PLANTING IN HOLES. 313 



■which the holes are made may, if necessary, be previously ploughed 

 or dug up. When there has been no previous tillage, it may be 

 necessary to cut or shave away strong weeds and bushes for a foot 

 or so round the planting places. In any case, the holes will 

 never be made except just before the planting material is put in. 

 The depth of the hole may exceed the length of the portion of the 

 plant to be buried in order to encourage the rapid downward 

 extension of the roots, the soil from the bottom being replaced 

 with good soil or manure. 



Putting down the plants. If the hole has been made with 

 the soil-dagger, it need not be filled up at all, but closed by push- 

 ing the same implement into the ground an inch or two off, as 

 shown in Fig. 106, and then, by simple leverage, pressing the 

 intermediate earth up against the plant until the two opposite edges 

 of the hole meet. To render the result more certain, the second 

 hole may also be closed in the same manner as the first by a similar 

 manipulation of the dagger. 



Otherwise the holes should be fiUed up -with good soil or with 

 manure. In putting down rooted plants into the holes, to prevent 

 the thin flexible roots, especially the extremities, fi-om being caught 

 up against the side of the holes, the root should first be dipped 

 into thin mud or manure, which wiU weight them sufficiently to 

 enable them sHp into the the holes without any mishap. 



Value and employment of the method. Under a canopy 

 of high trees, in a naturally loose rich soil, this method will 

 yield excellent results ; also if the soil has been previously worked 

 up and the material used consists of cuttings of species that 

 strike easily or of seedlings that belong to species which, hke 

 teak, produce a long vigorous taproot, but cannot generally be 

 successfully transplanted except as germ seedlings. In these cir- 

 cumstances, it can be used in almost any soil that is not Uable to 

 be overrun with strong weeds. In places free from climatic 

 extremes it is specially well adapted for sandy soils in large open 

 wastes, in recent coupes, &c. It is the only method employed for 

 cuttings of the class of unpruned rods, and even posts may be put 

 out by it in favourable soils. But the method requires much 

 daring in the conception, combined with great judgment and 

 resource in the execution. When it succeeds, the first cost is 

 hardly greater than that of direct sowing, while the cost of repairs 

 and maintenance is noticeably less. 



