PLANTING. 



216 



PLANTING. 



soil is consolidated by watering. On 

 the contrary, it must be left of such 

 a height above it, as that when the 

 soil is finally consolidated by its own 

 gravity, influenced by the weather, 

 the neck shall still be above the ge- 

 neral surface of the ground, and the 

 plant stand on a small hillock. This 

 condition of planting cannot be too 

 carefully attended to ; for nothing can 

 be more injurious to transplanted 

 plants than having the neck buried 

 more than it was in a natural state. 

 Nothing is more common than too 

 deep planting ; and the temptation 

 to it is the greater because deep- 

 planted plants, from having the roots 

 more accessible to moisture, are more 

 certain of growing the first year, and 

 are less in want of mulching to ex- 

 clude the heat and drought, and of 

 staking to prevent them from being 

 moved by the wind. Hence, in 

 planting trees or shrubs, it is of the 

 greatest importance, not only with a 

 view to their future growth, hut also 

 to their natural appearance above the 

 surface, to have them planted on 

 little hillocks, greater or less in height 

 according as the soil may have been 

 moved to a greater or less depth, 

 either in the operation of digging the 

 pit in firm soil, or in planting in soil 

 which has been moved by digging, or 

 trenching, or otherwise. In small 

 gardens it is generally desirable, for 

 the sake of producing immediate 

 effect, to plant plants of considerable 

 size ; and in this case, in addition to 

 the precautions which have been al- 

 ready mentioned, it is desirable to 

 plant by what is called fixing with 

 water. This operation is performed 

 in the following manner : the hole 

 being properly prepared, the plant 

 placed in it, and the roots spread out 

 on every side and extended as far as 

 they will go, one person holds the 

 plant upright, a second sprinkles earth 

 over the roots, and a third supplies 



water from a watering-pot with a rose 

 on if the plant be small, and without 

 a rose if it be a tree of six feet or 

 eight feet in height, holding the pot 

 as high above his head as his arms 

 will reach. The weight of the water 

 coming down from such a height con- 

 solidates the soil about the roots, and 

 fixes them in such a manner, as to 

 render the plant, if it has been care- 

 fully taken up, almost in the same state 

 as it was in before removing. Large 

 trees or shrubs, if planted in this man- 

 ner in the autumn, and staked, where 

 there is danger from high winds, 

 will grow, and even flower and fruit, 

 the following year, as well as if they 

 had not been removed. In this kind 

 of planting with large plants, the hil- 

 lock, left after the operation is finished, 

 should not be less than a foot or 

 eighteen inches above the surround- 

 ing surface ; and to lessen evapora- 

 tion during the ensuing summer, the 

 hillock should, if possible, be covered 

 with short litter, moss, turf turned 

 upside down, or even small stones, for 

 the first year. In staking large plants 

 of this kind, the stakes should be 

 placed close to the stem of the plant, 

 in which position they are much less 

 likely to injure the fibrous-roots than 

 when placed at a distance from the 

 tree ; and the stakes should be made 

 fast to the stem of the plant by a 

 piece of straw or hay rope, or by a 

 piece of twisted matting, or any kind 

 of cord ; the part of the stem to 

 which the stake is tied, having pre- 

 viously had a small handful of straw, 

 or moss, or mat, bound round it to 

 prevent the tie from galling the bark 

 of the stem, and preventing its in- 

 crease during summer. These stakes 

 should remain for a year or sometimes 

 two years, according to the size of the 

 plant and its facility of making roots, 

 In general, the sooner the stakes are 

 taken away the better; because the 

 motion of the stem by the wind is es- 



