Practical Sylviculture. 



607 



forming the letter T, (Fig. 9). The spade is put iu at the top of the 



T and the handle is depressed, the blade 

 is thereby forced upward and in doing 

 so opens the lower portion of the T, into 

 this opening the plant is placed, the spade 

 withdrawn and the earth pressed down 

 with the feet of the operator. This 

 method is employed in some of the 

 English plantations. It is, however, not 

 considered a satisfactory one ; as, owing 

 to the blade of the spade being in the 

 way, the roots of the plant cannot be 

 put down straight or in fact naturally, unless the plant is a very 

 small one, consequently, when the earth is pressed down, as often 

 as not the roots are turned upwards as shown in the 

 sketch, (Fig. 10.) There is nothing so conducive to 

 utter failure, or, at least, to a serious check to the 

 growing plant, as this turning up of the roots, and in 

 a climate like Victoria's the system ought not to be 

 tried, as the hot summer will overtake the plant before 

 it has time to take a deep enougli root-hold. nc.io 



There are other systems uf planting, but they are not usually 

 employed in Sylviculture, so no mention of them need be made here. 

 Slips, layers, and suckers would not come under the head of forest 

 planting in Victoria, though the latter often come naturally from 

 eucalyptus trees, and in cases where forests are much infested with 

 insects their encouragement is useful, but their ai'tificial production 

 would be expensive. 



Tending of the Forest- 

 Having now planted the forest area, the difheulties, to a certain 

 extent, have been overcome. But a point has not yet been, 

 touched on that is of vital importance to the future forest, i.e., 

 the distance the plants ought to be from each other. To begin with 

 the young trees should be planted in lines, and these lines should be 

 close enough to insure a complete shade to the ground surface when 

 the trees are from four to five years old. As a rule the trees are 

 planted the same distance apart in the lines as the lines are apart from 

 each other, viz., 4 feet x 4 feet or 6 feet x feet. The object being 

 to obtain timber, we naturally do not want branches and leaves. To 

 encourage stem growth only we must plant close, so as to exclude as 

 much as possible the strong light except on the growing tops of the 

 trees. Trees grown thickly are straighter and freer of branches, 

 and have a longer bole than trees growning thinly. They need no 

 pruning as, owing to the want of light, the branches die oif. It is a 

 great mistake to prune young forest trees, the best plan is to leave it 

 to nature. If pruning has to be done, the cutting oif of the branch 

 must be clean and close to the stem, so as to allow of recovery as 



