cruickshank's practical planter. 849 



inevitably thrown out." — " These remarks have re- 

 ference only to the system of planting by notching: 

 when the pitting system is adopted, it fixes the plant 

 so thoroughly, as to render the utmost power of frost 

 incapable of doing them any injury." — " The utmost 

 limits of the planting season may be estimated from 

 the middle of October to the middle of March." — ■ 

 " I am a decided advocate for thick planting, and 

 would advise that no fewer than 3000 trees per acre 

 be planted in good land, nor a less number than 

 4000 when the soil is of a middling or inferior qua- 

 lity.*' 



Mr Cruickshank must surely have had little ac- 

 quaintance with soft, spongy, close-bottomed soils, 

 or he would not have asserted that pit-planted trees 

 are not subject to be throw^n. If planted in the early 

 part of winter or autumn, trees of the usual size, 

 which have remained from one to three years in the 

 nursery line, are very frequently thrown from such 

 soils. This is caused by the freezing earth first 

 catching fast hold of the plant at the surface, and 

 afterwards swelling underneath from the enlarge- 

 ment of the freezing water in its pores, and from 

 the open crystallized honeycomb arrangement which 

 takes place by congelation. As the stem is fast to 



