REMARKS ON PLANTING. 
19 
PLANTING. 
As February may be considered the commencement of the 
spring plant season, when most people have additions of some 
kind to make, a few short hints on the subject may not be without 
their value. 
The first point requiring attention is to guard the newly removed 
plants from the drying influences of the air; nothing retards 
their re-establishment more than this, it delays the healing of 
the wounds received in taking up, and consequently prevents for 
a time the formation of new rootlets. The matter next in im¬ 
portance, after taking off all bruised portions of the roots, is to 
carefully spread them out in an equilateral manner, that the 
whole of the nutriment in the soil may be gathered from every 
direction, that each root may have its due and uninterrupted 
share, and that the plant may have an equal support on every 
side. This is an often-repeated direction, but seldom attended 
to, and yet of the first consequence to the future welfare of the 
subject. In the operation of planting, let the soil be thoroughly 
stirred for full three times the width of the hole required, that 
a suitable and pervious medium may be formed for the reception 
of the young fibres, and when the tree or shrub is once properly 
placed, avoid treading on the ground more than is indispensable. 
I greatly prefer shaking the soil gradually between the roots, to 
the common practice of throwing on a quantity, and forcing it 
into its place by the action of the feet,—a reprehensible method, 
that not unfrequently leaves cavities beneath, and in a retentive 
soil forms a puddled surface quite impenetrable to either air or 
water. For all ordinary purposes, a common stake driven into 
the ground is support enough against the winds ; but if the sub¬ 
ject is a large one, and the usual tripod of stakes be deemed un¬ 
sightly, the same end may be gained as effectually by interlacing 
a number of small rods, so as to cover and extend beyond the 
space occupied by the roots, the ends of these rods to be secured 
by means of four cross pieces of stouter dimensions, and these 
again fastened by four stumps, driven into the ground so as to 
keep the whole close to the earth. In the dry weather of the 
following summer attention must be paid to the watering of all 
