cruickshank's practical planter. 343 



the ground to receive the root ; and omng to the 

 portability of the tool, and its occupying but one of 

 the hands, the person that works it requires no as- 

 sistant, but, carrying a parcel of plants in a wallet 

 before him, he singles out one with his left hand, 

 inserts it in the notch, withdraws the implement, 

 fixes the plant with his heel, and proceeds with as 

 much apparent ease as if he were performing the 

 operation in the soft ground of the nursery. In this 

 way of planting, the workman goes forward in such 

 a line as he can judge of by his eye ; and as it is 

 extremely difficult to see the plants after they are 

 put in, especially if the heath is pretty long, he sets 

 up poles in the first line, to enable him to keep the 

 second a due distance from it ; and in planting the 

 last mentioned, he removes these poles into it as he 

 comes opposite to them, which then serve as his 

 guide in planting the third ; and thus he proceeds 

 till he cover the whole ground. The lines thus 

 formed are necessarily so zig-zag, that when the 

 trees grow up, they do not seem to have been plant- 

 ed in rows. 



" In this way, an expert workman vdll plant be- 

 tween three and four thousand young plants a-day, 

 and do it so perfectly, that the fault will not be his 

 if a single individual of the whole number fail to 



