68 HOLING AND PITTING. 



wide planting are that field labor is faciliated and the 

 shrubs grow larger, the disadvantage being that more 

 room is left for weeds. 



Around or beside each stake a hole is next dug, its 

 size depending much upon the kind of soil ; in stiff or 

 poor land two feet each way is not too large, but in good 

 light ground eighteen inches will suffice, but they had 

 better be too deep than not deep enough. The imple- 

 ment commonly used for this purpose is a kind of grub- 

 bing-hoe or spade-bar. The earth thrown out is usually 

 left to mellow until just before planting, after which the 

 hole is filled in with the best of the mould, which must 

 have been previously carefully freed from stones, roots 

 and other extraneous matter, and mixed with a little 

 manure. The filling-in must be done very lightly and 

 the loose earth should rise in a heap above the hole. 

 This operation is best performed while the ground is 

 moist, but it is also a good plan to break down the sides 

 somewhat, more especially if they are hardened. 



When the holes have been duly prepared the young 

 plants are removed from the nursery with the same care 

 as they are transplanted to the nursery from the seed- 

 beds ; for taking up the young plants an ordinary prong is 

 much superior to the spade-bar, but hand-pulling must 

 be rigidly guarded against. The fibrous roots of each 

 plant as taken up are carefully pruned off to about four 

 inches so that they may not be doubled up in the plant- 

 ing, the tap-root being also shortened to about nine 

 inches by a clean sloping cut for the same reason, and a 

 ball of earth should surround the roots and if the plants 



