VIII. 
ON PIT PLANTING AND PLANTING ON 
PREPARED GROUND. 
Pit planting. —This is the mode generally resorted to in 
planting the various kinds of two-year transplanted hardwood 
trees, where the soil is generally deeper, richer, and better 
sheltered than that usually planted with pinés. The more 
capacious the pits are formed, the roots of the plants can be 
the better spread, and have the greater extent of loose soil, 
—circumstances necessary for their early growth. Pits are 
usually made eighteen inches wide and fifteen inches deep ; 
and that size is usually contracted for at 1s. to 1s. 6d. per 
100, according to the nature of the ground, etc. In hard 
soil it is usual to disturb the bottom of the pit with a pick 
beyond the above depth. When plants beyond the age of 
two-year transplanted are employed, the pits must be made 
large in proportion to the size of the plants. Pits should be 
made a few months before the plants are inserted; and, in 
forming them, after the bottom is made quite soft, the surface 
‘sward should be filled in first, chopped, and covered up to 
the depth of five or six inches with the soil, which will be 
considerably decomposed by the time the plants are to be 
planted. In case, however, the surface sward is very thick 
and matted, and the ground dry, and more especially in the 
case of larch planting, the best method is to lay aside the 
surface turf, and, at the time of planting, to divide it into two 
halves ; one half, with the surface side under, should then 
be placed on each side of the plant, after it is planted. It is 
usual to plant ground moderately dry and sheltered in the 
beginning of winter; and when the soil is of an opposite 
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