258 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



land is thus ready for the operations of the planter with- 

 out the burden of preparatory cost of any sort. 



All the above works I can say that I have, at different 

 times, executed by contract, at the prices here stated, or 

 nearly, according to the nature of the soil and the rate of 

 labour at the time. I have Hkewise, on other occasions, 

 done it by day labom^ ; and I am obliged to add that the 

 difference of the expense between the two is so insignifi- 

 cant, while the difference in point of accuracy is material, 

 that I greatly prefer the latter method, unless for the 

 trenching of close plantations, where the same minute 

 attention is not required, and where a far greater space of 

 ground is to be turned up. In the nicer parts of the pre- 

 paration of the soil, as has been shown in section YI., it 

 is surprising what may be done for the fine and capillary 

 absorbents of the root by a minute attention to the com- 

 minution of the parts. 



Of the other processes connected with the removal of 

 trees — namely, the taking up, the transporting, and the 

 planting itself — no part of them can be made the subject 

 of work by contract, and they are to be estimated only by 

 time. This is evident from the very nature of those pro- 

 cesses ; and hence there is no other way in which the cost 

 can be ascertained, excepting by the dimensions of the 

 trees transplanted, the distance from which they are 

 brought, and the particular labour that has attended them. 



If a tree removed to the open park be from fifteen to 

 eighteen feet high, and from eighteen inches to two feet in 

 girth — or, in other words, from six to eight inches in dia- 

 meter — which, as has been already said, is the smallest tree 

 that has strength to resist the elements; and if the dis- 

 tance it is brought be about half a mile, which may be 

 called a medium distance, the expense, in general, is not 

 found to exceed 6 s. 6d. If it be from five-and-twenty to 



