OP FRUIT TREES. 53 



planting. If the season of planting be spring, and 

 the ground and the weather be dry, the holes 

 should be watered the evening before the day of 

 planting, by throwing two or three pails full of 

 water into each ; a new but eligible practice. In 

 planting, the sods should be thrown to the bottom 

 of the hole, chopt with the spade, and covered 

 with some of the finest of the mould. If the hole 

 be so deep, that with this advantage the bottom 

 will not be raised high enough for the plant, some 

 of the worst of the mould should be returned be- 

 fore the sod be thrown down. The bottom of the 

 hole being raised to a proper height and adjusted, 

 the lowest tier of roots is to be spread out upon 

 it ; drawing them out horizontally, and spreading 

 them in different directions, drawing out with the 

 hand the rootlets and fibres which severally belong 

 to them, spreading them out as a feather, pressing 

 them evenly into the soil, and covering them, by 

 hand, with some of the finest of the mould ; the 

 other tiers of roots are then to be spread out and 

 bedded in the same manner. Great care is to be 

 taken to work the mould well in, by hand, that no 

 hollowness be left ; to prevent which, the mould is 

 to be trodden hard with the foot. The remainder 

 of the mould should be raised into ? ^hillock, round 

 the stem, for the triple use of affording coolness, 

 moisture, and stability to the plant. A little dish 

 should be made on the top of the hillock, and from 

 the rim of this the slope should be gentle to the 

 circumference of the hole, where the broken 

 ground should sink some few inches below the level 

 of the orchard. All this detail may be deemed 

 unnecessary ; by those, I mean, who have been ac- 

 customed to bury the roots of plants in the grave- 

 digger's manner ; but I can recommend every part 

 of it to those who wish to insure success, from my 

 own practice. Plants which have been transplant- 

 ed in the manner here recommended, whose heads 



