THE planter's GUIDE. 



257 



stated, but the preparation of the pits would amount to 

 from Is. to Is. 3d. each. 



In trenching the entire ground for groups and larger 

 masses of park-wood, which is strongly recommended to 

 be done at pp. 147, 148, for reasons both agricultural and 

 arboricultural, the trenching or double-digging may be exe- 

 cuted at the rate of 9d. or lOd. per Scotch fall, (which 

 is about one fifth part larger than the English pole or rod,) 

 or £8 per acre. This calculation can be made only on 

 the supposition that spadable soil is in question : but 

 should the pick be called in, somewhat extra must be 

 charged by the workman, as above stated, and the amount 

 will depend, of com^se, on the nature of the obstacles of 

 stone — for example, gravel, or obdurate clay — that present 

 themselves during the work. From the passages, however, 

 just now referred to, and the notes, it clearly appears that 

 trenching or double-digging for groups and open disposi- 

 tions, if executed on proper principles, will, besides other 

 advantages, raise the value of the land by the one-half at 

 least ; and moreover, in most cases it will save the labour 

 of mounding, or bringing extra earth from a distance. In 

 these circumstances, no reasonable person will say, that it 

 would be equitable to charge the cost entirely to the 

 account of transferring wood. 



At pp. 151, 152, the preparation of the ground for 

 close-woods and plantations is next described. This, being 

 a work usually executed on a more extensive scale than 

 groups and single trees, should, generally speaking, be done 

 by contract. The trenching should in no case exceed the 

 rate already mentioned for open dispositions of wood. 

 But as it distinctly appears, by many years' experience, 

 that the abundance of the potato crop which follows 

 trenching never fails to pay both for the execution of that 

 work and the manure, and sometimes rent besides, the 



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