FORESTRY ON THE COUNTRY ESTATE 



3.57 



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A French Pepiniere Volante or Temporary Forest Nursery. 



first is less expensive and does not re- 

 quire as much personal care, but the 

 growth is slower and damage from 

 surrounding forest conditions quite ex- 

 tensive ; the second produces large 

 (|uantities of seedlings and transplants 

 in a small space, but requires a lot of 

 looking after, and some expenditure 

 for apparatus. 



The princi])al expense of the forest 

 nursery is that of digging a two-foot 

 trench with ])erpendicular walls clear 

 around it, to keep out rodents, cut- 

 worms and underground fungi ; the 

 principal expense of the home nursery 

 is building the wire and lath cages which 

 are j}Ut over the beds to keep out birds 

 and produce artificial shade. Here is 

 liaron Manteuffel's own description of 

 the formation of his forest nurseries 

 at Colditz, Saxony, which produced and 

 planted some 23/2 million trees: "It is 

 a good idea to divide the pepiniere (nur- 

 sery) into numerous small ])a reels scat- 

 tered throughout the forest. In the gen- 

 eral run of the soil we select the best 

 obtainable, that is to .say fresh, loamy, 



permeable, presenting a thick couch of 

 dead moukl over a reasonably fertile 

 mineral soil. It is not easy to fulfil 

 these conditions, but we earnestly beg 

 our brother foresters to give this selec- 

 tion all the care possible ; otherwise they 

 will never succeed in ])roducing strong, 

 healthy plants with the desired spread 

 of roots. We have already said that 

 we have no admiration for plants raised, 

 so to speak, under hothouse conditions. 

 In Saxony most of our plantations are 

 in a mountainous country under a sky 

 inclement and stormy, and for this rea- 

 son we locate our pepinieres in similar 

 weather conditions. The forester should 

 select his location only reasonably pro- 

 tected from weather damage, even 

 though he may have to wait three years 

 for the plants to ac([uire dimensions 

 reached in two years in milder climates. 

 "As regards the preparation of the 

 soil in the ])epiniere : The growth of 

 weeds ceases habituallv in the month 

 (jf October, and it is then that we chose 

 by preference to clear the spaces des- 

 tined for our pepinieres. We scythe 



