36 



soil. Should the varieties be bundled up, all strings must be* 

 cut and the bundles opened, prior to covering the roots with 

 soil, taking care that different sorts are carefully marked out, so- 

 that the varieties do not get mixed at this early date. At the 

 unpacking the trees should be counted and the nurseryman's- 

 invoice checked, and then is the time to lay complaints, should 

 there be any. 



We will presume that on arrival of the trees the ground is not 

 yet staked out, nor the holes dug ; the staking out is of course 

 the first work. The distance generally recommended for 

 standard trees is from 18 feet to 22 feet apart. Dwarfs, 6 feet to 8- 

 feet apart. The tools required are a square, which can be made of 

 flooring board, sawn down in middle, each side 10 feet long. A 

 setting-board, which can also be of the same material, 5 feet long, 

 and is made as follows : find, and mark the centre of the board,, 

 and also mark exactly 2 feet on either side of this centre, then saw 

 out 3 triangular notches on these marks or lines, each notch let 

 one inch into the board. And a copper wire 210 feet long (this,, 

 by-the-bye, should be kept rolled up upon a frame), which any 

 tinsmith can make, with a lump of solder fixed at every exact 

 20 feet, leaving 5 feet at each end, to which ends ring for hold- 

 ing it should be attached. Two men are needed for the staking,, 

 whom we will style A and B. The first thing to do is to find a 

 right angle, taking in as much of the block as possible. This is- 

 got by using the square, the sides of which are long enough to 

 enable one to sight the lines the whole length of the field. 

 Having decided where the corner angle is to come it is at once 

 secured by A placing the square on the ground to the lay of the 

 block. The two sides of the base square can now be easily 

 drawn, by A remaining at the angles and sighting along the' 

 square for B, who with a bundle of 6 feet reeds walks along the 

 projected line, placing one every 30 or 40 yards, which may be' 

 pushed firmly in after its correctness is determined by A. This 

 line can be sighted out the entire length of field by so placing a 

 succession of reeds. The second line of the base angle may in 

 the same manner be sighted out. The right angle is now secured,, 

 which form the two sides of the base square. Next the wire is 

 stretched along one of the lines, both men having previously 

 shouldered a bag of stakes, or reeds, say 12 inches long, which 

 should have been previously dipped in a thick lime, to their 

 centres. After the wire is fixed, both walk towards the middle,, 

 at each lump of solder pushing a stake into the ground for three- 

 quarters of its length, the white-washed end uppermost, and always- 

 on the same side of the wire. When all are staked, the wire is- 

 moved along onward, until the whole length of one side is slaked 

 at exactly 20 ft. apart, the other side of the angle is then similarly 

 staked, beginning, of course, from the first stake set, which will 

 be the corner one. The wire will allow for the marking out for 

 10 trees at once ; the men therefore move down this latter line to- 

 the tenth stake, bringing the wire parallel with the first line 



