LETTER FROM ELIS NILSON. 125 



the time when the cones spontaneously drop their seed. Take 

 care, also, lest at the kilning the seed be exposed to too strong a 

 heat, and sort the seed carefully by fanning or winnowing, so that 

 only the heavy and sound seed may come to use. A seed with an 

 inferior power of germination brings forth weak plants, which 

 become welcome victims to the fungus, and accordingly promote 

 the introduction of these diseases into the nursery or the field. 



2. The nursery ought to be located on vigorous, good forest 

 soil, preferably on some wood-cutting or opening in a beech- 

 wood. You must take care not to topdx-ess the nursery — whereby 

 a rapid growth is produced, with very small power of resistance 

 in the plant. On transplanting, only vigorous plants ought to be 

 used. All weak or diseased plants should be taken out and 

 thrown away, or, still better — in the case of the cancer — they 

 should be burnt in order to be turned to the profit of the nursery 

 as ashes. I consider the method of bending the root in an angle 

 at the transplanting, instead of letting it keep its natural position, 

 to be scarcely suitable. The special energy that the plant or tree 

 must develop in its efforts to try and restore the order of nature 

 can only be disposed of at the co3t of the growth of the plant or 

 tree, and thereby arises a period of weakness, during which the 

 fungus diseases more easily gain a firm footing. Of course all 

 cutting of the root, whether at the replanting or transplanting, 

 involves considerable danger to the plant. 



3. The ground for the plantation ought to be chosen with 

 special care, lest a successful result be rendered difficult or even 

 impossible from the very first, through unsuitable ground, etc. 

 That the quality of the soil is a very important factor, was 

 plainly proved on an occasion when two plantations (crops) of 

 about twenty-five years of age were growing side by side, one of 

 which was covered with moss, and in all respects bearing the 

 stamp of discomfort, while the other one left nothing to be desired 

 in respect of a fine growth and a vigorous appearance. On 

 examining the ground, the pining plantation, which formed a belt 

 of comparatively small breadth within the remaining healthy one, 

 proved to be growing in red soil, while the latter grew in black 

 earth. It can scarcely be doubted that the conditions of the 

 crop and of the soil were here constituting effect and cause. 

 Perhaps some iron-spring situated above found its way through 

 the plantation, sterilising the soil; perhaps the soil was too 

 shallow, so that the roots met the rock. I could not, at the 



