P L A 



P L A 



Where young plants are employed, they 

 should be planted out in rows, three or lour feet 

 asunder, as directed for the seed, and one or 

 two feet apart in the lines ; thev may be planted 

 either by opening smalt apertures or holes with 

 the spade for each plant ; or, if very small 

 plants, it is sometimes performed by making 

 only a slit or crevice with the spade for each 

 plant ; and sometimes by opening or forming 

 small trenches the whole length, then inserting 

 the plants, one person holding whilst another 

 trims in the eartli about their roots : some again, 

 in very large tracts, where the situation admits 

 of previous ploughing and harrowing to divide 

 and break the earth into small particles, open 

 furrows with the plough, two or more persons 

 being employed in depositing the trees in the 

 furrow, whilst the plough following" immediately 

 with another furrow covers the roots of the 

 plants with the earth, and afterwards treading 

 each row upright. See Planting. 



The grounds where the Plantations are made 

 should be previously well fenced in all round 

 with a deep ditch, &e. to guard against the en- 

 croachments of cattle or other animals. 



In the after management, while the Planta- 

 tions are young, they must have some attend- 

 ance to destroy weeds, which may be expedi- 

 tiously executed by hoeing between the rows in 

 dry weather, or occasionally by horse-hoeing ; 

 and this care will be needful for two or three 

 years, especially to the seedling plantations, un- 

 til the trees are advanced out of the reach of 

 weeds ; after which no further trouble will be 

 required until the trees are ready for the first fall 

 or thinning, for poles, faggots, &c. 



After eight or ten years growth, they are 

 mostly of a proper size to begin the first fall by 

 a moderate thinning, which will serve for poles 

 and faggot-wood, to repay some of the expense 

 of planting, he. But only part of the Plantation 

 should be lopped the first year; thinning out 

 the weakest and most unpromising growth first j 

 leaving a sufficiency of the most vigorous plants 

 pretty close, to grow up for larger purposes ; 

 the year following thinning another part, and 

 so continue an annual thinning-fall till the 

 whole Plantation has been gone over ; cutting 

 each fall down near the ground, leaving the 

 stools to shoot out again, especially in the deci- 

 duous kinds ; and by the time the last fall has 

 been made, the first will have shot up, and 

 be ready to be cut again. So the returns of fall- 

 ings may be contrived to be every six, seven, 

 eight, or ten years, or more, according to the 

 uses the poles or wood are wanted for: and if 

 larger poles, Ike. are wanted, the fall may be 

 only once in fourteen, eighteen, or twenty 



years, still, at every fall, being careful to leave 

 enough of the most thriving plants for stand- 

 ards ; being- left pretty close at first, that they 

 may mutually draw each other up in height ; 

 but thinned out everv succeeding fall as they 

 increase in bulk and meet, so as to leave a suf- 

 ficient quantity of the principal trees at proper 

 distances to grow up to timber, which in their 

 turn, as they become fit for the purposes in- 

 tended, may also be felled according as there 

 may be a demand for them, to the most ad- 

 vantage; having young ones from the stools 

 coming up in proper succession as substitutes, 

 so as the ground may be always occupied as 

 completely as possible. 



PLANTING, the operation of inserting 

 plants, seeds, and roots, into the earth, for the 

 purpose of vegetation and future growth. 



There are various methods of performing this 

 business in practice for different sorts of plants, 

 seeds, and roots; as Hole Planting; Trench 

 Planting; Trenching-in Planting; Slit or Cre- 

 vice Planting; Holing-in Planting; Drill Plant- 

 ing; Bedding-in Planting; Furrow Planting; 

 Dibble Planting ; Trowel Planting ; Planting 

 with balls of earth about the root ; Planting in 

 pots, &c. all of which are occasionally used by 

 different practitioners in the several branches of 

 gardening, according as the methods are most 

 proper for different particular 6orts of plants. 



In tlw first, or Hole Planting, which is the 

 principal method practised with most sorts of 

 trees and shrubs in the full ground, and which 

 is performed by opening with a spade round 

 holes in the earth, at proper distances, for the 

 reception of the plants, each hole should be 

 dug large enough to admit all the roots of the 

 tree or shrub freely"every way to their full spread, 

 without touching the sides of the hole, and 

 about one spade deep, or a little more or less, 

 according to the size of the roots and nature of 

 soil, so as, when planted, the uppermost ones 

 may be only about three or four inches below 

 the common surface, or as low as they were 

 before in the ground; though in very humid 

 soils, where the water is apt to stand, the holes 

 should be shallower, so as the uppermost roots 

 may stand full as high as the general level, or 

 higher if necessary, raising the ground about 

 them, especially when performed in winter. 

 When the soil has been thus dug out, the bot- 

 toms should be well loosened ; the mould in 

 digging out being laid in a heap close to the 

 edge, in order to be ready to fill in again : the 

 holes being thus prepared, and having slightly 

 trimmed the roots, &c. of the trees, one tree 

 or plant must be placed in the middle of the 

 hole, making all its routs spread equally around; 



