtail the head sufficiently to allow for the damaged powers of the root. In taking up nursery plants, where despatch governs everything, the rootsicoseconsiderably, and the ends of all the main spreading portions are invariably chopped with the spade. This forces upon us another operation ; we have first to cut smooth all the bruised ends, and secondly to prune off a considerable portion of the branches, in order to diminish the evaporation aud consumption of moisture; some

trees are indeed so much inclined to grow and strike root, that they would live almost if the roots were chopped off, but there are others which are extremely impatient of damage at their roots, and if not very carefully removed, will fail. Again, there are many trees that cannot bo pruned ; for instance, cedars, firs, arbor-vitso, and trees of that description, must not lose a branch, or they lose their beauty, hence the necessity of removing every fibre of the root with it if the tree is to live ; whilst the trees are small, there is but little difficulty - Bub the more valuable kinds are generally kept in pots a few years, that they may not suffer anything from removal. As they advance in growth, the pots are changed, but at length they are turned out into the ground, and for one year or even two, they might be moved well and easily, because their roots had not had time to spread ; but after that, the difficulty increases every year, and it is a tedious as well as troublesome job to follow out the direction of the roots, and extricate them from the ground without damage. But certain it is that the only conditions required on removing a tree of any age or kind, are these : —First, to release all the roots from the ground without bruising; secondly, to remove the tree whole, as it is, and undamaged, from where it was to where it is to be ; thirdly, to preserve all the fibres thoroughly moist, from the time it is released from theground untilit be replaced ; fourthly, to support it in such a way, on replanting, that the earth be may all amongst the fibres and roots, solid and proper, as it was when it was moved ; and, lastly, that in treading and pressing the earth about it, the fibres should not be pressed together, nor the roots bent out of their places. In removing any large specimens, some nicety is required in reducing the head enough to make allowance for the decreased power of the roots, without injuring the general figure and appearance. One certain fact is, that whatever the root suffers checks the tree, and unless the subject be the better for checking, the plant must be reduced, and and therefore care must betaken to prevent the root from suffering. But many subjects are the better for the check, that is to say, they would be too luxuriant without such check ; hence the practice of root pruning, in orderso check fruit trees, a practice that hastens maturity and brings on fruit bearing. Tliis was the inducement to disroot pines, which some people have complained of as unnatural culture ; but our forefathers were not such dolts as the present generation would have us to think they were. The old lesson read to us in our boyish days would apply to. many theorists who undermine old practices, a truism not by any means to be despised, though not always right as applied to modern changes. “ Young folks think old, folks are fools, but old folks know young folks to be fools.”

The pruning of roots checks the flow of raw sap, which induces rank growth, and allows that already in the tree to elaborate, and adapt itself to the fruiting process ; and if roots be not pruned, or a cheek given artificially, the tree must push on with vigor, forming leaves and branches, butno fruit, until the tree attains its mature size, and tbe roots have settled down the supply by lessening it sufficiently, when that sip which is supplied will properly elaborate, and fruit is the consequence. Confine the roots of a tree in a pot, and stunted growth is a certain consequence ; cut away the parts of a root which wanders farthest, and a more sudden check takes place, yet it is to lessens the quantity of nourishment taken up that presuming it be not too violent, it hastens the blooming and fruiting; and carry this operation too far and the cheek is too great; yet a little further, and the tree dies, because the leaves give off more moisture than can be taken up. The only chance, therefore of saving trees, of which the roots have been too much damaged, is to lessen the work which the roots have to perform, when the life will bo saved. We have, in the clearing of a piece of ground, met with accidents, and destroyed more roots than we ought; chiefly in consequenco of some vigorous growth taken place, out of the usual situation of roots, more tl an half has been destroyed. It is on such occasions that we have tried experiments : plants such trees or shrubs as they come, and they die ; lesson the dead a good deal, and they live, but are sickly; cut a very large portion down, and the remainder will not loose a leaf. Hence it is that plants of all kinds that are inclined to grow too vigorously receive a wholesome check when they are young. Hence it is that fruit trees are root pruned, and bear earlier for it. Hence it is that pine apples are disrooted to hasten their fruiting, and many plants that are apt to run away and grow too fust, are frequently removed, and eacli time with the loss of some of their roots. But, on the subject of transplanting, it will be desirable to particularise many differently habited trees, shrubs, and vegetables, in papers devoted to themselves. It is enough to lay down at present, as an unerring fact, that the loss of roots check growth, that the only way to counteract this, when the check is not desir able, is to take extra pains to preserve them, to remember that every fibre that b broken is a loss of the means of support, and to maintain the plant healthy, it must be reduced exactly in the proportion that the root suffers, so that the plants, like firs, which camiot be cut down without the destruction of their symmetry, must not lose any portion of their roots, because there are no means of lessening the consumption, and therefore we must not lessen their supply. NATURE OF SOILS ADAPTED FOR DIFFERED l 1 FRUIT TREES. APPLES. Apples delight in a soft hazel loam, containing a small portion of sand. In such a soil, the fruit will be found to attain its full size, color, and flavor ; the trees will be most productive, and continue to flourish longest; and in such a soil disease will seldom attack them, if not hereditary, or brought on by accidental

