418 



APPENDIX. 



:ng. A little extra labor aiid cost expended in preparing the soil will, 

 fiw a long time, secure a surprising rapidity of growtli.* 



In the actual planting of the tree, tlie eliief point lies ia bringing 

 overy small fibre in contact with the soil, so that no hollows or inter- 

 stices are left, which may produce mouldiness and decay of the roots. 

 To avoid this, the soil must be pulverized with the spade before filling 

 in, and one of the workmen, with his hands and a flat dibble of wood, 

 should fill up all cavities, and lay out the small roots before covering 

 them in their natural position. When watering is thought advisable 

 (and we practise it almost invariably), it should always be done while 

 the planting is going forward. Poured in the hole when the roots are 

 just covered with the soil, it serves to settle the loose earth compactly 



* Where expense is not so much an object as success, we cannot too deeply 

 impress upon planters the necessity of making very deep, and very wide holes, 

 or pits, as they are called in England. These pits should be four to five feet 

 deep, and not less than ten to sixteen feet in diameter, and neither round nor 

 sqtuire,'bnt star-shaped, or cross-shaped, of such a form as would be produced 

 by placing one equilateral triangle upon another, or two parallelograms across 

 oaoli other, so as to form u Greek cross. 



The object of departing from the square, or round form, is to introduce the 

 growing fibres of the young trees into the firm and poor soil, Try degrees, and 

 not all at once, as in the round or square-hole manner. 



When a tree is planted in the round or square pit, surrounded outside of it 

 by poor, hard soil, it is very much in the same situation as if its roots were 

 confined in a tub or box. 



Tho dove-tailing, so to speak, of the prepared soil, and of the moisture it 

 will retain, with the hard, impenetrable soil by which it is surrounded, will 

 grraclunlly prepare the latter for being penetrated by the roots of the trees, and. 

 pcovout tho sides of the pit from giving the same check to those roots, which 

 the sides of the pot or tub do to the plant contained in it. In tho preparation 

 of these holes, the lower spot, or hard-pan, should bo thrown out, and ten to 

 twelve inches of stone substituted, for the double purpose of drainoge, and 

 retention of moisture in dry weather. — H. W. S. 



