642 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



puddling here recommended may also be of gi-eat service in all cases of late planting 

 where small plants are used : Pontey's method is (after puddling) to tie them in bundles 

 of two or three hundreds each ; and thus send them, by a cart-load at once, to their 

 destination ; where, being set upright close to each other, and a little straw carefully 

 applied to their outsides, such bundles may remain without damage in a sheltered situa- 

 tion for any reasonable time necessary to plant them. Where loose soil happens to be 

 convenient, that should be substituted in the place of straw. 



3952. Pontey's methods of planting are in general the same as those of Sang : he uses 

 a mattock and planter of similar shape ; and also a two or three pronged instrument, which 

 we have elsewhere denominated the planter s hack. (Encyc. of Gard. 1305.) " This in- 

 strument," he says, " has been introduced of late years as an improvement on the mattock 

 and planter, being better adapted to soils full of roots, stones, &c. ; it is likewise 

 easier to work, as it penetrates to an equal depth with a stroke less violent than the for- 

 mer : it is also less subject to be clogged up by a wet or tenacious soil. The length of 

 the prongs should be about eight inches, and the distances between them, when with three 

 prongs, one and a half, and with two prongs, about two inches : the two-pronged hack 

 should be made somewhat stronger than the other, it being chiefly intended for very 

 stony lands, or whei:e the soil wants breaking, in order to separate it from the herbage, 

 &c. These tools are chiefly applicable to plants of any size up to about two feet, or such 

 as are generally used for great designs, and they are used as substitutes for the spade, in 

 the following maimer : The planter being provided with a basket holding the plants re- 

 quired (the holes being supposed prepared, and the earth left in them), he takes a tree in 

 one hand, and the tool in the other, which he strikes into the hole, and then pulls the 

 earth towards him, so as to make a hole large enough to hold all its roots ; he then puts 

 in the plant with the other, and pushes the earth to its roots with the back of the planter ; 

 after which, he fixes the plant, and levels the soil at the same instant with his foot, so 

 that the operation is performed by one person, with a degree of neatness and expedition 

 which no one can attain to who uses the spade. It is known to all planters, that but few 

 labourers ever learn to plant well and expeditiously in the common method, without an 

 assistant ; this method, however, requires neither help nor dexterity, as any labourer of 

 common sagacity, or boy of fifteen, or even a woman, may learn to perform it well in less 

 than half an hour. The facility with which these tools will break clods, clear the holes 

 of stones, or separate the soil from herbage, the roots of heath, &c. (the former being 

 previously mellowed by the frost), may be easily imagined." {Prof Plant. 173.) The 

 adoption of a small mattock for inserting plants, we recollect to have seen recommended in 

 a tract on planting in the Highlands, by M'Laurin, a nurseryman, published at Edinburgh 

 upwards of twenty years ago. 



3&53. An expeditious mode of slit-planting is described in the General Report of Scot- 

 land, as having been practised for many years on the duke of Montrose's estate. 

 It is as follows : " The operator, with his spade, makes three cuts, twelve or fifteen 

 inches long, crossing each other in the centre, at an angle of sixty degrees, the whole 

 591 having the form of a star. {fig. 591.) He inserts his spade across one 



of the rays (a), a few inches from the centre, and on the side next 

 himself; then bending the handle towards himself, and alm.ost to the 

 ground, the earth opening in fissures from the centre in the direction 

 of the cuts which had been made, he, at the same instant, inserts his 

 plant at the point where the spade intersected the ray (a), pushing it 

 forward to the centre, and assisting the roots in rambling through the 

 fissures. He then lets down the earth by removing his spade, having pressed it into 

 a compact state with his heel ; the operation is finished by adding a little earth, with the 

 grass side down, completely covering the fissures, for the purpose of retaining the 

 moisture at the root and likewise as a top-dressing, which greatly encourages the plant 

 to push fresh roots between the swards." (Vol. ii. p. 283.) 



3954. The transplantation of large trees is a subject more properly belonging to 

 landscape-gardening than to agriculture ; but it may not be improper shortly to notice 

 the principles of the practice in this place. As the stability of a large tree depends in a 

 great measure on its ramose roots extending themselves on every side, as a base to the super- 

 structure, so, in preparing the tree for removal, these roots should be cut at as great a 

 distance from the stem as can conveniently be accomplished. As the nourishment 

 drawn up by a tree depends on the number of its fibrous roots, it is desirable, a year or 

 two before removal, to concentrate these fibres, by limiting their production to such 

 ramose roots as can be removed with the tree. Cut a circular trench, therefore, round 

 the tree to be removed, at a greater or less distance, according to the size of the tree, 

 and the exposure in which it is to be planted. Remove the earth from this trench, 

 and also a good part of that which covers the roots which remain between the trench 

 and the trunk. Substitute well pulverised rich soil ; or mix the better part of what 

 was taken out of the trench and off* the surface with rich soil ; replace it, and press the 



