



120 PLANTING. 





ery side. The roots are then to be covered with 

 soil gently pressed over them ; and the operation 

 must be finished by watering, so as to consolidate 

 the soil equally, without making it firmer on one 

 part of the roots than another. If the soil should 

 have been previously dug, trenched, or loosened to 

 the depth of a foot, or probably two feet or three 

 feet, the pit should not be made so deep as to throw 

 the neck or collar of the plant below, or even on a 

 level with the surface, when the soil is consolidated 

 by watering. On the contrary, it must be left of 

 such a height above it, as that when the soil is 

 finally consolidated by its own gravity, influenced 

 by the weather, the neck shall still be above the 

 general surface of the ground, and the plant stand 

 on a small hillock. This condition of planting can- 

 not be too carefully attended to ; for nothing can 

 be more injurious to transplanted plants than having 

 the neck buried more than it was in a natural state. 

 Nothing is more common than too deep planting ; 

 and the temptation to it is the greater, because 

 deep planted plants, from having the roots more 

 accessible to moisture, are more certain of grow- 

 ing the first year, and are less in want of mulch- 

 ing to exclude the heat and drought, and of staking 

 to prevent them from being moved by the wind. 

 Hence, in planting trees or shrubs, it is of the 

 greatest importance, not only with a view to their 

 future growth, but also to their natural appearance 

 above the surface, to have them planted on little 

 hillocks, greater or less in height, according as the 

 soil may have been moved to a greater or less 

 depth, either in the operation of digging the pit in 

 firm soil, or in planting in soil which has been 

 moved by digging, or trenching, or otherwise. In 



