GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



27 



deposited in layers. Stones, roots, and weeds are removed. 

 When the season for planting arrives, all that has to be done 

 is to level down the soil, giving it a second and final turning. 

 Although we are not partial to the use of dung-heap manure 

 in nurseries, nevertheless, soils of inferior quality must be 

 improved by the addition of slowly-decomposing materials, 

 which will impart to them the elements in which they are 

 deficient, and secure a vigorous growth to the plants. Such 

 are road scrapings, deposits of streams, stable refuse, old 

 mortar or plaster, garden rubbish, old bones and horns, 

 cinders, parings off meadows, sand, &c, all which are to be 

 mixed and spread long before the time of planting. 



Planting, 



A. young, compact, well-rooted plant should be selected. If 

 more than one year old, it should have been transplanted. 

 Before planting, it is dressed, that is, its roots and branches 

 are pruned and cleaned. The stem should be cut down to 

 about ten inches from the collar, if the graft is to be low down, 

 and about four inches in cases of stocks for standards. 

 The side branches should be cut away, or rather shortened. 

 Evergreens and certain kinds with hollow wood, as the sweet 

 and horse chestnuts, the walnut, and the tulip-tree, should not 

 be topped. The trees should be planted in rows, so that those 

 of each successive row may be opposite the spaces of the 

 preceding one, and at distances calculated according to the 

 future size of the subjects. A space of twenty inches between 

 the plants, and thirty inches between the rows, is the average 

 in well-kept nurseries. This may be increased or diminished 

 as the plant is likely to branch much or not, and in proportion 

 to the length of time it is to remain in the nursery. The 

 planting is done with a dibble or spade. If it is carried 

 on slowly, or in a time of great heat, the roots of all the plants 



