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THE planter's GUIDE. 



or ten days after the roots have been loosened in the ground. 

 If this be not done, the latter often become discolom-ed 

 by the action of the air, and when blackness appears, it 

 is a symptom oftentimes fatal to the success of the plants. 



On the supposition that the tree is to be immediately 

 removed, it must be raised at once from the pit. It can- 

 not have escaped the intelligent reader, that if it be a 

 subject of any magnitude, say eight-and-twenty feet high, 

 what with the actual thickness of its mass of roots and 

 earth, which cannot be less than two feet, and what with 

 the contents of the trench that have been thrown out 

 round the bank, the pit so formed must, in any case, be 

 from three to four feet deep. In order to bring up from 

 the pit so heavy a load, I used, some years since, to 

 employ five and six horses, and even a greater number. 

 At present it is done usually with one horse, and never 

 more than two, by the following simple contrivance, 

 which certainly nothing but the most extraordinary want 

 of reflection could have prevented from being seen in the 

 beginning. This sufficiently proves, if any proof were 

 wanting, how strikingly men will often pursue a more 

 circuitous route to their object, when a nearer and more 

 direct one lies open before their eyes. 



With the view, then, of effecting the two purposes in 

 question, namely, the pulling down of the tree, and the 

 getting it out of the pit, a strong but soft rope, of perhaps 

 four inches in girth, is fixed as near to the top of the tree 

 as a man can safely climb, so as to furnish the longest 

 possible lever to bear upon the roots ; taking care, at the 

 same time, to interpose two or three folds of mat, in order 

 to prevent the chafing of the bark. Eight or nine work- 

 men (the greatest number I usually employ in the 

 department in question) are then set to draw the tree 

 down on one side : or it is a good way, if you have an 



