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CHAPTER XIV. 



CONCLUDING HINTS ON PLANTING. 



PLANTS to be brought from a low -lying sheltered 

 situation, or from a rich to a poor soil, should always 

 be planted at least one season in a nursery in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of where they are to be 

 planted permanently. 



Small plants of all sorts should be lifted and trans- 

 planted annually preparatory to finally planting out ; 

 by this means luxuriousness of growth is prevented, 

 and a greater number of fibres is produced than by 

 allowing the plants to stand two or three years without 

 removal. 



Plants, till they are sufficiently strong and tall, 

 should be kept clear of long grasses, brakes, whins, 

 &c., as these grow over the young plants, inducing 

 them to grow bent or crooked. 



The forester's footpick (fig. 1, p. 10) is a most suffi- 

 cient instrument in the hands of an able-bodied man, 

 and can be used with great advantage in preparing the 

 ground for planting. It is not used in excavating the 

 earth so as to form a pit, but merely to break the soil 

 and subsoil to a depth of 2 feet ; and by entering it 

 three times around where the plant is to be planted, 



