To trace out: tracer, to outline a number of figures on a piece of ground with a tracing-awl, according to the plan which the tracer keeps in front of him. The tracing-awl is like a long pen with which the tracer writes on the piece of ground.

The procedure for tracing out is of the utmost significance in gardens, especially in pleasure or private gardens. Before tracing out, it is assumed that the tracer has learnt the first principles of applied geometry as laid down in La Théorie et la pratique du jardinage, part II, or in this dictionary, in the articles pertaining to rectilinear trigonometry for tracing out triangles, in the article on the science of long-distance measurement for tracing out lines, and in article Planimetry for tracing out surfaces.

We will therefore assume that the tracer is informed of these first principles and has applied them to his work on the ground, by tracing out the main alignments of a general plan using an optical square or protractor, setting the square or protractor at right angles for the intersecting alignments, prolonging the lengths and widths of the alignments using ranging-poles, and ending the alignments according to the design, by noting down the widths of angles using a protractor and plotting them on the ground by opening the protractor at the same angle. Triangular, circular, oval, quadrilateral, and irregular figures in a design always refer back to the first principles, and will cause no further difficulty in the method of tracing out, even in the most composite designs.

Here, we will explain the method of filling in the areas destined for parterres, bosquets, sunken parterres, and kitchen gardens, of which only the outline has been traced out in the general plan.

Once the outline of a parterre has been traced out, the square or tableau which it forms must be traced out in the following manner.

Using a pencil, draw a grid over the parterre design, dividing it into small grids of three feet squared according to the scale found at the bottom of every design.

Perform the same operation on the ground, using a garden line to divide the piece of ground into the same number of grids which you have marked on the paper. In each grid, trace out with the tracing-awl the same lines and fleurons which you have marked on the design, which you should always have before you. First trace out the fleurons using only one line, in order to position them, then double the line and shape the fleurons, giving them the required outline according to the design. These small steps are taken simultaneously from the bottom, and one stops by making holes with the point of the tracing-awl at the starting and end points of the ornamental foliage and foliated scrolls of the parterre, in order to make them stand out more for the person who is planting.

The only difficulty in tracing out bosquets relates to the salles and cabinets de verdure one wishes to work into them. If the bosquets have only simple rond points, branching crossroads, grass borders, ovals, and other shapes, these figures always refer back to the first principles established in the articles listed above. The salles de verdure are either circular or in the shape of a parallelogram and are ornamented with circular ornamental ponds or stretches of lawn.

On the plan, measure how many toises there are from the centre piece of the bosquet to the centre of the circular sections. Mark these distances on the centre alignment which is where you must begin, and position the protractor at the centre of the circular sections and along the centre alignment, setting its alidade at ninety degrees so that you may turn at right angles and trace out an intersecting line which will give the wings of the centre piece. Above this intersecting line, note down, on both sides of the circular section, the width of the allée surrounding the ornamental pond or lawn, remove the protractor, and, still at the centre of the circular section, drive in a picket and pass the loop of the garden line through it, in order to trace out the circular sections of both the ornamental pond and the surrounding allée, until you meet the intersecting line of the wings. Drive in pickets to mark each measurement and repeat the exercise at the other end of the salle de verdure. Then, from the centre alignment, mark the width of the ornamental pond and of the surrounding allée at each end of the salle de verdure and on both sides, and, by prolonging and tracing out alignments with the garden line, you will have designed your entire salle de verdure on the piece of ground according to the design. If there are nooks and recesses for benches and statues, use a wooden set square to trace out the turns according to the measurements marked on the plan.

The outline of a sunken parterre, like that of the parterre and bosquet, will already be traced out in the general plan; it is then simply a matter of tracing out its lower level and ornamental centre piece. Let us imagine a parallelogram indented at the four corners: if the outline of the upper level is well levelled, and you have transferred the width of the slope from the plan to beyond the outline of the upper level, leaving an extra foot beyond this outline so that the slope may be cut on firm ground, you may then have your land dug and removed to the required depth, let us say, two feet. In order to level the bottom of the sunken parterre, drive in pickets at the corners and along the length of the outline of the upper level; the pickets should protrude from the ground by about one foot. Opposite these pickets and aligned with them, drive in the same number of pickets to the same height, at the lower level of the sunken parterre. Then, on these ranging-poles placed along the lower level, measure the height of one foot above the ground, which is that of the pickets positioned at the corners and along the outline of the upper level, marking the measurent with charcoal. Add the depth of two feet which you wish to give the sunken parterre, and pile up or remove earth from the bases of the ranging-poles of the lower level as necessary, so that each ranging-pole is three feet tall. Then, attach a garden line to the foot of each picket on the upper level, and secure the other end of the garden line to the black mark made on the corresponding ranging-pole. Above the taut garden line, measure six feet, which is the width of the slope, from picket to picket, and then drop a plumb straight down to the bottom, smoothing and levelling the ground in order to bury a picket in it entirely. Repeat this operation at each end of the parallelogram, and, having thus used pickets to fix the necessary markers, have the garden line stretched from picket to picket and trace out the lower parallelogram. Align ranging-poles over the whole surface, adjusting their tops to the height of the ranging-poles and pickets positioned at the corners, and setting them all at a height of three feet. Stretch a garden line from one ranging-pole to another, and, by means of markers, smooth the lower level of the sunken parterre entirely. In order to trace out the slope of the parterre, align pickets at intervals of two toises along the top and bottom of the slope. Stretch a garden line from top to bottom, joining the two corresponding ranging- poles, and make a trench or marker one foot wide following the garden line. Cut up the ground in this manner, stretching the garden line from picket to picket and digging trenches. In order to level this slope enirely, trail the garden line in every direction and from trench to trench, and get a man to follow in order to cut up and level areas where there is too much soil with a spade, following the garden line exactly without constraining it. This is the best method of levelling a piece of ground, which may finally be smoothed and levelled with a rake. [1] The long encircled centre piece occupying the bottom of the sunken parterre is no more difficult to trace out than any similar ornament on the upper level, following the first principles outlined above.

Kitchen and vegetable gardens, and orchards and tree nurseries, require no particular method of tracing out: their outlines in the general plan are sufficient. One has then simply to trace out the trenches or beds, by stretching a garden line from picket to picket at intervals of two feet excluding the width of the paths, which will separate the whole piece of ground into trenches or beds.

Notes

1. See also article To Level.