“The expense of planting was much reduced by the introduction, about a century ago, of the notching system. Of this there are two varieties, the oldest of which may be described as follows:—One person makes a notch in the ground, or rather two notches crossing each other, with a common spade, raising the sod by bending down the handle of the instrument, till the notch become wide enough to receive the roots of the plant. An assistant, with a bundle of trees, slips the root of one into the aperture thus made for its reception. The spade is then withdrawn, and the closing of the sod on the root is assisted by a smart blow of the heel of the planter. In this way two persons, well practised in the work, will put into the ground between five hundred and a thousand per day. “This system was much simplified about fifty years ago, and rendered so expeditious, that it seems in vain to look for its receiving any further improvement. Instead of the spade, an instrument of nearly the same shape, but so small that it can be wrought with one hand as easily as a common garden-dibble, was introduced, and is now known by the name of the Planting-iron. With this, a notch is made in {343} the ground to receive the root; and owing to the portability of the tool, and its occupying but one of the hands, the person that works it requires no assistant, but, carrying a parcel of plants in a wallet before him, he singles out one with his left hand, inserts it in the notch, withdraws the implement, fixes the plant with his heel, and proceeds with as much apparent ease as if he were performing the operation in the soft ground of the nursery. In this way of planting, the workman goes forward in such a line as he can judge of by his eye; and as it is extremely difficult to see the plants after they are put in, especially if the heath is pretty long, he sets up poles in the first line, to enable him to keep the second a due distance from it; and in planting the last mentioned, he removes these poles into it as he comes opposite to them, which then serve as his guide in planting the third; and thus he proceeds till he cover the whole ground. The lines thus formed are necessarily so zig-zag, that when the trees grow up, they do not seem to have been planted in rows. “In this way, an expert workman will plant between three and four thousand young plants a-day, and do it so perfectly, that the fault will not be his if a single individual of the whole number fail to {344} grow. I have assisted in planting, according to this plan, upwards of three thousand acres in Aberdeenshire; and, in all that extent, I know not of a single instance of failure, where the plants were in a healthy state when put into the ground, of the proper age and varieties, and suitable for the soil.”