1886.] FOllEST WORK FOR THE MONTH. 647 



admit. We would again with due respect remiud planters not to 

 plant deep, and wherever it is found that the surface is of a 

 thick turfy nature, it should be properly pared off around wliere the 

 plant is to stand. This entails fully one-third additional laV)our 

 and expense, but being so eminently advantageous to the future 

 growth and development of the tree, should not therefore be with- 

 held. Another thing to be specially careful about is that of 

 sheughing in the plants, never putting them in in bundles, but 

 carefully loosing them, and spreading them out thinly along the 

 trench, so thin indeed, that almost every plant should be put into 

 contact with the soil ; and if the season is dry, as it frequently is 

 towards the end of the month, the plants should be watered as 

 occasion suggests. Of all plants most easily injured by want of 

 attention in this respect, is that of the common silver fir and 

 holly. 



Nursery work also demands full attention — lifting plants, 

 digging, and trenching constituting the principal. 



This is prominently of all others the month preferable for 

 cutting saplings and sapwoods, and is admittedly the best for 

 cutting ash of all kinds, whether young or old, but specially the 

 former. Hoop-wood and under- wood of all kinds is considered best 

 when cut at this particular season. 



Birch also for brooms, heath for like purposes, or thatching, and 

 willows or osiers for basket-making, should all severally be cut off 

 the root. Wood of all kinds, and especially timber for industrial 

 purposes, such as pine and fir, should as far as possible be now cut 

 and collected to the timber yard. 



Thinning young plantations, forming young hedges, pruning, 

 digging, and renewing old ones, should also be attended to as 

 weather and other circumstances permit. 



Proceed with fencing, whether erecting new or repairing old 

 ones, making new roads and keeping others in repair, attending 

 to drains, and water runs in general. 



C. Y. MiCHTE. 



CULLEN HorsE, Banffshiee, 

 25<ft January 1886. 



