THIS, namely the TIME OF PLANTING, varies with the species of plant, and with the nature of the soil. Plants, in general, may be set out either in the autumn, or in the spring. In a moist situation, the latter is generally preferable; provided the planting be not done too late. The latter end of February, and all March, is a very proper season for most plants: but where the scene of planting is extensive, every interval

of

open weather, during the six winter months, should be embraced. Some plants, however, are partial to particular seasons: these peculiarities will be mentioned, in their proper places.

It has been already intimated, that, when trees and shrubs are planted out finally, their roots should be left UNPRUNED. It is usual, and may be proper, to take off the bruised and maimed parts; but even this should be done with caution. Their tops, however, require a different treatment. Forest trees, and other stem plants, may in general be trimmed closely; by which means the roots will be able to send up a sufficient supply of nourishment and moisture the first. year, and thereby secure the life of the plant: whereas, on the contrary, if a number of side shoots be left on, the quantity of leaves and shoots becomes so great, that the plant probably is starved, for want of that necessary supply.

This renders the success of shrubby plants uncertain; and is an argument against their passing through the nursery; and, of course, in favour of their being moved (when practicable) from the seminary into the place in which they are intended to remain. A well rooted plant, however, if planted in a good mold and a moist season, will support a considerable top; and there is a general rule for the pruning of plants: Leave them tops proportioned to their roots; for no doubt the larger the top, provided the root can support it, the quicker progress the plant will make: nevertheless, it is well to be on the safer side; a sure though slow progress is preferable to a dead plant, which is always a reflection upon the planter, and an unsightly incumbrance in the plantation. A judicious planter, while he prunes his plants, will at the same time SORT them: instead of throwing them out of his hand into one heap, promiscuously, he will lay the weak ill rooted plants, in one place; the middle sort, in another; and the strong well rooted ones, in a third; in order that, when they are planted out, each plant may have a fair and equal chance of rising; which, without this precaution, cannot be the case.

We now come to the operation of PLANTING; which is guided, in some measure, by the species of plantation. If the plants be large, and the plan

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tation chiefly ornamental, they ought to be planted out promiscuously in the situation in which they are intended to remain; but, if the plants be small, and the plantation chiefly useful, nursery rows ought generally to be preferred. For, in this manner, the tender plants give warmth to each other; the transition is less violent, than when they are planted out immediately from the nursery or seedbed, singly, and at a distance from each other: the ground is more easily kept clean, than where the plants stand in the random manner; besides, the intervals may, while the plants are young, be cropped with advantage; while the remainder of the intended plantation may be kept in an entire state of cultivation, until the plants acquire a considerable size; or, if the whole ground be stocked in this nursery manner, the superfluous plants may, in almost any country, be sold to great profit. We do not recommend planting these nursery plantations too thick; four feet between the rows and two feet between the plants are convenient distances; or, if the intervals be set out exactly a quarter of a rod wide, namely, four feet one inch and a half, and the plants be put in at twenty-four inches and three quarters apart, the calculation of how many plants will be required for an acre, or any other given portion of ground, or, on the contrary, how much ground will be necessary for a given number of plants, will be

made easy and certain. The method of putting in the plants, in these nursery rows, is this: The ground being brought to a proper state of cultívation, as directed above, the plants pruned and sorted, and the rows set out, a line is laid along, to make the holes by. To ascertain precisely the center of each hole, a mark is made in the line (or land-chain, which is not liable to be varied in its length by the weather), and a stick, or other guide, placed where the center of each hole falls. The workmen begin to make the holes, by chop ping a ring round each stake, with the spade, of a diameter proportioned to the size of the plants, and of a depth equal to that of the cultivated mold. A row of holes being finished, the plants, in this case, may be immediately put in; which is done in this manner: One man, or boy, holds the plant upright, with its stem in the center of the hole, at the same time looking along the row, to see that it stands in its proper line, while another fills in the mold; first spreading the roots and fibres level in the bottom of the hole; being careful not to suffer any of them to lie in a cramping folded state; but opening them wide, and spreading them abroad in the manner of a bird's foot. While the planter is bedding the roots in the finest of the mold, the person who steadies the plant should move it very gently up and down, if small, but if larger, by a

circuitous motion of the top, in order to let in the mold more effectually among the fibres; which done, they should be pressed down gently together with the foot; and the treading, if the soil be light, should be repeated two or three times, until the hole be filled up round, and the plant firmly fixed, at the same depth at which it stood, in the place from whence it was taken. If, on trial, the hole be found too shallow, it must be deepened; if too deep, some of the roughest of the good mold must be thrown to the bottom, until the roots be brought to their natural level. The row being finished, the planter walks back along it, and adjusts such plants as lean or stand out of the line, while his helper distributes the plants of the next row. In a similar manner the plants are put in, when the holes are made in whole ground. The sods are generally thrown to the bottom of the hole; and, if these be not sufficient to raise the plant high enough, some of the substratum is mixed with them; or if this be of a very bad quality, some of the top soil is dug from the intervals, and thrown into the hole. The roots are bedded in the best of the mold, and the hole rounded up, either with the substratum or with the soil of the interval, so as to form a hillock or swell round the stem of the plant, in order to allow for the settling of the broken mold.