108 OF SHRUBS, SHRUBBERIES, &C. SECT, IX. 



autumn and fpring ought not to be meddled with in 

 harfh weather: drying winds are apt prefently to in- 

 jure their roots. It is a good rule, let the weather 

 be what it will, and the forts what they may, to expofe 

 the roots to the air no longer than can be helped ; ever- 

 greens fhould therefore be immediately planted after 

 they are taken up, and their roots alfo very carefully 

 preferved whole. And if the fhrubs are fmall, and it 

 can be, let them be removed with balls of earth to 

 them, trimming off projefting ends. 



As jhrubberies, clumps, &c. are often made on poor 

 or indifferent ground, the foil fhould be previoufly 

 cleared, well dug, and trenched, and that as long before 

 planting as may be. For fpring planting, this prepara- 

 tion work ought to be done in autumn or in winter, that 

 the foil may have the benefit of frofts, and other helps 

 from the atmofphere, which is a circumftance of much 

 confequence in the cafe. 



Tillage not only faves manure, but is fuperior to it, 

 where time can be allowed exhaufted ground. In 

 planting Jhrubs and trees, it is defirable to do without 

 dung, as much as poffible; and therefore a little foot, 

 or turf-ajhes, &c. fprinkled over the ridges of trenched 

 ground, is good ; and if the trenches were turned over 

 once a month, the advantage in fuccefs would be fully 

 anfwerable to the trouble. 



As fpring is, on the whole, rather the fitteft time 

 for moving evergreen fhrubs, and as the deciduous forts 

 do then alfo very well, Jhrubberries and clumps will 

 properly enough be the work of March i , a little earlier 

 or later, according to the foil and feafon. Light fandy 

 foils fliould always be planted in good time, and any 

 fair weather that appears fettled, fliould not be neg~ 

 lefted : the beginning of April, however, is by fome 

 Teckoned the bed feafon for planting fhrubs. A good 

 n.edium way is to plant the deciduous forts the begin- 

 ning of March; and, leaving places for the evergreen 

 kinds, plant them the end of March or the beginning 



