314 



TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 



left undisturbed round the collar. The tree may now be pulled over, and 

 raised out of the pit ; and the following is Sir Henry's Steuart's mode of 

 effecting these two operations. 



708 Pulling down the tree and raising it out of the pit. — " A strong but 

 soft rope, of perhaps four inches in girth, is fixed as near to the top of the 

 tree as a man can safely climb, so as to furnish the longest possible lever to 

 bear upon the roots ; taking care, at the same time, to interpose two or three 

 folds of mat, in order to prevent the chafing of the bark. Eight or nine 

 workmen are then set to draw the tree down on one side. Or it is a good 

 way, if you have an old and steady-pulling horse, to employ him in this 

 business. For it is plain, that one stout horse, acting forcibly on the rope, 

 will do more than twenty men, even if so great a number could get about 

 it ; and moreover, he will save some manual labour in excavating, by giving 

 an effectual pull, at a much earlier period of the work. Next to an old 

 and steady horse, for a high-mettled one is not at all adapted for such an 

 operation, heavy oxen are to be preferred ; for these have been known to 

 drag timber out of plantations where horses were defeated, in consequence 

 of the rugged nature of the surface. Horses make one very spirited pull, 

 but rarely a second, if they have been checked by the first. Oxen, on the 

 other hand, appear less sensitive, and bear steadily and slowly onward by the 

 mere force of gravity, and without recoiling like horses. The tree being 

 drawn down, it is next forcibly held in that position, until earth be raised to 

 the height of a foot or more, on the opposite side of the pit, so that, as soon 

 as it is liberated, it springs up, and stops against the bank thus formed. 

 On this, the workmen proceed to lighten the mass of earth with the picker, 

 laying bare the roots as little as possible, but still necessarily reducing the 

 mass to manageable dimensions. The tree is then pulled down on the oppo- 

 site side, and a foot of earth forced up, in a similar manner ; and the same 

 thing being repeated once or twice, it is gradually raised to even a higher 

 level than that of the adjoining surface. In this manner, by a method ex- 

 tremely simple, and not less expeditious, whatever it may appear in the nar- 

 rative, it becomes quite an easy, instead of a fonnidable undertaking, to draw 

 the tree from the pit." — {Planters Guide, 2d ed. p. 248.) 



709. Transporting and replanting the tree. — The machine used by Sir 

 Henry consists of a strong pole and two wheels, with a smaller wheel occa- 

 sionally used, which is fixed at the extremity of the pole, and turns on a 

 pivot. The pole operates both as a powerful lever to bring down the tree 

 to a horizontal position, and in conjunction with the wheels as a still more 

 powerful conveyance to remove it to its new situation. The wheels of the 

 machine are brought close up to the body of the tree, and the stem laid along 

 the pole, with the largest branches uppermost, in order that no branch or 

 root of considerable length should be suffered to sweep the ground during 

 the time of transportation. The tree thus attached to the pole is drawn to 

 its destination by a horse or horses, and placed upright in a shallow pit, 

 which is, if possible, opened and prepared a twelvemonth beforehand by 

 trenching and mixing manure, and exposing the soil in the bottom of the pit 

 to the influence of the weather. The tree is so placed that the largest 

 boughs are presented to the most stormy quarter of the wind, even though 

 this should require it to be placed in a reversed position relatively to the sun 

 than it was before, which Sir Henry Steuart as well as Decandolle think 

 of no consequence. After upwards of thirty-five years' experience, Sir Henry 



