TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 



327 



some months, or even a year or more before, in order that the soil in the 

 bottom or sides of the pit, and that which has been taken out, and is to be 

 returned to it, may receive the benefit of the weather (709). When the 

 pit is dry, the soil in the bottom is loosened ; and before planting, a portion 

 of the surface soil taken out is thrown in and mixed with it, and raised up 

 so as to form a slight long convex surface in the centre of the pit, the apex 

 of which shall be nearly level with the surface of the ground. On this 

 cone the plant is placed, with its roots spread out regularly on every side ; 

 the soil is then thrown in over them, and in doing this the soil should 

 be made to fall either perpendicularly, or spread so as not to reverse 

 the direction of the fibres, as is too frequently done when the soil is 

 thrown with a force from the circumference of the hole towards the 

 stem. The plant being gently shaken, if necessary, to settle the soil 

 among the fibres, the whole is finished in the form of a cone, rising 

 a few inches above the adjoining surface ; having been previously conso- 

 lidated by treading with the feet. This is the most general mode of 

 planting transplanted trees of from five feet to ten feet in height, whe- 

 ther in the garden, the orchard, the pleasure-ground, or a plantation of 

 forest-trees. In all these departments great care is requisite that the collar 

 of the plant, when the operation is finished, should stand somewhat above 

 the general surface of the ground ; because, otherwise, the sinking of the 

 soil, which must inevitably take place, would bury it underneath the sur- 

 face ; and the evils of this have already been shown (6). 



732. Hole-planting and fiocing with water. — Pits are prepared as in the 

 last mode ; and while one man holds the tree in the proper position, the 

 roots having been previously spread out, a second man throws in soil, and a 

 third pours in water from the spout of a watering-pot, held as high above 

 his head as his arms will reach, in order to add to its force in falling on tlie 

 soil, and settling in about the roots of the plant. This is an admirable mode 

 of planting those trees that have numerous fibrous roots ; particularly if the 

 trees be from ten feet to twenty feet, or twenty-five feet in height. 



783. Planting in puddle. — The pit being dug in the usual manner, water 

 is poured into it, and soil stirred in till the pit is half full of mud, or pud- 

 dle. The roots of the tree are then inserted, and w^orked about, so as to 

 distribute them as equally as possible through the watery mass. More 

 puddle, previously prepared, is then thrown in, and the roots again shaken, 

 and the whole is finished with dry soil. This mode is well adapted for 

 trees of from ten feet to twenty feet in height, when planted in a dry sandy 

 soil ; but it is not, suitable for a soil with a retentive bottom, as that would 

 retain the water, and rot the roots. 



734. Planting out plants which have been grown in pots. — In preparing the 

 pit, regard should be had to the probable length of the roots coiled round 

 the inside of the pot ; and a sufficient surface of soil should be prepared on 

 which to stretch them out. Unless this is carefully done, the plant, if it 

 has numerous roots matted together, will make little more progress in the 

 free soil than what it did in the pot ; because the check given to the de- 

 scending sap by the numerous convolutions of the fibres, prevents them, 

 so long as they remain in that state, from acquiring the strength of under- 

 ground branches, which they would otherwise do. This attention to spread- 

 ing out the roots of plants transplanted from pots is more especially neces- 

 sary in all those kinds which do not make vigorous tap-roots, such as the 



