950 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



without help from another : it is oniy useful when small plants are used, and in hilly or rocky situations.*^ 

 {Plant. Kal. Pref. xxiv.) 



6848. Pontey prefers planting by pitting, in general cases ; the holes being made during the preceding 

 summer or winter, sufficiently large, but not so deep into a retentive sub-soil as to render them a receptacle 

 for water. When the plants have been brought from a distance he strongly recommends puddling them 

 (6849.) previously to planting; if they seem very much dried, it would be still better to lay them in the 

 ground for eight or ten days, giving them a good soaking of water every second or third day, in order to 

 restore their vegetable powers ; for it well deserves notice, that a degree of moisture in ^oil sufficient to 

 support a plant recently or immediately taken from the norsen,-, would, in the case of dried ones, prove so 

 far insufficient, that most of them would die in it. The puddling here recommended may also be of great 

 service in all cases of late planting where small plants are used ; my method is (after puddling) to tie them 

 in bundles, of two or three hundreds each ; and thus send them, by a cart-load at once, to where wanted j 

 where such bundles being set upright, close to each other, and a little straw carefully applied to the 

 outsides of them, may remain without damage in a sheltered situation any reasonable time necessary 

 to plant them. Where loose soil happens to be convenient, that should be substituted in the place 

 of straw. 



6849. A puddle for trees is made by mixing water with any soil rather tenacious, so intimately as to 

 form a complete puddle, so thick that when the plants are dipped into it enough may remain upon the roots 

 to cover them. The process of puddling is certainly simple, and its expense too trifling to deserve notice : 

 its effects, however, in retaining, if not attracting moisture, are such that, by means of it, late planting is 

 rendered abundantly more safe that it otherwise would be. It is an old invention, and hence it is truly 

 astonishing that it is not more frequently practised. If we could but persuade people to adopt it generally 

 in spring planting, I beheve the prejudice in favor of autumn practice would soon be done awav. {Prof, 

 Plant. 167.) 



6850. Pontey' s tnefhods of planting are in general the same as those of Sang : he uses a mattock and 

 planter of similar shape ; and also a two or three pronged instrument, which we have elsewhere denomin- 

 ated the planter's hack. (1305. fig. 90.) " This instrument," he says, " has been introduced of late years as 

 an improvement on the mattock and planter {fig 635. b, c), being better adapted to soils full of roots," stones, 

 &c. ; they are likewise easier to work, as they penetrate to an equal depth with a stroke less violent than 

 the former : they are also less subject to be clogged up by a wet or tenacious soil. The length of the prongs 

 ©f both should be about eight inches, and the distances between them, when with three prongs, one and a 

 half, and with two prongs, about two inches ; the two-pronged hack should be made somewhat stronger 

 than the other, it being chiefly intended for very stony lands, or where the soil wants breaking, in order 

 to separate it from the herbage, &c. These tools are chiefly applicable to plants of any size up to about 

 two feet, or such as are generally used for great designs, where they are used as a substitute for the spade, 

 in the following manner : The planter being provided with a basket holding the plants required i^the holes 

 being supposed prepared, and the earth left in them), he takes a tree in one hand, and the tool in the other, 

 which he strikes into the hole, and tlien pulls the earth towards him, so as to make a hole large enough to 

 hold all its roots ; he then puts in the plant with the other, and pushes the earth to its roots with the back 

 of the planter ; after which, he fixes the plant, and levels the soil at the same instant with his foot : so 

 that the operation is performed by one person, with a degree of neatness and expedition which no one can 

 attain to who uses the spade. It is known to all planters, that but few laborers ever learn to plant well 

 and expeditiously in the common method, without an assistant : this method, however, requires neither 

 help nor dexterity; as any laborer of common sagacity, or boy of fifteen, or even a woman, may learn to- 

 perform it well in less than half an hour. The facility with which these tools will break clods,"clear the 

 noles of stones, or separate the soil from herbage, the roots of heath, &c. (the former being previously mel- 

 lowed by the frost,) may be easily imagined." {Prof. Plant. 173.) The adoption of a small mattock for in- 

 serting plants, we recollect to have seen recommended in a tract on planting in the Highlands, by Mac- 

 laurin, a nurseryman, pubhshed at Edinburgh upwards of twenty years ago. 



6851. An expeditious mode of slit planting is described in the General Report of Scot- 

 land, as having been practised for many years on the Duke of Montrose's estate. It is 

 as follows ; " The operator, with his spade, makes three cuts, twelve or fifteen inches 

 long, crossing each other in the centre, at an angle of sixty degrees, the whole having 

 the form of a star. {fig. 636.) He inserts his spade across one of the rays {a), a few inches 

 from the centre, and on the side next himself ; then bending the handle towards him- 

 self, and almost to the ground, the earth opening in fissures from the centre in the di- 

 rection of the cuts which had been made, he, at the same instant, inserts his plant at 

 the point where the spade intersected the ray {a), pushing it forward to the centre, and 

 assisting the roots in rambling through the fissures. He then lets down the earth by re- 

 moving his spade, having pressed it into a compact state with his heel ; the operation is finished by adding 

 a little earth, with the grass side down, completely covering the fissures, for the purpose of retaining the 

 moisture at the root, and likewise as a top-dressing, which greatly encourages the plant to push fresh roots 

 between the swards." (Vol.ii. p. 283.) 



Chap. IV. 



On forming Plantations, in which Omamejit or Effect is the leading Consideratum. 



6852. In designing omainental ^plantations, the situation, form, the disposition of the 

 frees, and the kinds employed, are the principal considerations. 



6853. The sittiations to be planted, with a view to effect, necessarily depends on the 

 kind of effect intended ; these may reduced to three ~ to give beauty and variety to ge- 

 neral scenery, as in forming plantations here and there throughout a demesne ; to give 

 form and character to a country-residence, as in planting a park and pleasure-grounds ; 

 and to create a particular and independent beauty or effect, as in planting an extensive 

 area or wood, unconnected with any other object, and disposing of the interior in ave- 

 nues, glades, and other forms. In the two first cases, the choice of the situation must 

 always be relative to other objects ; as, for example, in ornamenting general scenery, to 

 fields and enclosures, buildings, roads, &c. ; and to the mansion-garden and other parts 

 of a residence, in laying out a country-seat : but in forming independent plantations the 

 choice may be absolute, and guided by no other consideration than tlie effect to be pro- 

 duced. One of the greatest beauties produced by planting, either on general scenery-, or 

 on the grounds of a residence, is that of varying the forai of the surface of the country 



