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Transplanting Trees

The beech exhibits this notably among trees. So do the oaks, most of the conifers, and even certain of the willows and poplars. The great heath family, including laurels, rhododendrons, wintergreen and trailing arbutus, are believed to exhibit this "symbiosis," or interdependence between fungi and roots.

Moving such trees is precarious work, because the welfare of both tree and fungus must be looked after. If the mycorhiza dries out, the tree dies. If the tree is planted in soil destitute of this fungus, that brought in the earth ball often proves inadequate to the demands of the treetop. Most trees of this type grow naturally in great colonies, crowding out other kinds. The soil under beech woods is one great network of delicate fungous threads. An isolated beech tree taken to your garden sustains a great shock and a trying deprivation. No wonder trailing arbutus usually dies in domestication. The range of species exhibiting symbiosis is not very definitely known yet. It is certainly very large, and students are busy upon the problem. Many plants, however, feed with their own roots, and are therefore independent of organisms in the soil. So far as we know, most trees belong to the latter class.

The whole philosophy of transplanting is the keeping of the root system in ignorance of the change. The ideal way is to save all the roots. The practical way is to save as many as possible.

The trunk roots and their branches are important as a framework to support the tree in the ground and the rootlets at their extremities. But only the season's rootlets absorb plant food. Next year they, too, will pass the feeding function on to newer filaments of more delicate structure. The year-old roots become conductors but no longer gatherers of food. Each year's growth underground has had its turn, since the main branches were the tender first branchings of the radicle of the germinating seed.