wounds, orwautonand unnecessary lacerations. Climate has much less to do with fruits trees than soil; hence we see productive and healthy trees growing with little care, at no great distance from others, which greater care can scarcely keep in existence. This is the effect of soil —the effect of climate could not be so obvious within a few hundred yards where the shelter and situation are the same.

Deep soils are not necessary for the apple tree, but rather the reverse ; a dry bottom is, however indispensible. Eighteen or twenty inches of good soil, upon a dry substratum, such as chalk or rotten rock, is enough : the same upon a gravelly bottom, is, however, to be regarded as the minimum depth ; for the roots of fruit trees, should never be allowed to penetrate such a subsoil. In order to guard against tliis, it is necessary to pave the bottom of the border for a considerable distance round where the tree is planted, with stones, slates, glass, tiles, or a composition floor of cement, to prevent the roots from penetrating beneath, thereby getting into a cold and poorer, soil, far from the action of air and the heat of the sun, which are beneficial to them, when they take a horizontal direction, and keep near to the surface. The young wood in these cases will always by found more moderate in growth, and better ripened, upon which depends so much of the production, not only of good fruit, but also of healthy trees. Wet bottoms arc to be guarded against by draining, by planting high, by the precaution of using a pavement or floor of some sort or other, as above noticed. Wet soils are more to be guarded against than dry ones, for, although in some cases the apple may prosper for a few years in such, we invariably find the most productive and most permanent trees are found in dry soils. In every wet situation, or in such as cannot be properly rendered dry by draining &c., it will be desirable to plant on the surface, and gather up a slight mound of good mould over the roots. These mounds should afterwards be regularly mulched by laying a covering of good rotten dung over them ; to exclude drought, and also to nourish the roots, which in this case, having so small a space to run into, will require some enrichment. PEARS. A dry deep loam is the best soil for the pear tree, when upon a stock of its own species; but on a quince’s stock, it requires a soil rather moister ; however, the bottom of the border should be dry. A gravelly bottom is good, pi’ovided there be a sufficient depth of mould over it. A clayey, wet, spongy bottom is the worst of all, and should be guarded against by draining, and the bottom of the border secured by a floor similar to that recommended for peaches and nectarines, or else floor formed of pavement, or other durable materials, to prevent the roots, which are apt in this tree to penetrate to a great depth, from getting into a bad subsoil. The border should be made good, to the depth of two and a half or three feet, and composed of good hazelly loam from an old pasture, previously prepared, as will be described for peach trees. If the loam be not rich of itself, it should be assisted by the addition of a portion of well rotted dung, such has been used in cucumber or melon beds, and mixed well with the loam in the compost yards. The pear is generally a hardy tree, much more so than the apple, and will prosper in soils where apples will not live. However, in such soils they are extremely liable to shoot down the roots to a great depth, and hence produce strong wood, which is sufficiently manured as to produce flower buds. They continue to grow in this luxurious state for ten, twelve, or more years, without producing, fruit trees planted in a lighter soil are not subject to this defect, and will often produce good crops of fruit in 'three, four, or five years after planting. Tlie same precautions that have been recomended above for apples should therefore be attended to with the view of keeping their roots near to the surface, and giving them a horizontal direction.

