20 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



however," adds he, "this special precaution — that to which- 

 soeyer side it inclined or leaned at first, let it incline to 

 the same side in its new situation/' It is true, these 

 directions are given for trees bearing fruit, but we may 

 fairly conclude that they equally applied to forest trees ; 

 and it would be well for modern planters were their prac- 

 tice not more defective than that of Anatolius. 



The account given by Seneca of the Roman practice is 

 greatly more circumstantial. " There are two methods,'' he 

 says, in the letter above mentioned, " according to which 

 my friend plants his olive ground, {olivetum) The one is, 

 by removing trees of a large size, and making the planta- 

 tion at once ; the other is by planting sets, of which the 

 progress is necessarily much slower. According to the 

 former mode, the first thing to be done is to cut ofi* all 

 the branches, to the distance of a foot from the trunk. 

 The next thing is to do the same by the lateral roots, 

 leaving nothing entire except the body of the root, from 

 which the fibres issue. The tree is next placed in the pit, 

 with a sufiicient quantity of manure, and mould is thrown in 

 and consolidated by the most assiduous pressure and firm 

 treading with the foot. Nothing, as my friend conceives, 

 is more efi&cacious than this way of giving solidity and 

 consistency to the earth round the stem. It excludes both 

 cold and drought, and preserves the tree from the ill 

 effects of wind ; as it is obvious that the slightest agitation 

 has a tendency to strain the tender fibres, and prevent 

 them from striking properly in the ground, and going forth 

 in search of their food. Last of all, before filling in the 

 earth, he scrapes or cleans that part of the root which is 

 nearest the surface ; because his idea is, that from every 

 part so treated and laid bare new growths and fibres are 

 immediately sent out. By the above process, as there are 



* Note VIL 



