ARBORICULTURE. 353 



holing is therefore never attended with success on these kinds of 

 soil. 



Spade planting applies to land prepared for the reception of 

 the plants by trenching. Although this mode of planting is the 

 most common in use, and may appear to require but little exer- 

 cise of skill on the part of the operator, it is nevertheless often 

 very badly executed. It is best performed when the holes are 

 made a few inches wider than the roots of the plant extend ; the 

 earth of the bottom of the hole should be broken down with the 

 spade, the sides all round should be made to slope inwards so as 

 to cause the bottom to be wider than the top. The person who 

 holds the plant should then place it in the centre of the pit, and 

 the operator with the spade should have ready some fine surface 

 soil to cover the bottom and raise it up to the proper height, the 

 person holding the plant raising it at the same time, so that it 

 may stand not deeper in the soil than it previously stood. The 

 earth should then be carefully thrown in a finely-divided state, 

 and the plant during the operation slightly moved, so as to pre- 

 vent the roots from being covered in bundles, and to afford each 

 root and rootlet to have a portion of the soil intervening between 

 it and the rest. Treading should be avoided, as it renders the 

 soil cohesive, which in stiff or heavy land is an evil of great mag- 

 iiitude to newly-planted roots. In light soils, however, a slight 

 pressure with the foot to keep the plant steady in its place is ne- 

 cessary, particularly if the weather is dry during the season of 

 planting ; but in cases where it is practicable, it is much more 

 beneficial to, settle the earth about the roots of the plants by a free 

 application of water in the usual manner. 



It is the best and most expeditious practice to have one set of 

 men to make the holes, and another to finish the planting. When 

 different species of trees are to be mixed in me plantation, and in 

 unequal proportions, each species is successively distributed and 

 planted. What we have already staged respecting the great im- 

 portance to the success of the plants of not suffering the roots to 

 be dried by exposure to the sun or wind, may render it unneces- 

 sary to urge here, that the distribution of the plants on the ground 

 should not be farther in advance than just to keep the planters 

 45 



