60 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
the seed is good, about 20 lbs. per acre is sufficient for cover 
purposes. The patch should be fenced so as to exclude cattle and 
sheep. If the gorse occupies a rather prominent position, the 
effect on the landscape might be rendered more pleasing by plant- 
ing some nice specimen spruces, or other conifers, at intervals of 12 
to 15 yards apart. These plants would, however, require to be 
encl sed with wire netting, so as to protect them from the rabbits. 
If properly managed, the gorse will form splendid rabbit cover in 
two years from time of sowing. 
Artificial gorse, as a rule, is very apt to run up tall, instead of 
assuming the compact, bushy habit peculiar to the natural growth, 
and especially if it is grown thick on a pretty good soil. In this 
condition it is very liable to be blown down, or crushed with snow, 
and the one-half smothers the other in a very short time. This 
might be prevented by going over it when about two years old, and 
switching off all the long leaders with a sharp hedge-bill, repeating 
the operation every year, which would tend to encourage a thick 
growth, and allow the gorse to come up very gradually. 
Of course it will be apt to’ run out in course of time, so that 
cutting or burning will have to be attended to, as in the natural 
growth, but if kept comparatively low, it may last for many years. 
If a patch of gorse is grown on one side of a plantation, it forms 
a valuable addition to the game cover. It makes a splendid head- 
ing corner, the birds being forced gradually out of it, and there is 
generally capital sport among the rabbits. Heather and bracken 
are both good natural undercover, but they are generally qualified 
to look after themselves. 
All masses of game cover should always be well intersected with 
shooting tracks, so as to give the guns every opportunity of reach- 
ing the game; and sometimes, in very thick places, it is necessary to 
cut little zig-zag paths for the beaters, so as to enable them to work 
the game out properly. 
