126 REPORT ON THE MANAGEMENT AND VALUE OF POPLAR. 



moisture through the leaves and other parts of the tree. The 

 quantity of water thus carried off by trees in a healthy state is 

 very great, and may be shown from the fact of ground which, 

 while growing plantations, is perfectly dry, upon their being cut 

 down becoming quite wet. 



Another important operation in preparing ground for poplar is 

 making the soil and subsoil as loose as possible, so as to allow 

 the tender roots to spread freely. This is expeditiously and 

 cheaply effected by the plough, a subsoil plough following an 

 ordinary one in the same furrow, and breaking the subsoil with- 

 out bringing it to the surface. I have seen ground so prepared 

 at a cost of 20s. per acre. Ground, however, which cannot be so 

 prepared requires other means — the cheapest and most efficient 

 of which are, in the writer's experience, the borebill, a drawing 

 of which, accompanied with description, is given in the Highland 

 Society's Transactions for 1863, page 76. It is not necessary to 

 loosen the soil to a depth over 18 inches, or to bring the subsoil 

 to the surface, as is generally done in trenching ; all that is re- 

 quired is, to render the soil free and open to such an extent as to 

 enable the roots to go through it readily, till the trees are large 

 enough to feel the force of the wind, after which they are 

 enabled to prepare the soil for themselves, as it were, by shaking 

 and pulverising it for their own development. The cost per 100 

 trees for thus preparing the ground is 6d., and the process has 

 all the advantages of ploughing, or even trenching, or the com- 

 mon practice of pitting, without the expense or evils attending 

 them. By the method of boring, a saving is effected over that 

 of pitting at a rate of from 50 to 70 per cent. The advantages 

 derived from loosening the soil might be illustrated by many 

 cases which came under the writer's observation where larch and 

 various other kinds of trees had failed to grow after repeated 

 planting, until the soil was loosened and well broken, when the 

 results were most satisfactory. Too great attention, therefore, 

 cannot be paid by planters to loosening and opening the soil ; 

 and the poorer the soil the more necessary is this operation. 



In planting trees of slow growth, however, loosening the soil is 

 of less importance than in the case of rapidly growing ones, 

 which unless so aided soon exhibit signs of stinted growth. 

 Another consideration of vital importance is the state or health 

 of the plant, particularly its roots. Plants grown on soil that 

 renders their roots succulent, are not in a state fit for removal 

 to the forest ground, especially if the soil is dry and hard, 

 because the roots habituated to moisture are not in a state 

 fit to derive nourishment from the drier ground. On the 

 other hand, plants may be transferred with advantage from 

 a dry to a moist situation. Sometimes a slight mixture of 

 soils is beneficial. An example of this occurred under the 



