THE planter's GUIDE. 



235 



tlie end of May, or beginning of Jnne, when no refresh- 

 ing showers have fallen for a week, is the time to put 

 in requisition the water-cart, and to endeavour to supply 

 by artificial means that degree of moisture which, after 

 the first year is over, a more advanced state of consoli- 

 dation enables the soil to retain. There is scarcely an 

 instance of a tree, if properly removed, requiring water in 

 the second year, excepting perhaps the Oak, when it fails 

 to come out freely in June ; but even in that case it is 

 quite unnecessary to repeat the operation beyond the 

 month in question. 



The water-cart is a very simple implement, being 

 merely an open cart with broad wheels, having a large 

 barrel or hogshead mounted on it (an old wine-pipe 

 answers the purpose admirably ;) and there are super- 

 added a spreading mouth at the bunghole, for filling the 

 cask, and a large brass cock below, for drawing off the 

 water. The best time for dispensing this refreshing 

 element is unquestionably the evening, as little or no 

 evaporation takes place during the night ; but in works 

 of any extent it is not possible always to time it with 

 accm^acy. A single workman, with a couple of stable- 

 pails, attends the driver of the cart, and both assist in 

 drawing off and distributing the water. In executing 

 this, they cannot pour it on too leisurely, equally drib- 

 bling it out over the surface of the pit and to the full 

 extent of the roots, but most copiously near the stem and 

 on the nucleus of the root. Four or five pails, which 

 contain sixteen or eighteen quarts each, are sufiicient at a 

 time, for a tree from five-and-twenty to thirty feet high ; 

 and the operation is repeated every fourth day while 

 drought continues. It is an easy matter to overwater 

 plants, for example the Beech ; an error by which 

 removed trees sometimes suffer when they might other- 



