r, and for suffering it to percolate among the roots, and
also to provide a convenient place of deposit for the subsequent
application of manure.

The "siembra a la estaca" is differently executed. Such plants are
selected from the nursery as are of the thickness of the little
finger, or from that to an inch in diameter. In withdrawing them
from the ground, great care is taken not to injure or compress the
bulbs or buttons within, eight or ten inches of the level of the
soil, because these are to serve for the production of fresh roots
when the "estaca" is afterwards planted more deeply in its permanent
position. The greater part of the capillary roots are cut away with
a knife; but a few, together with the principal root, are suffered
to remain from four to six inches long. In planting them, from three
to four inches of the trunk are left above ground. The little basin
of earth for the reception and filtration of the rain-water, is not
so large in the stake system of planting as in that with the clod of
earth "a la mota;" but if the soil be poor, it must be
proportionably enlarged to admit the application of the necessary
quantity of manure.

The stake system, requiring much less labour than the other, is
generally preferred; but when there is abundance of shade to protect
the young plant from drought, and always, of course, in replacing
the decayed trees of an old plantation, it is considered more
desirable to remove the whole plant, its roots and branches entire,
with as much as possible of the adhering soil from the nursery,
according to the system "a la mota."

In the third or fourth year of the plantation, the trees, according
to the best system of husbandry, are pruned down to the height of
three feet from the ground on the richest soil, and still lower in
proportion to its sterility. All the branches which are not as
nearly as possible at right angles with the trunk, are likewise
removed by the pruning-knife, so that in the following spring the
whole stem is covered with fresh shoots. By this operation the power
of nature seems to be exhausted, as for that year the trees in
general bear no fruit; but in subsequent seasons the loss is amply
repaid by a crop often greater than the branches can support, or
than the flow of nourishment is always able to bring to full size