1886.] FOREST RENOVATION AT MOUNT MACEDON. 631 



upon the whole as might be wished, though they are expected to 

 improve with age ; some of them are well-grown, healthy trees, but 

 others have a sickly appearance. Ciipressus Laivsoniana has done 

 well, and it is becoming a tree instead of a bush as generally seen. 

 It is one of the best of Californian timber trees, attaining a height 

 of 100 feet, with a stem 2 feet in diameter, and furnishes a valuable 

 timber for building purposes, being easily worked and very durable. 

 The heavy snows of last winter effected some injury to the pines, a 

 branch here and there and even a top of a tree being broken. The 

 ferns, with which the ground was covered, are destroyed, but there 

 is abundance of grass, and Mr. Ferguson recommends that sheep 

 should be taken in to graze and keep it down, as they cannot now 

 injure the trees. 



In the younger plantations deciduous trees have been intermixed 

 with pines, including oak, ash, sycamore, the Canadian elm, and 

 others. One plot of 50 acres has been planted with oaks, among 

 which a few pines are interspersed merely to relieve the monotonous 

 appearance of the deciduous trees when denuded of foliage. In the 

 ground recently cleared 10 acres have been sown with pine and 

 other seeds, which will probably be found the best and most 

 economical mode of reafforesting. Holes 2 feet across are dug 

 15 inches in depth and 15 feet apart, in the end of winter, and the 

 seed is sown in November, experience having taught Mr. Ferguson 

 that they succeed best at this season, when the soil has been warmed 

 by the sun. Of course the seed can be sown much earlier on 

 Station Peak, where the season is earlier. Two men are kept at 

 work on the mountain, but more labour is required, now that the 

 trees are attaining a size that renders pruning, thinning, etc., 

 necessary. 



Another striking and satisfactory proof of the practicability of 

 reafforesting is to be found in the Nursery Eeserve at Lower 

 Macedon, where the soil is poor and rocky. After clearing the gum 

 trees it w\is planted with Pin us insignis, which have grown still 

 more rapidly than those on the mountain, probably because of the 

 more sheltered situation; they already aA'erage 30 to 50 feet in 

 lieight, some of them being 60 feet, and only eight years old from 

 the seed. The plantation attracted the attention of the Governor 

 on a recent visit, and excited warm admiration. The trees have 

 now clean boles, some of which are several feet long, and with a 

 dense canopy of branches overhead. The extent of this plantation 

 is 17 acres; nothing has been done to the soil besides digging holes 

 for the trees. 



The Nursery is, as usual, in admirable condition, fully equal to the 

 best forest tree nurseries in any part of England or Scotland. Hardly 