Rye-grass and Prairie Grass for hay should be cut down just as they are coming into flower. If allowed to stand longer the after math will not be so good, and the hay will not be so sweet and nutritious as if cut at the proper stage of growth. Hay made from both these grasses requires more careful attention in making than oaten hay, and especially should care be exercised in not stacking it before tlie juices in the plant have been sufficiently dried up to prevent too violent heating. If a little heat be generated in the stacks, the hay will be all the sweeter, but when it it is put together too quickly there is the risk of spontaneous combustion taking place. Rye and Prairie Grass tor Seed.—• Even when intended for seed these grasses should not be allowed to become too ripe ; if so, a large proportion of the seed will be shed on the ground and lost. When cut, put the crops into small cocks at once. When, after a few days, making three or four of these small ones into larger cocks, select the early morning for tlio work when the dew is on the grass. As we have before advised, in carting to the stack or the threshing machine a taupalin on the dray is an absolute necessity, and the quantity of seed saved by its use will more than cover tlie cost of one. Lucerne. —Cut when in full flower, and treat the same as stated for rye-grass. If not carefully handled the best parts of it will be left on the ground. This is an excellent fodder plant, and should be largely grown in the drier districts of the colony. The crop lias also the advantage of saving the cost of ploughing and seeding every ye ir —a matter for consideration with the prevailing price of labor as compared with the value of farm produce. Maize.—lt is of very little use sowing maize on poor land. The plant is a gross feeder, and the land should be duly enriched to ensure its profitable growth. If the ground has been properly prepared it is truly astonisk-

i’lg the weight of green succulent food for cattle that an acre of land under this plant will yield, and that, too, at a season of the year when herbage is all burnt up, and green food most valuable.

Carrots.—Where these are grown —and they are such excellent food for horses that a few should be grown on every farm —they will require thinning out to distances of nine inches apart in the rows and should receive attention as to liorse-lioeing, keeping weeds down, and the soil open.

Potatoes —As the later crops begin to advance attend to using the hoe and to keeping the ground loose, well pulverised, and in an open friable condition. Although good crops are obtained on new land without much trouble, when the potato is planted on old land to produce a good crop requires careful cultivation. When the plants have grown so large that it is no longer possible to got amongst them with the hoe without doing injury, should any weeds grow up sheep where available for the purpose are capital potato weeders, eating up all the weeds and never touching any of the potatoes.

Fallow Land. —By tlie free use of Colman’s or any other good sort of grubber keep land that is intended to have the benefit of a fallowing free from weeds, and open, so that the atmosphere can exercise its fertilising influence on the mineral matters contained in the soil. Without this it is fallow only in name, and the full benefit derivable from properly fallowed laud is never realised. The grand secret of fallowing lies in exposing as much surface to the action of the atmosphere as possible, and this is best done by frequently stirring the soil with the grubber.

Much has been said as to the different methods of butter making, some advocating churning of the whole milk, and of the cream and milk combined. A very eminent authority, who experimented largely on the churning of all these mixtures, states that (1) cream al one is more easily churned than a mixture of cream and milk ; (2), that the addition of some water, during churning, facilitaties the process, especially when the cream is thick and the weather hot; (3), that butter made from sweet cream has the finest flavor when fresh, and keeps the longest; (4), that scalded cream yields the largest amount of butter, but that it does not keep long; (5), that the most economical anode is to churn the milk and cream in a coudition slightly acid, and that it yields a large amount of excellent butter. The same experimenter, after an experience of thirty five years, says that he has come to th.fi conclusion that butter is yielded in the largest quantity and of the best quality, by churning the whole milk. This should be kept till it is decidedly sour, and covered with a thick skin, wrinkled or uneven on the surface. This is churned at a temperature of 65 degrees.

There are various modes of preparin g annatto for the coloring of cheese and. butter —the following is one. Mix with one an a third gallons of boiling water one pound of annatto, half a pound of concentrated potash, one and. a third ounces of saltpetre. Carrot juice yields a good color for the purpose, but it requires to be used when perfectly fresh. When the butter is obtained from a cow properly fed there will be no fault to find with its color.