186 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



growing season, the plants will have reached the most suitable 

 size for forming a plantation. The reason why I recommend that 

 mode of treatment in the nursery is, that Douglas fir, although a 

 shade-bearing species, requires an abundance of light to produce 

 growths of the best quality. I find that where light is limited, by 

 plants being crowded closely together, there is a large percentage 

 of them of lanky form, with unripened wood, and an inferior root 

 system. Frequent transplanting produces fibrous roots, which 

 are excellent for supplying moisture, but insufficient fixture is 

 given. 



The errors in our present modes of planting, which are eithtr the 

 " notch " or the " pit " system, are readily observed when Douglas 

 fir is planted, as its rate of height-growth, e\en in its younger 

 stages, soon reaches from 2 to 3 feet annually, and it maintains 

 a dense crown. I have seen a plantation far from firmly estab- 

 lished when twenty years old where the " notch " system had been 

 adopted. This I attribute to the bad arrangement of the roots ; 

 "as the root is bent, so will it grow." Pit-planting is certainly 

 better, as the soil is loosened, and thei e is an equal distribution 

 of roots round the stem ; but even here, all the plants are placed 

 to one depth, with the tap-root turned aside. In pit-planting 

 large plants are generally used, which must be placed at an 

 unnatural depth, to avoid their being wind shaken. To make 

 pit-planting really successful, all plants should be lifted from the 

 nursery lines, with balls of earth attached. I have not seen the 

 block spade in use, though I believe there is much to commend 

 it when the plants are not more than three years old. By 

 having it of triangular shape, staying power would be given with 

 all roots to their natural depth. In loose soil it should answer 

 admirably, while stiff soils might be previously broken up with 

 the pick. This would give an advantage, for I find that on stiff 

 soils, where the planting has been executed with the ordinary 

 spade by "notching," the cuts may be readily seen in times of 

 frost or drought. Pits on stiff soils, or on soils with a pan subsoil, 

 collect water in the rainy season, and this lowers the temperature 

 of the soil, and gives it a spongy looseness. 



When a pure plantation of Douglas fir is formed, the planting 

 distance should be between 4 and 5 feet. This would avoid early 

 thinnings, which yield nothing of marketable value, and would 

 maintain an even distribution for a longer period. The first 

 thinning would be about the twenty -fifth year, when the poles 



