1884.] EDITORS BOX. 379 



correspondent, is there not considerable portions of the lands planted 

 on which there is a considerable depth of soil, and on which close 

 rank grasses vegetate ? If so, then, when pitting is not resorted to I 

 recommend paring ; and without either, satisfactory results on such 

 lands will not follow. That, at least, is m}'- experience, and I know 

 it is also that of others. And further, I recommend paring, or at 

 least a clearing of the spot where there is a thick coating of moss, so 

 that the plants mav be properly inserted into the soil without being 

 put out of sight as they would in cases otherwise be. 



Very recently I had occasion to pass over a considerable extent of 

 ground, planted a year or two ago, where neither paring nor pitting 

 had been resorted to in such places as I have indicated ; and what is 

 the result ? It is, that, on the parts where the natural herbage is 

 altogether or chiefly grass, a large proportion of the plants are dead ; 

 some do exist, and barely so, with the fallen grasses of the last 

 season or two hanging on and around them, and but for the elevation 

 the)'' cause on the surface many of them could hardly, and some 

 could not at all, be detected ; while amongst the heather and on ground 

 such as ' Bannockburn ' himself refers to, the plants are plentiful. 

 What then is the use of planting and allowing the plants to become 

 smothered with the natural vegetation, the worst of which is rank 

 grass ? If paring is properly done when the plants are inserted 

 nothing more is generally required. If not pared, what is to be done ? 

 Eesort to ' Loanleah's ' cutting, which is dangerous in itself, more ex- 

 pensive, and far less effective than the former ! The cost of paring is 

 not to be compared with the advantages to be derived from it in these 

 situations ; and these advantages are in cases, in my opinion, not 

 confined to those I have already referred to. . , . With reference 

 to firming the plants, and the opening of the notches where the 

 surface is pared, my experience is almost entirely contrary to that of 

 ' Bannockburn's ' ; and as to his strongest objection, viz., ' the 

 plants being killed by drought,' it is also untenable, as where 

 paring is recommended or required there is generally, if not always, 

 sufficient moisture for the growth of the plants. 



* Bannockburn ' concludes by advising those who contemplate 

 planting such land to take the advice of ' Sylvestris,' and ' burn it 

 half-a-dozen years before planting.' But what it t ' Sylvestris,' I 

 think, referred to strong rank heather, but ' Bannockburn ' evidently 

 means grass. With the former I can agree, if the heather is too 

 strong to permit of planting being done at reasonable expense 

 (heather, however, was not referred to in the recommendation which 

 has resulted in this correspondence) ; but with the latter no really 

 practical party could, in my opinion, agree. To burn grass, and 

 plant six years afterwards, when the grass would, in all likelihood. 



