THE planter's guide. 



161 



grass-plots or ayenues, in woodlands near the flower or 

 kitchen garden, and the like, where the ground is usually 

 kept under the scythe. Here, if the soil be loose and 

 deep — that is, if it afford good rooting-ground, you are 

 sure to find tolerable subjects, which may be immediately 

 taken up, in the manner hereafter to be described. Even 

 subjects drawn from hedgerows may be pressed into the 

 service, provided their roots have not too deeply pene- 

 trated the mound on which the hedge is planted, or pro- 

 vided you have a soil of suitable depth to receive them. It 

 is not necessary, as already explained in Sect., V . that every 

 subject fit for immediate transplantation should be endued 

 in the fullest manner with the protecting properties. 

 They need only to possess such a proportion of them as 

 is sufficient for the exposure in which the tree is to he 

 placed. By a sound judgment exercised in this parti- 

 cular, and by the help of an experienced eye, much useful 

 work may be done with trees taken up at once, and the 

 most surprising improvements made at a small expense. 

 This, I find, is a part of the business which has not been at 

 all understood, as indiscriminate preparation is generally 

 conceived to be necessary — a supposition implying need- 

 less expense, and quite contrary to judicious practice. 



To prepare single or individual trees is often a work 

 of difficulty as well as time. It frequently happens, that 

 they may be found in a free exposure, and have good 

 bark and stems ; but in such an exposure they are 

 frequently defective in branches or roots, or both, in con- 

 sequence of mechanical injury suffered from other trees. 

 If the branches be tolerable, but the roots deficient by 

 being long and scraggy, they are to be cut round accor- 

 ding to Lord Fitzharding's method, with some improve- 

 ments which have been made on that operation. If the 

 deficiency lie in both branches and roots, a different 



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