48 



THE LARCH. 



remains yet one more important auxiliary for that 

 purpose to be described. Pitting the ground, which 

 is just partially trenching it, has been found, after long 

 and extensive experience, to be fraught with so many 

 objections as to be nearly out of use in the ordinary 

 sense of forest-tree planting. The pits, in ordinary 

 cases, are no sooner formed than they become recep- 

 tacles for water ; but apart from the circumstance of 

 water actually filling the pits, the soil which fills them 

 becomes colder and wetter than that of the surrounding 

 unbroken ground, and whether the depressed basin- 

 shaped surface caused by the pitting, or otherwise, 

 chills and starves the plants, and ultimately kills them, 

 is immaterial. 



The planter's foot-pick is an implement by no 

 means either new or rare, 

 for it has been in use at 

 least thirty years ; and upon 

 some estates where millions 

 of plants are planted an- 

 nually, the ground is all 

 prepared by means of this 

 implement. Having myself 

 frequently referred to it, 

 and recommended it in the 

 highest terms, I again do 

 so with renewed and un- 

 abated confidence. 

 The annexed figure will help to illustrate the im- 

 plement referred to, and make it better understood 



Fig. I. 



Fig. 2. 



