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THE PLANTEE's GUIDE. 



readily direct. These hillocks, if handsomely shaped, 

 give dignity to the trees that crown their summits, instead 

 of seeming artificial and unsightly protuberances. 



For this purpose, the director of the work should take 

 a view of the surface on every side, at ten or fifteen paces 

 off* as the work proceeds, and there give his orders for the 

 execution, which will also strikingly expedite the labour 

 of finishing. As soon as the figure pleases the eye from 

 every side, the shows are put on round the stem, and 

 nearly two yards out from it (that is, for trees of five-and- 

 twenty and thirty feet high,) to the thickness of six inches 

 at the centre, and four at the extremities ; beating down 

 the shows with the spade, to prevent the wind from taking 

 hold of them ; after which, they will soon consolidate, and 

 completely exclude drought. The grass-seeds are then 

 sown and raked in, over the remainder of the prepared 

 surface, and of more than ordinary thickness ; and these, 

 on the roller being passed over them, will rapidly spring 

 up and greatly assist in retaining moisture. To turf such 

 considerable spaces, as is done by some, would be an 

 intolerable labour, without being either so effective or so 

 handsome in the execution. 



By the above directions it is not meant that the shows 

 shall remain longer on the surface than during the first 

 season. No tree, treated according to the preservative 

 system, is known to die after the first year, if during that 

 year it carry a healthy though small leaf, the Oak and the 

 Beech perhaps excepted : which two species (from causes 

 not yet fully ascertained, but probably owing to a peculiar 

 sensitiveness of drought) sometimes fail in the second year. 

 In the course of the second year, then, the circular spaces 

 round the stem, which have been covered with shows, are 

 to be lightly pointed over with the spade, and kept with 

 the hoe for four or five years until the trees shoot freely. 



