HILL-PLANTING. 379 
to the trunk, and the exposed surface is ¢mmediately brushed 
over with mineral-coal tar. When thus treated, it is said that 
the healing of the wound is perfect, and without any decay of 
the tree. Trees trained by De Courval’s method, which is now 
universally approved and much practised in France, rapidly at- 
taina great height. They grow with remarkable straightness of 
stem and of grain, and their timber commands the highest 
price:* 
A system of plantation, specially though not exclusively 
uited to very moist soils, recommended by Duhamel a hundred 
years ago, has been revived in Germany, within about twenty 
years, with much success. It is called Aell-planting, and con- 
sists in placing the young tree upright on the greensward with 
its roots properly spread out, and then covering the roots and 
supporting the trunk by thick sods cut so as to form a circular 
hillock around it.t By this method it is alleged trees can be 
grown advantageously both in dry ground and on humid soils, 
where they would not strike root if planted in holes after the 
usual manner. If there is any truth in the theory of a desic- 
cating action in evergreen trees, plantations of this sort might 
have a value as drainers of lands not easily laid dry by other 
processes. There is much ground on the great prairies of the 
West, where experiments with this method of planting are 
strongly to be recommended. 
It is common in Europe to permit the removal of the fallen 
leaves and fragments of bark and branches with which the 
forest-soil is covered, and sometimes the cutting of the lower 
twigs of evergreens. The leaves and twigs are principally 
used as litter for cattle, and finally as manure, the bark and 
* See DE CourVAL, Taille et conduite des Arbres forestiéres et autres arbres 
de grande dimension. Paris, 1861. 
The most important part of Viscount de Courval’s system will be found in 
DL’ Elagage des Arbres, par le Comte A. Des Cars, an admirable little treatise, 
of which numerous editions, at the price of one franc, have been printed since 
the first, of 1864, and which ought to be translated and published without 
delay in the United States. 
+ See ManTHUFFEL, L’ Art de Planter, traduit par Stumper. Paris, 1808. 
