PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING : Page 92

Pruning Trees After Transplanting. After the transplanting,the top and the root growth of a tree must be balanced. It is necessaryto remove a portion of the root growth in order to make it practicableto handle the tree, and the removal of roots and lifting of the tree fromits existing location shuts off much of the supply of moisture which goesinto the tree. In every plant that is moved there is stored within theplant a certain amount of food material which becomes availableimmediately when growth starts. A portion of the top of the treeshould therefore be removed in order to lessen the possible areas ofevaporation and areas of leaf growth, which draw heavily upon thestore of food in the tree; otherwise this reserve supply is apt to be ex-hausted before root growth is started sufficiently to provide the treewith new moisture. There are instances when it is not necessary toprune because the full benefit of the top is immediately required.The latter, however, will require more care for the tree during thesummer months and entails a greater liability to loss because of theunbalanced condition of the top and root growth. A tree that isproperly pruned at the time of transplanting will, within three years,equal in development a similar tree that is transplanted, not pruned,and given much necessary additional care.