226 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



roots. For that purpose, after trying various substances, 

 I have found nothing so completely efficacious as the 

 refuse of a flax-mill, called in this part of the country, 

 " shows,'' which, when they accumulate in the mill-yard, 

 are generally thrown into the river, and carried away by 

 the next flood. During the scutching season, which 

 commences in autumn, and extends frequently to the 

 following spring, it is prudent to lay in a stock of shows, 

 sufficient for the extent of your work ; and by stacking 

 them up in a dry state, they will not heat, but keep well 

 for nearly a twelvemonth. In parts of the country where 

 there are no flaxmills, and where shows consequently 

 cannot be procured, I should recommend moss {Scottice 

 fog,) which is every where to be had, and is the best 

 succedaneum. 



But before this valuable covering is applied, it is 

 expedient, with late-planted trees, to go over the entire 

 surface of the pit with a wooden beater, made in the 

 fashion of the beater used by paviers, but greatly larger, 

 ten or twelve inches broad at bottom, and furnished with 

 a double handle, in order that two men may work it. In 

 working the beater, it must be raised as high as three feet 

 or more from the ground, so as to descend with the utmost 

 force on the loose mould of the surface ; which surprising- 

 ly promotes consolidation, and by consequence the reten- 

 tion of moisture. For all trees, however, this mode of 

 consolidating is not essentially necessary ; neither is it 

 indispensable for such as are planted early ; but with the 

 Beech, the Oak, the Birch, and such others as are most 

 sensitive of drought, it acts as a powerful preservative 

 during the first season : and as it is at the nucleus of the 

 root, immediately under the collar, that the fatal efi'ects 

 of drought are most to be apprehended, so it becomes the 



* Note I. 



