234 



THE planter's guide. 



to employ two workmen, if expert at the business, rather 

 than one ; as two will do it better and more speedily, in 

 proportion to the time they are employed. 



Thns it will be perceived, that a guard for trees of the 

 firmest sort is procured, and such as will last for nine or 

 ten years, with occasional repairs of the marline ; which 

 last, as it suffers by contraction and expansion and the 

 continual rubbing of the sheep, should, after the first 

 year, be gone oyer two or three times during the summer, 

 and kept in good order. If the larger ends of the 

 stakes (at which place they always fail) be dipped in 

 coal-tar, brought to the state of half pitch, they will last 

 from twelve to fifteen years. By driving the stakes a 

 little w^ay out from the tree, as above dii'ected, the tallest 

 blackfaced sheep (and no epicm-e in mutton will ever 

 keep any other stock) are forced to rub near the centre 

 of the stake where the fence is the stoutest. The bark 

 likewise being covered in no part, excepting at the top of 

 the fence by the small bit of mat, receives sufficient 

 benefit from the sun and air. 



The entire cost of this guard, materials and workman- 

 ship, does not exceed sixpence per tree, reckoning ten 

 stakes as the average number required for each. Hence 

 it is an effective as well as an economical mode of defence, 

 and, I may add, a neat one also. To the most fastidious 

 eye, the effect produced by it is neither heavy nor dis- 

 pleasing, as the hue of the stakes in a few days suffi- 

 ciently harmonises with that of the bark ; and so far from 

 appearing a deformity, it is, as has been observed above, 

 quite unobtrusive, and is nearly invisible at fifty yards' 

 distance. 



As the season advances, and the drought of summer 

 sets in, the watering of the trees planted in the spring 

 and the preceding winter next claims attention. About 



