1884.] EDITOR'S BOX. 441 



I think you will agree with me when I say that it does not take 

 any great amount of observation to see that he makes the one part of 

 his sentence upset the other, for what is i^ractical is surely necessary* 

 As to the question of initial cost cropping up at this stage, when 

 after-success is at stake, it is altogether absurd ; and if your corre- 

 spondent can only support his theory from a pounds, shillings, and 

 pence point of view, he had better have left the subject untouched. 



The mere fact of his admitting that he did not think that any 

 herbage (bracken excepted) growing at an elevation of from 500 

 to 1,500 feet can prejudicially affect newly-planted trees, is suffi- 

 cient to show that he has but a very indifferent acquaintance with 

 the subject he has brought before your readers. 



I had for some time the management of an estate in the south of 

 Scotland, where, some time previous to my being there, a piece of 

 rough moorland, of an elevation of some 500 feet, had been enclosed, 

 thoroughly drained, and planted up, and which for three successive 

 years required to be ' beat up ' with plants at the rate of not less 

 than 1,500 plants to the imperial acre, notwithstanding that the 

 grass and other herbage were regularly cut down ; and when I took 

 the plantation in hand, I had, to make a long story short, to replant 

 the whole enclosure. In the process of doing so I took 'the 

 (necessary) precaution of paring the turf before notching, and I have 

 now the satisfaction of knowing that my work has been fairly suc- 

 cessful. Perhaps your correspondent will say that in this case there was 

 no necessity or utility (or profit) in paring the turf. Friability of the 

 soil is a necessary condition for the success of the young plants, and 

 with a tough, matted turf that condition is impossible unless pitting 

 is resorted to. Paring should be done to prevent, first, the plants 

 from being killed by very dry weather, and to avoid the expensive 

 and, I would say, the impracticable method of cutting the grass at 

 least twice during the first season ; and, second, to admit of propor- 

 tionally small plants being used. 



Generally speaking, the space so pared will have a thin coating of 

 grass before the first winter ; and, if this was not the case, would the 

 plants be worse off than if in the bare ground in the nursery ? ISTo 

 one would think of sowing grass amongst nursery stock to keep the 

 roots moist and warm. I hope ' Bannockburn ' will see this side of 

 the question, as in my opinion, and nearly all who have studied plant 

 life, the more friable the soil is at the roots of the plants the more 

 vigorous the growth, and proportionally less will be the death- 

 rate. 



Kenmt, Alloa, N.B. J. T. M'Laren. 



* Our correspondent Mr. M'Larex appears to overlook the important distinc- 

 tion between the words j)ractical and practicable. — Ed. 



