TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 291 



side, so as to press one side of the slit against the other throughout 

 its whole depth. Young forest-trees are frequently planted in this 

 manner on unprepared soil, and sometimes seedlings with long tap-roots 

 in gardens. 



Hole-planting. Two men, or a man and a boy, are required for this 

 operation. The ground being dug or trenched, and the width of the 

 rows and the distance between the plants in the rows fixed on, a hole 

 is opened by the man, and the soil thrown aside ; a plant is then placed 

 in the hole by the boy, and held there till its roots are covered by 

 a spadeful of soil which is taken out in forming the second hole. 

 The plant is held upright, while the soil is being thrown in over the 

 roots, and it is afterwards fixed by pressure with the feet. A third 

 hole is opened, and a second plant inserted in the same manner till the 

 work is completed. 



Planting in Pits. A pit is dug somewhat larger than the estimated 

 size of the roots which are to be placed in it ; and, if in garden or 

 trenched soil, it may be made immediately before planting ; but if in 

 firm uncultivated soil, as is frequently the case in forest-planting, it 

 should be made some months, or even a year or more before, in order 

 that the soil in the bottom or sides of the pit, and that which has been 

 taken out, and is to be returned to it, may receive the benefit of the 

 weather. When the pit is dry, the soil in the bottom is loosened ; and 

 before planting, a portion of the surface soil taken out is thrown in and 

 mixed with it, and raised up so as to form a long slightly convex surface 

 in the centre of the pit, the apex of which shall be nearly level witli 

 the surface of the ground. On this cone the plant is placed, with its 

 roots spread out regularly on every side ; the soil is then thrown in 

 over them, and in doing this the soil should be made to fall either per- 

 pendicularly, or spread so as not to reverse the direction of the fibres, as 

 is too frequently done when the soil is thrown with force from the cir- 

 cumference of the hole towards the stem. The plant being gently 

 shaken, if necessary, to settle the soil among the fibres, the whole is 

 finished in the form of a cone, rising a few inches above the adjoining 

 surface, having been previously consolidated by treading with the 

 feet. This is the most general mode of planting transplanted trees 

 of from five feet to ten feet in height, whether in the garden, the 

 orchard, the pleasure-ground, or a plantation of forest- trees. In all 

 these departments great care is requisite that the collar of the plant, 

 when the operation is finished, should stand somewhat above the 

 general surface of the ground ; because, otherwise, the sinking of the 

 soil, which must inevitably take place, would bury it underneath the 

 surface. 



Hole-planting and fixing with Water. Pits are prepared as in the 

 last mode ; and while one man holds the tree in the proper position, 

 the roots having been previously spread out, a second man throws in 

 soil, and a third pours in water from the spout of a watering-pot, held 

 as high above his head as his arms will reach, in order to add to its 

 force in falling on the soil, and settling in about the roots of the tree. 

 This is an admirable mode of planting those trees that have numerous 



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