SOME ASPECTS OF THE EXCURSION TO GERMANY. LT? 
seems desirable that the surface shou'd be skim-ploughed, and the 
subsoil stirred or treated in some other way, so that small seed- 
lings instead of large transplants could be used. The difference 
between the price of seedlings and of transplants would go a con- 
siderable way towards covering the cost of preparing the ground ; 
and the plants, although they might not make the same rate of 
progress at the outset as transplants, would have the advantage, 
if carefully inserted, of having their root-system naturally dis- 
posed in the soil, thus tending to their future stability. Their 
stems would also be more erect, and there would thus be fewer 
bent butts than is frequently the case in plantations where large 
transplants had been used. Seeding would be attended with 
similar advantages, and could be adopted on soils of a friable 
nature, where no difficulty would be likely to arise in forming a 
suitable seed-bed, and where the herbage would not be likely to. 
prove troublesome afterwards. 
In regenerations after clear felling, although the extraction of 
the roots seems desirable, owing to the expense of the operation 
it would have to be abandoned unless they could be marketed to 
some advantage. In any case, precautions should be taken 
against the attack of insects; and where a clean surface, owing 
to a dense canopy having been maintained, obtains, it could be 
scarified either for the reception of seeds or of one-year-old pine 
seedlings. Where the surface had become covered with herbage, 
either larger plants would require to be used, or patches of the 
surface skinned off with a mattock, and the subsoil slackened, 
and seedlings inserted. Unless the conditions are very favour- 
able, natural regeneration, except, perhaps, in the case of the 
birch and beech, is not a system that has many advantages, 
owing to the necessary delay in awaiting seed years, and the 
generally imperfect stockings, as well as the slow progress made 
by the young growth in its early stages. 
It seems desirable for the production of close-grained clean 
timber, and to assist the productive capacity of the soil, that the 
young crop should form close canopy at an early stage of its 
existence. To obtain that object, close planting in the absence of 
seeding should be adopted. Experience, therefore, would point 
to the necessity of planting seedlings about 2 feet to not wider 
than 3 feet, and in the case of transplants not wider than 34 feet. 
The desirability need hardly be pointed out of dividing large 
areas into sections or blocks of a rectangular or other convenient 
