Forest Work for the Motitk. ) 1 5 



Hurdles and other guards round park trees should also be gone 

 over and repaired, care being taken to keep them both high enough 

 and wide enough in order to secure the safety of the trees, more 

 especially in fields where young horses are grazed. A good tree guard 

 or hurdle, fitting close to the tree, may ho. made from five feet uprights, 

 held together by two bands of hoop iron ; the hoop being well adapted 

 for folding round the inequalities of both root and stem. These 

 hurdles, when correctly made, look well, and last for many years. 



Plantation and other drains should be carefully inspected, and 

 -every effort made to enable them to carry off the superaljundant 

 water that is sure to attend the melting of the snow now lying on the 

 ground. We have only to remember that between ground that is 

 waterlogged and ground properly drained there is at least a differenee 

 of ten degrees of heat in favour of the latter. This being so, there 

 can be no doubt that the roots of trees are most unfavourably situated 

 if allowed to remain in a soil soured and chilled by stagnant water, 

 more especially when the spring months are so near. This is only 

 one of many other advantages gained by draining, and we trust its 

 importance will be duly considered by every forester. 



Planting should be carried on and finished with all despatch, 

 ■especially upon dry ground, before the parching east winds of March 

 set in. Unless newly-planted trees are well settled in the ground 

 before the arrival of the bleak, drying days we usually experience 

 in early spring, they are liable to suffer severely from the cold blast, 

 and often receive such a serious check to their vitality as to retard 

 their growth for some years, if they do not eventually die off 

 altogether. 



In the home nursery, all young stock not required for planting out 

 this season, and which have been two years transplanted, should be 

 carefully gone over, thinned out where necessary, and all receive a 

 good loosening or half raising with a fork, so as to check the over- 

 luxuriance of the trees, and cause them to root Ireely. 



The young trees form small fibrous roots much more readily in the 

 loose soil, and the operation is an excellent preparation for the 

 removal of the trees in the autumn, when the planting season comes 

 round again. 



If the ground is in good tilth, and the weather open and dry 

 towards the middle of the month, the opportunity should be taken to 

 complete the sowing of acorns, beech, hazel, and chestnuts, if not 

 already sown ; and this is also the best time to sow all such tree seeds 

 as elm, sycamore, alder, ash, birch, &c. 



Dalkeith Park KoBERT Baxter. 



