PEEPARING GROUND FOR PLANTING. 49 



than words can do. Fig. I represents the foot-pick in 

 the hands of the workman inserting it in the ground, 

 rig. 2 is a sectional view of the same implement. It 

 will be observed that the dark-coloured part is iron 

 and the light part wood. The results produced differ 

 little from those of the common drainer's foot-pick, 

 but the implement itself and the manner of using it 

 differ widely in several important respects. Two men 

 boring or loosening the ground usually prepare suffi- 

 cient for one man and boy to follow planting, and as 

 the ground thus prepared is very easily planted with 

 ordinary-sized plants, it may be computed that a man 

 will prepare the ground for six to eight hundred plants 

 per day. It requires a somewhat tall and able-bodied 

 man to use the foot-pick efficiently; but its use, like 

 aU other implements, becomes simple and easy by ex- 

 tensive practice. All planting upon stiff and hard 

 moorland should be preceded by the foot-pick ; its re- 

 sults not only prove highly beneficial in the growth 

 of the trees, but to a very large extent prevent 

 deaths occurring. I have said that stiff and hard moor 

 ground should be prepared by it, but I must also add 

 that stiff dry clay soils also derive much benefit, and 

 ground that is naturally too wet for the successful 

 growth of plants will, on being properly raised by means 

 of the foot-pick, show great superiority of growth over 

 that of ground unprepared. There is another method of 

 preparing ground for planting which is both beneficial 

 and practicable, such, for example, as adding clay to 

 light moss, or sand to clay. I once saw upon the Earl 



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