292 TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 



fibrous roots ; particularly if the trees be from ten feet to twenty feet, 

 or twenty-five feet in height. 



Planting in Puddle. The pit having been dug in the usual manner, 

 water is poured into it, and soil stirred in till the pit is half full of mud, 

 or puddle. The roots of the tree are then inserted, and worked about, so 

 as to distribute them as equably as possible through the watery mass. 

 More puddle, previously prepared, is then thrown in, the roots 

 again shaken, and the whole finished with dry soil. This mode is 

 well adapted for trees of from ten feet to twenty feet in height, when 

 planted in a dry sandy soil ; but it is not suitable for a soil with 

 a retentive bottom, as that would retain the water, and rot the 

 roots. 



Planting out Plants which have been Grown in Pots. In preparing 

 the pit, regard should be had to the probable length of the roots coiled 

 rouad the inside of the pot ; and a sufficient surface of soil should be 

 prepared on which to stretch them out. Unless this is carefully done, 

 the plant, if it has numerous roots matted together, will make little 

 more progress in the free soil than what it did in the pot; because the 

 check given to the descending sap by the numerous convolutions of the 

 fibres, prevents them, so long as they remain in that state, from ac- 

 quiring the strength of underground branches, which they would other- 

 wise do. This attention to spreading out the roots of plants trans- 

 planted from pots is more especially necessary in all those kinds which 

 do not make vigorous tap-roots, such as the pine and fir tribe ; but it 

 should not be neglected in any class of plants whatever. It frequently 

 happens that the roots of pines and firs, which have been three or four 

 years in pots, are six or eight feet in length when stretched out ; and 

 these ought to be planted in a shallow pit, not less than from twelve to 

 sixteen feet in diameter. Unless the roots are carefully removed, and 

 thus spread out, the tree will either continue unhealthy and die, or it 

 will by a great effort throw up the whole of the spiral roots above the 

 level of the ground, and make a fresh start with new roots. No trees 

 should ever have their roots confined long enough in pots to become 

 matted. 



Watering, mulching, and staking newly-planted subjects should, in 

 general, never be neglected where the plants are of large size ; not so 

 much to supply moisture to the fibres as to consolidate the soil about 

 the roots ; and in the case of evergreens, which are all the year in a 

 growing state, it should be copiously supplied for both purposes. 

 Where it is considered requisite to continue the watering after the 

 plant has been planted, a pan or basin should be formed round it, of 

 somewhat larger diameter than the pit in which the plant was placed, 

 into which the water may be poured so as to ensure its descent to the 

 roots. To lessen evaporation from this basin, or from the soil round 

 newly-planted subjects, it may be mulched, that is, covered with any 

 loose open material, such as litter, leaves, or spent tanners' bark ; or, 

 in firm soil, with reversed turf, small stones, large gravel, or tiles. In 

 watering box edgings, &c., newly planted in dry weather, it is of great 

 moment, when the earth is trod firmly to the roots, and before levelling 



