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gardener may often save its life if called in in time. Let us have no more instances of 
road navvies being interrupted in their good work of roadmaking to attend to the 
wants of trees. 
2. Plant only healthy young trees. This should be an. axiom, but 1 have often 
seen miserable trees planted out that no professional gardener would ever plant out if 
he were a free agent. I allude to pot-bound plants, to plants suffering from insect or 
fungus pests, or indicating debility in some way, perhaps the result of (felay or ill- 
treatment since they left the nursery. Then accidents sometimes happen to the stems 
or roots of young trees before they are planted out, and the gardener always performs 
the necessary pruning operations in such cases before planting. Give the plant a good 
start. It will have the battle of life to fight, and do not let it enter into the contest 
maimed. 
3. Trees must be planted at the proper time. In New South Wales the vast 
majority of trees are planted out during the months of June, July and August. With 
deciduous trees, i.e., those which lose their leaves, such as planes, oaks, elms, it is 
absolutely necessary that the planting should take place when the leaves are all off, 
and when the tree is quite' at rest. This is, of course, in the winter. The vast majority 
of evergreen trees are also most safely planted during the winter months. As a rule 
evergreens are sent out in pots, but sometimes the ball of earth is tied up in canvas, 
such plants having been dug up open root out of the nursery. Plants in pots can 
usually be planted out with a maximum of safety that is to say, with ordinary care, 
there is a minimum of failure in the case of such plants; but, in the desire for good 
large plants, it must never be forgotten that a very real danger is that the plant may 
be pot-bound. There the skill of the professional gardener comes in. He would at 
once advise which of a certain consignment of pot plants are worth planting out. 
I have alluded to the fact that some trees may be planted out at seasons other 
than the winter. For example, during the autumn anything in pots can be planted 
out. But in this case we must have two plantings, for the deciduous trees can never 
be planted out except in winter. And, if the plant be in a pot, it may often be trans- 
planted late in the spring, and even in the summer, but this lateness always handicaps 
the plant, which should get accustomed to its new surroundings before or during the 
winter months. 
In some places there are only two seasons, the wet and dry. In such areas you 
can only safely plant when the rain comes. But get the ground ready, so that when 
the time comes to plant, the planting may not be delayed by work that should have 
been finished previously. 
4. Large hole*, with drainage veil provided for. It you will not arrange for this, 
do not go any further abandon tree-planting. If the soil be good and deep, which is 
very rarely the case in the Sydney district, it is best to plough and subsoil, if a row of 
trees be desired ; the soil is disturbed and the drainage is attended to. But in the 
vast majority of cases separate holes have to be dug. Holes should be square, and, 
wherever possible, each side should be S feet long. The depth should be not less than 
