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cient to command the tree at once, eight or nine persons at 

 the least, taking care to secure the bark of the stem, by 

 various folds of mat, interposed between it and the turns of 

 the rope. When the tree has been sufficiently bent down 

 towards the proper quarter, let the director of the work 

 minutely examine where the ground rents on the lee side, 

 and order an opening to be made at the place, with as little 

 injury as possible to the roots, of a foot or eighteen inches 

 long, and of half the width. While the tree is held in the 

 heeling position, heavy masses of green-sward are then 

 procured, as large as can be lifted with the spade, and 

 rammed into the opening, firmly treading them in with the 

 foot, or securing them, if needful, with the beater. If this be 

 done in April, before the sap flows abundantly, no damage 

 will be suffered by the bark, and little by the roots. As the 

 position of the tree is reversed in the planting, and the long- 

 est branches, and consequently the longest roots, are turned 

 to the stormy quarter, you will probably have no further 

 trouble with it ; although a second revision of its position is 

 always advisable, in the spring of the following year. 



Upon the whole, this is a work, which, according to the 

 preservative system, is so seldom necessary, that the mention 

 of it in this place might seem superfluous. But, in a body of 

 instructions, intended for general use, it is advisable to guard 

 against every contingency. In respect to the propping or 

 supporting of trees with wood, or ropes, or other materials, 

 which, with many planters, forms a principal and important 

 branch of their afterwork, it is wholly unknown at this place. 

 Indeed, whoever considers the method of securing the roots 

 above delineated, will perceive, that such adventitious and 

 unsightly contrivances are altogether superseded by that 

 method. During the course of thirty years, as already men- 

 tioned, we have never had a tree Vjlown down, and rarely one 

 displaced from its original position ; and it is probably to the 

 undisturbed state of the roots, owing to that circumstance. 



