36 PLANTING. 



triangular shaped plate of steel, furnished with an iron shaft and wooden 

 handle. The sides are each four inches long, and the upper part or side 

 tour inches and a half broad. It is used for planting on sandy and gravelly 

 soils where the surface produce of herbage is short. In this case the 

 planter makes the ground ready with the instrument in one hand, and 

 inserts the plant with the other. He carries the plants in a bag or basket sus- 

 pended from his wuist ; he strikes the dibble into the ground in a slanting 

 direction so as to direct the point inwards, and, by drawing the handle 

 towards himself, an opening is made, and kept open by the steel plate for 

 the reception of the roots of the plant by the other hand. The instrument 

 is then removed, and the earth made firm about the roots of the plant by 

 a stroke with the heel of the instrument. 



3d. By the spade, a cut is made in the turf with the spade and crossed 

 by another at a right angle : the two cuts thus made resemble the figure of 

 the letter T. The handle of the spade being depressed backwards forces 

 open the edges of the cuts, and in the opening thus made the roots of the 

 plant are inserted ; the spade is then withdrawn, and the turf replaced by 

 pressure with the foot. 



Sir John Sinclair describes an improved mode of slit-planting, as 

 follows : The operator with his spade makes three cuts, twelve or fifteen 

 inches long, crossing each other in the centre, at an angle of sixty degrees, 

 the whole having the form of a star. He inserts his spade across one of 

 the rays (), a few inches from the centre, and on the side next himself; 

 Kg. r. then bending the handle towards himself and almost to the 



ground, the earth opening in fissures from the centre in 

 the direction of the cuts that had been made, he, at the 

 same instant, inserts his plant at the point where the spade 

 intersected the ray (), pushing it forward to the centre, 

 and assisting the roots in rambling through the fissures. 

 He then lets down the earth by removing his spade, hav- 

 ing compressed it into a compact state with his heel; the 

 operation is finished by adding a little earth with the grass side down, 

 completely covering the fissures, for the purpose of retaining the moisture 

 at the root, and likewise as a top dressing, whicli greatly encourages the 

 plant to push fresh roots between the swards*. 



4th. The defects of the slit mode of planting are, that the earth is not 

 properly reduced in its texture to suit the tender fibres of the roots of seed- 

 ling plants, and the natural plants of the surface are left to contend with 

 iheni lor the nourishment afforded by the soil, nor can the rootlets of the 

 young trees be disposed and placed in their right positions. The least 

 objectionable practice is to cut a circular piece of the turf, a foot in dia- 

 meter, and lay it on one side with the surface downwards ; the workman 

 then with his spade loosens and breaks down the texture of the uncovered 

 soil, and, by making ample space for the extension of the roots of his plant 

 in every direction, inserts it in the pulverized earth. The turf which had 

 been reversed and laid on one side, is then with a stroke of the spade 

 divided into two equal parts, and replaced on each side of the plant in its 

 reversed position. The reversed turf supports the plant against the effects 

 of the wind, retains the proper moisture of the soil, and prevents the evil 

 consequences resulting to the lateral branches of the young tree, and to 

 the healthy progress of the stem, from the uncontrolled growth of the 

 herbage natural to the soil, all of which, by the former modes, are rather 

 encouraged than checked. In uninclosed commons or moors, the natural 



* General Report of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 283. 



