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THE planter's GUIDE. 



lopping practice, and the confident opinion entertained 

 that it was indispensable to success. 



At this early period I possessed little skill in the 

 business of preparing or taking up the trees. I had no 

 implements beyond common spades and shovels for the 

 latter purpose : neither had I any proper machinery for 

 safe and speedy transportation. A number of men, how- 

 ever, being set to work, sledges, trundles, carts, and even 

 wheelbarrows were pressed into the service ; by which 

 methods a few were removed with difficulty, and at a con- 

 siderable expense. 



Some years after this, I tried other subjects from forest 

 glades, or open spaces in the interior of woods, where the 

 trees were much taller and handsomer. Their disposition 

 having been pretty open, and the lightness of the soil 

 affording good rooting-ground, their roots and fibres had 

 struck more abundantly than in the other subjects just 

 now mentioned. Their bark, likewise, appeared more 

 sound and healthy, and free from the coarse and rugged 

 surface which was remarkable in the hedgerow plants. 

 For these reasons they were the subjects from which I 

 anticipated the most certain success. This took place 

 more than thirty years ago. 



It may easily be imagined that, in these rude attempts, 

 many deaths occurred, and that a small number only 

 outlived the operation ; but the lessons which were 

 derived from them, after standing on the open ground for 

 four or five years, were very instructive. I shall most 

 probably surprise the young planter (as, indeed, I was 

 surprised myself) by stating, that those which I then 

 found to succeed the best were not what had shown the 

 most numerous roots, as was conjectured, but what had 

 acquired the thickest and coarsest coat of bark, and 



