420 



THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



FIG. 124. 



Mr M'Glashan of Edinburgh has invented several smaller trans- 

 planting machines on. the same principle as shown in figs. 118 and 119 

 that is, by employing a number of strong iron spades, which are 

 attached to a frame and driven into the ground surrounding the plant 

 to be lifted, and at a certain distance from it, according to the size of 

 the plant. A sketch of one size of these machines is shown in fig. 



124, one of which I have in use. 

 The frame a has a point at each 

 corner. The frame is laid round 

 the plant and fastened together ; 

 then four large spades 6 are 

 placed inside the frame and 

 driven into the soil, keeping them 

 upright. When the spades have 

 been put down as far as they 

 can be put, two iron rods are 

 passed through the handles of the spades, as shown at c. These rods 

 have holes in them, into which pins are inserted. The heads of the 

 spades are thrown back, and kept in that position by the pins. The 

 object in throwing the heads of the spades back is to make the ball of 

 earth narrower at the bottom than at the top. Two hooks d are placed 

 on each side of the frame to receive the wooden handles e, when the 

 plant can be lifted by two men, or more if it is large. The plant is 

 carried in this way to its ultimate site. 



These machines are made of different sizes, to suit the various dimen- 

 sions of balls of trees to be operated on. The prices are for an appara- 

 tus to lift a twenty- two-inch ball, 18, 5s. ; for lifting a thirty-inch ball, 

 20 ; and one made capable of lifting either size costs 25. 



In lifting trees with this apparatus, no previous preparation of the 

 tree is required ; no trench being dug round it, as in the case of other 

 transplanters. The machine is set on the surface with the tree in its 

 centre, and the spades are then driven down as far as they will go ; 

 they are then pressed outwards at the top, so as to cause the lower 

 portions of the spades to move towards each other; this causes the 

 ball to be narrower at the bottom than the top, and consequently in 

 after operations it cannot slip from the machine. After this is done, 

 the screws are worked, which gradually pull the tree, with a large ball, 

 out of the earth; and in this way the whole is removed to its future 

 site, and lowered by the screws into another pit previously prepared 

 for it. 



In the figures given of this description of machine (figs. 118 and 111)) 

 is shown one suitable for lifting trees with balls of earth of a size about 



