AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



217 



a band, and folded once over, will form a slack loop, in which 

 the band will slip easily with the enlarging growth of the tree 

 (101 d) ; or it may be made as a simple band or bracelet (as 

 101 e), with the ends overlapping or not, at discretion. Its 

 own strength will keep it in place, and it can be read even 

 when placed at a considerable height. All danger from cut- 

 ting in will thus be avoided, and a permanent and legible label 

 be secured. 



For small plants or shrubs, 101 f may be used, being punch- 

 ed with smaller letters, or, if made of zinc, written upon, and 

 coiled as 101 d e ; or it may be used as a stake label, instead 

 of 102 a, for pot plants or flower-plots in the garden, &c. 



All labels should be examined annually, and, if necessary, 

 renewed or freshly painted. For trees and shrubs, however, 

 labels alone ought not to be depended on, but every cultivator 

 of these should prepare in a book diagrams of his several plots 

 or orchards, upon which the position and name of each tree 

 must be designated clearly and with precision. 



STAKE LABELS. 



Stake labels may be made of metal, as 101 /, or of strips of 



shingle for small articles, pots, 

 &c. (102 a), and of locust, or 

 chestnut, or cedar, or cypress, 

 or pitch pine, for larger ones 

 (102 5). These should be 

 about an inch and a half 

 square, and full two feet long, 

 smoothed, and painted, and 

 written on, as above directed, 

 or marked by burning in with 

 a branding-iron, or numbered 

 with the Roman numerals, cut 

 in with a knife or sawn across 

 the face of the tally, making 

 a notch on one corner, or any other mark you may devise, to 

 stand for ten, and others for fifty and one hundred, if necessa- 

 ry. Stake labels are sometimes made of brick or potters' clay ; 



K 



Fig. 102. 



