ENGLAND. 



As the season has hitherto been so highly favourable to planting 

 operations this department of forest work will now have made 

 great progress. When the trees are of tolerably strong growth, 

 and have already stood in exposed situations, but little risk will 

 attend the continuance of the work in favourable weather. On the 

 other hand, the removal of trees from sheltered nurseries to bleak 

 and exposed quarters will now be attended with great danger. 

 Beware of planting in frozen soil, and keep trees out of the ground 

 as short a time as possible. 



The cutting and clearing of coppice wood will now be far 

 advanced, and no time should be lost in carrying away the 

 produce as soon as frost sets in. 



Continue the deepening and scouring out of old ditches, and lay 

 out new ones where required. Upon very wet soils, where good open 

 ditches are few and far between, the observant woodcutter can tell 

 of much larger growths of underwood from the stools that stand 

 near those ditches. 



At the risk of repetition, we would again insist upon the 

 necessity of paying great attention to the drainage of woodlands. 

 Proportion the distance between such diains, as well as their depth, to 

 the requirements of the soil and situation. On fairly open land, 3 feet 

 deep and 60 feet apart may suffice ; on medium soil 3^ feet deep 

 and from 40 to 45 feet apart ; and on very stiff and retentive clays 

 or peats 4 feet deep by 30 feet apart. 



Give the bottom of every ditch sufficient width to work a spade 

 easily along it, for future clearance. Except in rare cases, open 

 ditches are alone adapted to plantation drainage. When the fall of 

 the ground is considerable, cut the trench obliquely to the direction 

 of the slope to intercept the surface-water, giving it sufficient fall 

 to carry off the water without washing away the bed of the 

 channel. Let all secondary drains discharge into the main in the 

 in the direction of the flow, and never at right angles. 



Where open ditches would cause great inconvenience cut a 



