MAY. 



205 



ly covered to prevent excessive evaporation. Attention will 

 be requisite to prevent the plant suffering from drought. 



" If the soil is of a very inferior description, some addition- 

 al care will be required in preparing for planting ; that at 

 least for the immediate reception of each tree should be 

 wholly removed, and to a depth of at least eight or ten 

 inches below where it has been trenched. Such additional 

 depth must be filled with some rough porous material, as 

 stones or broken bricks, to act as drainage to the soil above, 

 and from which a drain must lead to the nearest convenient 

 outlet. And something — a few sods of turf with the grassy 

 side downwards are as good as anything — must be placed 

 above the draining materials, to prevent the soil from being 

 carried down and obstructing its action. And in trenching 

 the entire space, it will be requisite to observe that the bot- 

 tom gradually declines from the outside, to the drainage in 

 the centre, the better to prevent the accumulation of stagnant 

 moisture, a condition which every means should be taken to 

 obviate. In preparing the situation for the trees, whether in 

 adding new soil or otherwise, allowance must be made for 

 subsidence ; that the tree, when all is thoroughly settled, 

 shall stand on a slight elevation, but only a slight one. The 

 practice of planting on high mounds is objectionable on many 

 points. Its supposed advantages can be much better secured 

 by drainage. 



" Where the positions for trees are prepared in a soil nat- 

 urally retentive of moisture, a thorough system of drainage 

 is altogether indispensable. In the absence of such precau- 

 tionary measures, each spot would become but a receptacle 

 for water, without the means of allowing it to pass off ex- 

 cept by evaporation. The new soil would be reduced to 

 the condition of mud, and the progress of the plants wholly 

 prevented, and death, in some form or other, in many instan- 

 ces ensue." 



These observations are to the point, and, if carefully fol- 

 lowed, will lead to complete success in transplanting ever- 

 green trees. Because pines and firs will grow on a light 

 sandy soil, it does not follow that no pains should be taken 



