bal 
=". 
oe 
PLANTING. 
323 
PLANTING. 
This condition of planting cannot | soil about tke roots, and fixes them 
be too carefully attended to; for 
nothing can be more injurious to 
transplanted plants than having the 
neck buried more than it was in a 
natural state. Nothing is more 
common than too deep planting; 
and the temptation to it is the 
greater because deep-planted plants, 
from having the roots more accessi- 
ble to moisture, are more certain of 
growing the first year, and are less 
in want of mulching to exclude the 
heat and drought, and of staking to 
prevent them from being moved by 
the wind. Hence, in planting trees 
or shrubs, it is of the greatest im- 
portance, not only with a view to 
their future growth, but also to 
their natural appearance above the 
surface, to have them planted on 
little hillocks, greater or less in 
height according as the soil may 
have been moved to a greater or 
less depth, either in the operation 
of digging the pit in firm soil, or in 
planting in soil which has been 
moved by digging or trenching, or 
otherwise. In small gardens it is 
generally desirable, for the sake of 
producing immediate effect, to plant 
plants of considerable size ; and in 
this case, in addition to the pre- 
cautions which have been already 
mentioned, it is desirable to plant 
by what is called fixig with water. 
This operation is performed in the 
following manner: the hole being 
properly prepared, the plant placed 
in it, and the roots spread out on) 
every side and extended as far as 
they will go, one person holds the 
plant upright, a second sprinkles 
earth over the roots, and a third 
supplies water from a watering-pot 
with a rose on if the plant be small, 
and without a rose if it be a tree 
of six feet or eight feet in height, 
holding the pot as high above his 
head as his arms will reach. The 
weight of the water coming down 
from such a height consolidates the 
in such a manner, as to render the 
plant, if it has been carefully taken 
up, almost in the same state as it 
was in before removing. Large 
trees or shrubs, if planted in this 
manner in the autumn, and staked, 
where there is danger from high 
winds, will grow, and even flower 
and fruit, the following year, as well 
as if they had not been removed. 
In this kind of planting with large 
plants, the hillock, left after the 
operation is finished, should not be 
less than a foot or eighteen inches 
above the surrounding surface ; and 
to lessen evaporation during the 
ensuing summer, the hillock should, 
if possible, be covered with short 
litter, moss, turf turned upside down, 
or even small stones, for the first 
year. In staking large plants of 
this kind, the stakes should be 
placed close to the stem of the 
plant, in which position they are 
much less likely to injure the fibrous 
roots than when placed at a dis- 
tance from the tree ; and the stakes 
should be made fast to the stem of 
the plant by a piece of straw or 
hay-rope, or by a piece of twisted 
ma‘ting, or any kind of cord; the 
pat: of the stem to which the stake 
is ted having previously had a 
small handful of straw, or moss, or 
mat, bound round it to prevent the 
tie from galling the bark of the 
stem, and preventing its increase 
during summer. ‘These stakes 
should remain for a year, or some- 
times two years, according to the 
size of the plant and its facility of 
making roots. In general, the sooner 
the stakes are taken away the bet- 
ter; because the motion of the stem 
by the wind is essential to its in- 
creasing in thickness. In this mat- 
ter much must be left to the discre- 
tion of the planter, who must always 
bear in mind that a staked plant is 
in a most unnatural position; and 
also, that if the tree should lean 
