t)2 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICDLTURAL SOCIETY. 



used in this country (usually 4840), is lost by the expen- 

 sive method of planting adopted. All plants are pitted. The 

 surface is skinned, and the soil loosened to a certain depth 

 before the plant is inserted. This method is no doubt good 

 for the plants ; but in Sweden, as in Scotland, it is too expen- 

 sive. Notching, which is much cheaper, would serve the pur- 

 pose equally well. 



One important item of expenditure in the formation of new 

 plantations in which the Swede gets off more easily than the 

 Scotch proprietor, is the first two or three years' cleaning of the 

 ground, such as the cutting of grass and other weeds. In many 

 parts of Scotland the cost of the first two years' cleaning of a 

 plantation amounts to approximately as much as that of the initial 

 planting. Few farmers will take the trouble to lift grass out of a 

 plantation even although it is cut for them. In Sweden the con- 

 ditions are different ; for not only are the peasants willing to cut 

 the grass and weeds themselves, at the same time binding them- 

 selves to cause no damage to the young plants, but they actually 

 pay the owner a certain sum of money per hectare for the use of 

 the grass so cut. This means an immense saving of money when 

 large areas have to be dealt with. 



The Swedish forester employs another curious method — one 

 which most Scotch foresters would hesitate to defend — with 

 regard to the cleaning of plants. After the fourth year, 

 they graze the whole area with calves. They maintain that 

 calves eat the grass without doing any damage to the young 

 trees. Personally, the writer would not think it advisable to 

 experiment in this way with Scotch calves; he fears they would 

 not be so discriminating in their taste as the Swedish cattle 

 appear to be. 



A system which is practised in Omberg, and one of which the 

 writer greatly approves, is the rearing of the future crop in small 

 nurseries in convenient centres within the planting-area. This 

 plan not only results in a considerable saving in the carriage of the 

 plants, but it must be of immense benefit to the plants themselves. 

 They are not, as is usually the case, shifted from a warm and well- 

 sheltered nursery to a colder and more exposed situation ; nor are 

 they liable to be damaged by long exposure of their roots to the 

 air, as usually happens when they have to be carried considerable 

 distances ; besides, they have the advantage of being permanently 

 planted in the situation and exposure in which the seed germinated. 



