288 Arboriculture as a Hobby. 



A wood or plantation, even if on an adjoining property, 

 should be taken advantage of for the latter purpose. In the 

 absence of any such shelter or of any sharply rising ground, 

 it would be necessary to plant a shelter belt on the side from 

 which the roughest winds come. This could be composed of 

 beech, hornbeam, Austrian pine or Scots pine mixed. The trees 

 forming the shelter belt should be planted about 4 feet apart in 

 the lines, and the width of the belt from 16 to 20 feet. This 

 belt should preferably be formed a few years previous to the 

 planting of the trees in the collection, so that it will be of suffi- 

 cient height to protect these more valuable species. 



If the proprietor wished to rear his young trees from seed, 

 the seed could be sown in the same year as the planting of the 

 shelter belt. This, although very interesting, entails a lot of work 

 and care in tending the young seedlings, and given a fair amount 

 of success, he would have too many of each sort for his purpose, 

 even with the smallest quantity of seed obtainable from the 

 seedsmen. It would, I think, be more advisable to buy two or 

 three good, healthy transplants of each variety, which have been 

 lined out in the nursery at a distance suitable to the formation of 

 well-formed specimen trees. I say two or three, because it is 

 as well to have a second or third specimen handy in a temporary 

 nursery in case of death. 



The size of the plants at certain ages will vary with the 

 species. Plants from 2 to 3 feet high for conifers, and rather 

 larger for deciduous trees, will be perhaps the best sizes to plant 

 out. Larger trees are more difficult to move, and they will be 

 longer in starting away in their new position. The plants should 

 have good fibrous roots. 



To return to the subject of soils, I may class them thus : — • 

 ,Clays, loams, gravelly and sandy soils, chalky or calcareous^ 

 and peaty soils. To give a list of trees suited to each class of 

 soil would take too much time, and it would be difficult to 

 remember them all after having heard them. Suffice it to say, 

 that there is a long list for every soil, quite long enough at least 

 to form a fair-sized arboretum. " Webster's Forester's Diary " is 

 a very useful book for helping one in this way. 



Another great point is the arrangement of the species. 

 Some trees are fast growing from the start. The Oregon variety 

 of Douglas fir, for instance, or the Japanese larch. Others, 



