THE planter's GUIDE. 



187 



on the spot by an ingenious artist. The tree delineated 

 is a Beech of about eight-and-twenty feet high, with a 

 stout stem, a beautiful top, and with roots more than 

 twelve feet long ; so that the whole is calculated to form 

 a load of considerable weight. The mode of maintaining 

 the balance, of bundling up the roots, of compressing and 

 preserving the branches — as also the various functions of 

 the steersman, the balancemen and their assistants — may 

 all probably be better apprehended in this view of their 

 united efforts than by any verbal description. The 

 reader, however, may compare the two, as they will be 

 found greatly to aid each other. 



It is easy to apprehend that, with a machine so con- 

 structed, the person stationed at the end of the pole 

 possesses the same complete power over the direction of 

 it as the steersman over that of a boat ; but with this 

 disadvantage on the side of the former, that the machine 

 is far more difficult to manage than the boat in the water, 

 owing to the greater unevenness of the surface of ground, 

 and the extraordinary length of the pole, as compared 

 with the rudder, thereby causing a much more sudden 

 impulse to be communicated to the machine than to the 

 boat. The steersman of the machine has, for that reason, 

 a far more difficult part to perform, in which much judg- 

 ment as well as strength is called forth, and where one 

 assistant, and sometimes two or three, are requisite to aid 

 him in so laborious a task. 



The above mode of balancing the tree between the axle, 

 which is the centre of gravity, and the extremity of the 

 pole, I greatly prefer, on every occasion where it can be 

 adopted, to that of having recourse to the third wheel. 

 This addition to the machine could seldom be made, with 

 such extensive tops as the park-trees removed here usually 

 have, without severe injury to the branches. But it will 



