GRUBBING. 317 



belonging to them. In these cases, the dog-iron and 

 lever are applied to wrench them off. The dog is a 

 strong hook having a straight shank ten or twelve 

 inches long, with an eye in which a stout ring tra- 

 verses. The lever passes through the ring, and when 

 raised upright its lower end abutting on the base of 

 the root, and the dog fixed above it is pulled down 

 by the rope attached to its upper end. The dog and 

 lever save much labour in doubling wedges and 

 beetling ; and with the assistance of the large wooden 

 wedge, which drops down in the cleft while the lever 

 is worked, greatly facilitates the division of the root. 



The further duty of the grubber is to level the 

 ground and stack the roots. This last is placing 

 them on a level surface in stacks closely piled toge- 

 ther three feet in width and height, and as long as 

 there are roots to fill up. Every four feet in length 

 is accounted a stack ; and by the number of which 

 the grubber is paid according to the value. The 

 wages being always somewhat less than what the 

 roots will sell for, viz. from four to six shillings per 

 stack. 



Grubbers prefer taking up roots in the second or 

 third year after the tree is felled ; because the fibres 

 are then all dead and have lost hold of the soil, and 

 then also the root is not so much decayed as to refuse 

 the action of the wedges. A doated, or rotten root, 

 is much more difficult to be split in pieces than one 

 that is sound. 



Longevity of Trees. It has already been men- 



