18S4.: FOREST WOEK FOB THE 2I0NTH. 435 



I E E L A N D. 



The work of planting forest trees will now be \Ti-tually over for the 

 season, and the foresters should go carefully over recently transplanted 

 trees and see that they are all erect, firming in the ground any which 

 may have got wind-tossed. In exposed situations the late severe gales 

 may have affected the perpendicular of very lately planted trees, but 

 if corrected in time the efiect will have no permanent e\U. result. 



All coppice woods should be gone over and regulated, the number 

 of shoots on each stock thinned out, and such as are left for the crop 

 pruned. 



General thinning of plantations will for the present be mostly com- 

 pleted. All the lop and top should also be collected into heaps, sold 

 or removed from the wood. 



All preparations necessary should be made for Oak stripping, whidi 

 will commence toward the end of the month. Without going over all 

 the detail of this very important operation, it will suffice to say that 

 the early bark is the best, when properly harvested. Saving bark is 

 such a precarious work with our late moist seasons that the forester 

 undertaking stripping should have nothing to interfere with him 

 during the operation. 



Ballinacourte, Tipperary. D. Svii Scott. 



WALES. 



Although the winter has been one of the most open we have had 

 for many years, the cold east winds during the last month have kept 

 vegetation in check. Under the circumstances planting will in most 

 cases have been finished up. However, where such is not the case, no 

 time should be lost in bringing such operations to a close. Planting 

 at this late season, especially on light or thin soils, is not to be 

 recommended. Evergreen trees and shrubs may be successfully 

 planted during the present month ; but they should be carefully 

 removed with good balls of earth attached to their roots. Waterincr 

 will be indispensable for plants removed at this season of the year, 

 and when of large size they will require to be staked and protected 

 against wind. Look round [all plantation of present year planting 

 and see that all plants are standing upright. Any that may have been 

 swayed by the wind, or loose about the roots, should be firmed, and 

 any cavity round the collar filled in with soil. 



Young plantations may be advantageously thinned during the 

 present month. 



With favourable weather Oak bark stripping will have to be com- 

 menced during the present month. As soon as the sap has risen 



