Forest Work for the Month 651 



it is levelled in, while the limbs can be cross-cut, and made ready for 

 carting off some frosty morning when the ground is hard. Hares and 

 rabbits have commenced to nibble the bark of conifers, hollies, 

 laburnums, &c., and where such is the case, the greatest vigilance and 

 promptitude is necessary in dealing with them, as it is quite a 

 common thing for a valuable tree to be ruined by those brutes in the 

 course of a single night. 



The drives and rides in plantations should also be gone carefully 

 over, and wherever rabbits are found burrowing under them, the holes 

 should be followed up with the spade to "their farthest extremity, any 

 wretches found in, being mauled of course. Hunters and shooting 

 ponies are sure to be galloping along the drives, and the footing over 

 these rabbit holes is often of the most frail and treacherous descrip- 

 tion, and should be looked to and remedied at once. 



Holly berries are a very plentiful crop this year, many parts of the 

 plantations during the past two months having had quite a gay 

 appearance with their ruddy glow. Foresters who have home nurseries 

 in charge should take the opportunity of laying in a good stock of 

 these. The holly is a slow grower in the nursery, and it is well to 

 keep up a good succession of these hardy and most useful plants. I 

 would also remind foresters that these berries require to lie a year in 

 sand before being put in the seed bed. 



Continue the sawing up of wood for joinery and fencing purposes. 

 In the event of snow putting a stop to outdoor work the men can be 

 employed charring and tarring paling stobs and gate-posts under 

 cover, making gates and hurdles, repairing tools, and other work which 

 can now be got forward against a busier time out of doors. 



Dalkeith Park. Egbert Baxter, Forester. 



IRELA.ND, 



The excessive rain of November and December very much 

 retarded planting operations, and the work, where on a large scale, is 

 considerably behind. Still with a new year most foresters are 

 sanguine of better weather, when much that is at present behind will 

 be overtaken. The rainfall during the year just closed has been in 

 this country quite unprecedented, and "'77 " will long be remem- 

 bered as the "wet year." Many of our plantations have made 

 excellent growth last year, particularly some young groves of larch 

 and Austrian pines ; but in the nursery seedling larches are very 

 deficient. 



Flaunting should now be carried an with despatch. All deciduau.s 



