1884.] EDITORS BOX. 439 



(6) Another portion was planted with trees of the same age, but on 

 this part the grass was kept short around the plants which required 

 much care — an amount of labour and extra expense ; but over all, the 

 ratio of deaths was nominally small. 



(c) Another portion was planted with robust, well-rooted, vigorous 

 trees about twenty inches high, and these too, similar to the first, were 

 left without further notice and did excellently; indeed, so well, that 

 the number of deaths which did occur were so few that it was not 

 considered requisite to make up. 



I do not argue against paring as being pernicious to tree growth, 

 nor deleterious to the future existence of the plant ; but I contend it 

 is not required to ensure tree growth, and that grassy land can be 

 successfully planted without having to apply any conjoint or precedent 

 operation, and that it does not yield results adequate to the enhanced 

 outlay. 



Like ' Bannockburn,' I too have found grassy and other vegetation 

 very serviceable, not only in protecting trees the first year after 

 planting, but in defending them against the extremes of local climate 

 for the first few years. 



In Ireland, a system of planting I have seen in practice is to skin 

 the surface with a broad-ended pick, and with the opposite end slacken 

 the soil of the place so skinned — making in that way an unopened sort 

 of pit. The method is good, seeing it is much more economical than the 

 more general method practised in England of open pits, and the Irish 

 usage is altogether as certain as the English. Still, after all due care 

 in the way mentioned, I have seen the weedy vegetation of one kind 

 or other so inordinate that it employed a few men during some 

 months in summer to keep it in check ; for, naturam expellas furcd, 

 tamen usque recurret ; but otherwise deaths would have been exces- 

 sive, not so much for lack of moisture as for want of sufficient 

 sunlight and air. 



In some instances, however, much care may be adopted in planting, 

 it is often pregnant of much extra work, for neither paring nor pitting 

 is of itself enough to insure the success of the tree against the 

 tendency of some soils to produce injurious weedy herbage. 



What does Mr. D. F. Mackenzie mean by the following, at p. 376 

 of last number ? — ' In practice I found that, when the grassy turf was 

 pared off, the roots of the plants were better protected, and in making 

 the notch the soil was made friable . . . neither did the plaat suffer 

 so readily by being blown about as when notched in the grassy turf. 



Does Mr. Mackenzie own that plant-roots are better protected with 

 the turf removed than when left intact ? or that the soil is made friable 

 instantaneously with the paring of the turf ? or that the plant suffers 

 less from being blown about ? If such be his meaning, even at the 



