298 TEEES TO BE LEFT AS STANDARDS 



General Remarks. 



Plantations of any extent generally contain a variety of 

 soils, and in cutting down and thinning out, the experienced 

 forester will always be guided in a great measure by the trees 

 found to be thriving best on any particular soil and situation as 

 to what species will answer best (all things considered) to be 

 left as standards. When plantations have been thinned to 

 admit light and the warm ravs of the sun, the surface weeds 

 gradually disappear, and are replaced by a useful mixture of 

 natural grasses. It is, however, always after a top-dressing of 

 wood ashes, lime, and earth mixed, or bone meal, that the 

 quickest and most permanent improvement is effected. 



We have already noticed the beneficial effects derived from a 

 dressing of wood ashes, but we can record equally good results 

 from a dressing of lime and earth mixed together and applied in 

 the end of harvest. Plantations, where the surface of the ground 

 is stocked with a quantity of rushes, the best plan for the 

 permanent improvement of such is to cut the rushes close over 

 by the surface in the dry season of the year, say August, and 

 apply the dressing about the end of the month, or any time dur- 

 ing harvest, and the rushes will soon disappear, and be replaced 

 by a thick crop of white clover and natural grasses — in fact, the 

 change produced is marvellous, and appears almost magical. 



The writer has likewise used bone manure for the improve- 

 ment of old pastures in woods and plantations, with the most 

 happy results. By applying a dressing of bones in spring, the 

 grasses and herbage are immediately roused from a torpid to an 

 active state, and plants that were formerly growing in harmony 

 together are at once roused to a state of hostile competition 

 for more field and space, and gradually, inch by inch, the 

 cryptogamic and other useless forage plants give way aod dis- 

 appear, thus leaving the useful grasses the undisputed masters 

 of the situation. 



But it may be said by some that it would never pay to top-dress 

 wood pasturage; this, however, is not the writer's experience, 

 as the following statement will illustrate: — 



In a plantation, the property of the late Sir William Yerner, 

 county Armagh, Ireland, where the trees consisted principally of 

 sallow, poplar, and alder, the writer had them considerably 

 thinned out to admit air and light with the view of improving 

 the pasture. The timber that was cut being removed, the 

 branches and rubbish were then collected and burned, and the 

 ashes spread over the surface as a top-dressiug. A quantity of 

 mixed rye and permanent grass seeds were then sown on the 

 places where the rubbish had been burned up. 



The yearly value or rent charged for this plantation grass was 



