1881.] 



EDITOn^S BOX. 



hib 



-^"^ M^j^"~i^^^' ' ^'^^- "-^ Jvai /I 



'■i ^7£ iil 



-M^ 



PLANTING TREES. 



JE, — Eeferring to the correspondence on this subject, I cannot 

 help thinking that ' Loanleah ' and ' Bannockburn ' have quite 

 misunderstood Mr. Scott (November issue, p. 67). Having 

 some experience in planting in various soils and situations, including 

 grassy land, I found it quite impossible to get up a crop in the latter 

 ■without paring. 



In 1872, a proprietor in the county of Aberdeen asked my opinion 

 as to a large tract of grassy land which he had planted many years 

 before, and had filled up every year since, but without any result. He 

 stated that np to about the present time (1 872) about 20,000 plants per 

 acre had been employed to form what was then a straggling plantation. 

 I gave it as my opinion that the surface should have been pared, 

 as in many places the plants died the first year from want of sufficient 

 moisture, and from the notches openincr throucrh the Gfrass roots being: 

 so matted. I got instructions to have it planted by the process 

 recommended, viz., paring. I proceeded to work, and put 3,000 

 plants per acre with the result that these produced a fine crop, over- 

 took those planted many years previous, and in every way satisfied 

 the owner. Without paring, this would never have been the case. 

 I therefore hold that your correspondent * Taraas ' is perfectly 

 right in saying that more plants die from want of moisture than 

 from choking. 



Any person who has had to plant such land knows very well that, 

 except in the autumn and winter months, little or no moisture is 

 found in many places underneath the roots of the grass. This does 

 not apply to land which has been recently under crop, but waste 



2 c 



