372 TRANSACTIONS OF KOYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



uiuler more favourable circunistancea, tbey are doing remarkably 

 well. One is planted on a small patch of ground where an aged 

 crop of timber had been nearly all blown down ; and the other on 

 ground where the trees are not growing very close together. Both 

 are planted with evergreen privet and common rhododendrons in 

 drift-sand. As yet the rabbits have not found admittance to 

 either of them, although the fences are of the same height and 

 material as that already described. 



In order that tlie covert may be made as good as possible, I 

 would recommend that where the underwood or shrubs are growing 

 densely, they should be cut over about 18 inches above the ground ; 

 but where they are scant and straggling, they should be laid over, 

 cutting the strong shoots half through, so as to make them easier 

 bent, and securely peg them to the ground, into which they soon 

 root and grow. Thus the covert will be extended, and ultimately 

 it will become as dense as may be desired. As the tree canopy 

 increases in density it ought to be reduced by thinning the over- 

 hanging branches, or by taking out some of the timber trees. 



Another wood of about 1 1 acres, upon which a heavy crop 

 of beech and oak grows at about 40 feet apart, was planted with 

 a few conifers in the larger openings, and the whole area filled 

 with a mixture of hazel and privet. This was done ten years 

 ago, and is now an excellent covert, whilst before it was only a 

 bare piece of ground with scarcely a vestige of herbage upon it. 

 The conifers might now be cut out, being of a size suitable for 

 use, and the hazel and the privet cut over, or pegged down, to 

 thicken and increase the covert. 



Instances might be multiplied to any extent ; but the chief 

 question is, For what kind of game are the coverts to be formed ] 

 if for pheasants, or for fox coverts, a variety of plants may be 

 used, and details of their success can be enumerated ; but if hares 

 and rabbits are allowed to become numerous in coverts, I do not 

 know of any class of plants which they will not destroy, exce})t 

 it may be the elder and rhododendron. Lycesteria formosa has 

 been named as another shrub which the rabbit will not touch, 

 Vjut they are attacked where I have planted them quite as soon 

 as any other shrub. 



In marshy land in mountainous districts, the candleberry 

 myrtle or sweet gale {Myrica gale) makes an admirable covert ; 

 ■AO also does the hazel on the drier spots. On peaty soil the 

 " Salal " of North-West America, Gaultheria Shallon, is also an 



