IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME IV. 



A MONTHLY JOURiNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



Precautions in Tree Planting 



By A. C. Forbes. 



NOW that the planting season is approach- 

 ing' once more, those who contemplate 

 planting forest trees during the coming 

 winter should be carefully considering 

 ways and means, for however few the trees 

 may be which are to be dealt with, the arrange- 

 ments for carrying out the work cannot be 

 made too early. Whether planting be done in 

 autumn, winter, or spring, success or failure 

 depends very largely upon the various prelimin- 

 aries being properly carried out, and it may be 

 of advantage to discuss a few of those details 

 which are often neglected and postponed until 

 the last moment, and then rushed through too 

 quickly to give even plants or methods much 

 chance. 



Possibly the first and most important point 

 to attend to is the choice of species for the 

 particular soil and situation, but this is too big 

 a subject to be dealt with here. Next to the 

 species, however, comes the selection of the 

 trees, and probably the inexperienced come to 

 grief more easily over this work than any other. 

 A grower, for instance, wishes to plant a shelter 

 belt or a gravelly ridge on his farm, and comes to 

 the conclusion that pines are the most suitable 

 trees to plant there. Being a cautious man, he 

 decides to choose his plants in some local 

 nursery rather than trust to correspondence 

 on a subject he does not profess to know much 

 about. He arrives at the nursery, is met by the 

 proprietor, and shown round the stock the 

 latter happens to possess. Having learned the 

 position and purpose for which the trees are 

 required, the purchaser is taken from one batch 

 of trees to another, and invited to make his 



choice, the nurseryman, on his side, throwing 

 out such suggestions as he may consider appro- 

 priate to the occasion and the visitor. In the 

 course of the perambulation a small bed of, let 

 us say, Scots pine is encountered, and the 

 customer is at once struck with their size and 

 vigour. Strong plants, five to six feet in 

 height, making a vigorous growth and 

 apparently better able to hold their own and 

 make a show than the younger and smaller 

 ones seen previously, they catch the eye of the 

 buyer at once. The nurseryman, possibly, 

 does not recommend them, but his customer is 

 evidently so attracted by their appearance, and 

 so firmly convinced that they would make a 

 plantation at once if planted on his land, that it 

 would be little short of unnecessary cruelty to 

 inform him that these particular plants were 

 destined for the rubbish heap in the course of a 

 few weeks. The upshot is, probably, that 

 the trees are purchased at what appears to 

 be a nominal price, and the grower con- 

 siders that he has done a good stroke of 

 business. 



The trees are forwarded, perhaps, within a 

 fortnight or so, and possibly in the month of 

 November. Before they can be planted 

 the ground has to be fenced off from live 

 stock, and as the planter has read, or been 

 told, that trees can be planted from October till 

 April, he considers that the whole winter is 

 before him, " and, sure, there's time enough." 

 The trees, therefore, tied up in bundles, are 

 deposited in the handiest spot that presents 

 itself, and this usually happens to be a dry 

 ditch ; some grass, stones, sods, or bracken 



