104 HAND-BOOK OF TREE-PLANTING. 



to make any further remarks about the pro- 

 cess of planting unnecessary. And yet mis- 

 takes are so often made in regard to this 

 matter, and failure and disappointment are so 

 often entailed as the consequence, that a few 

 words still may not be superfluous. 



If, as we have said, the roots contain the 

 mouths of the trees, the organs by which 

 they take in their nourishment and secure 

 their growth, then the more widely these 

 mouths are diffused through the ground, and 

 the more intimately they are brought into con- 

 tact with the soil and the plant-food which it 

 contains, the more certain and vigorous will 

 be their growth. Hence the need, already inti- 

 mated, that the ground should be mellow and 

 minutely subdivided, so that the trees may 

 easily push out their rootlets to the utmost 

 extent, and that the soil may be brought into 

 closest contact with them. 



This indicates the course to be pursued at 

 the time of planting. It is not enough that a 

 hole be made of barely sufficient size to admit 

 the roots of the tree as they then are, very 

 likely diminished from their natural amount 



