THIS, namely the TIME OF PLANTING, varies with the fpecies of plant, and with the nature of the foil. Plants, in general, may be fet out either in the autumn, or in the fpring. In a bleak fituation, 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 fit of open weather, during the fix winter months, fhould be embraced. Some plants, however, are partial to particular seasons : these peculiarities will be mentioned, in their pro per places.

IT has been already intimated, that, when trees and fhrubs are planted out finally, their roots fhould be left UNPRUNED. It is ufual, and may be proper, to take off the bruifed and maimed parts; but even this fhould 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 fufficient fupply of nourishment and moisture the first year, and thereby fecure the life of the plant: whereas, on the contrary, if a number of fide fhoots be left on, the quantity of leaves and fhoots becomes fo greats that the plant probably is ftarved, for want of that neceffary fupply. This renders the fuccefs of fhrubby

Thrubby plants uncertain; and is an argument against their paffing through the nursery; and, of course, in favor of their being moved (when practicable) from the feminary into the place in which they are intended to remain. A well rooted plant, however, if planted in a good mold and a moift feafon, will fupport a confiderable 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 fupport it, the quicker progrefs the plant will make: nevertheless, it is well to be on the fafer fide; a fure though flow progrefs is preferable to a dead plant, which is always a reflection upon the planter, and an unfightly incumbrance in the plantation. A judicious planter, while he trims his plants, will at the fame time SORT them: instead of throwing them out of his hand into one heap, promifcuously, he will lay the weak ill rooted plants, in one place; the middle fort, 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 rifing; which, without this precaution, cannot be the cafe.

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 plantation chiefly ornamental, they ought to be planted

VOL, I.

D

out

out promiscuously in the fituation in which they are intended to remain; but, if the plants be small, and the plantation chiefly ufeful, nursery rows ought generally to be preferred. For, in this manner, the tender plants give warmth to each other; the tranfition is lefs violent, than when they are planted out immediately from the nursery or feedbed, fingly, and at a distance from each other the ground is more easily kept clean, than where the plants ftand in the random manner; befides, 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 ftate of cultivation, until the plants acquire a confiderable fize; or, if the whole ground be stocked in this nursery manner, the fuperfluous plants may, in almost any country, be fold 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 fet 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 neceffary for a given number of plants, will be made eafy and certain. The method of putting in

the

the plants, in thefe nursery rows, is this: The ground being brought to a proper state of cultivation, as directed above, the plants trimmed and forted, and the rows fet out; a line is laid along, to make the holes by. To afcertain precifely 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 chopping a ring round each stake, with the spade, of a diameter proportioned to the fize of the plants, and of a depth equal to that of the cultivated mold. A row of holes being finifhed, the plants, in this cafe, may be immediately put in ; which is done in this manner : One man, or boy, holds the plant upright, with its ftem in the center of the hole, at the fame time looking along the row, to fee that it ftands in its proper line, while another fills in the mold; 'first fpreading the roots and fibres level in the bottom of the hole; being careful not to fuffer 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 fineft 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 preffed down gently together with the foot; and the treading, if the foil be light, fhould be repeated two or three times, until the hole be filled up round, and the plant firmly fixed, at the fame depth at which it flood, in the place from whence it was taken. If, on trial, the hole be found too fhallow, it must be deepened; if too deep, fome of the roughest of the 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 adjufts fuch plants as lean or ftand out of the line, while his helper diftributes the plants of the next row. In a fimilar manner the plants are put in, when the holes are made in whole ground. The fods are generally thrown to the bottom of the hole; and, if these be not fufficient to raise the plant high enough, fome of the fubftratum is. mixed with them; or if this be of a very bad quality, fome of the top foil is dug from the intervals, and thrown into the hole.

bedded in the best of the mold,

The roots are and the hole

rounded up, either with the fubftratum or with the foil of the interval, fo as to form a hillock or fwell round the stem of the plant, in order to allow for the fettling of the broken. mold.

LAN