belt v, hence vbl n belting Sth, S Midl
= deaden v 1.
1800 in 1803 Hughes Rept. Causes KY 183 KY, John Houston deposed. . . That he never saw any cabbins on the creek but Pottinger’s; but had seen trees belted, and he understood they were belted by Sutherland. 1828 Amer. Farmer 10.265 NC, The most common mode, I think, after the bushes are grubbed up, and the trunks of such trees as are wanted for fence and fuel removed, and the rest belted, is to run single furrows with a plough [etc]. 1840 Farmers’ Reg. 8.513 eVA, A new practice, or rather the late resumption of an old and universally abandoned practice . . is the bringing of wood-land into cultivation, by killing the trees by “belting.” 1851 in 1927 Jones FL Plantation Rec. 395 nwFL, 4 Men belting Pine trees at the car Place where I am going to Clear. 1880 Burnett Recollections 14 MO (as of 1820s), The large trees [were] belted around with the axe, by cutting through the sap of the trees, which process was called “deadening.” 1883 Amer. Jrl. Forestry 1.460 KY, I began by “belting[”] all trees of early decaying wood . . leaving the durable Poplars, Walnuts, Hickories, Oaks, Coffee-beans, etc. 1938 El Paso Herald–Post (TX) 13 May 9/3, Odis Davis, Clint farmer, “belted” trees along the Lower Valley Highway adjacent to his property to keep them from sapping the soil, he testified. 1962 Clay et al. Soil Surv. Mathews Co. VA 25, At present the most economical method of killing undesirable hardwoods is by belting (girdling) and treating them with 2,4,5–T.