114 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
plantations would do away with many of the evils enumerated 
above, and, there is little doubt, would prove the most economical 
when forming extensive plantations on poor soils, as there is 
little difficulty in raising Scots fir, larch, and spruce on such 
ground. They should be formed on well-drained slopes falling 
gently away to the west or south-west if possible, and the soil 
should be of the same character as that prevailing over the 
ground. They should be in as sheltered situations as possible, 
but not likely to favour frost. They must be securely fenced 
against game, and the seed-beds should be protected from birds 
by means of wire-netting stretched over the top. The soil should 
be trenched as deep as possible, and, if very poor, should be 
enriched by the addition of leaf-mould, road-scrapings or parings, 
or anything of that nature. Spruce branches should be stuck 
round the outside of the beds when the seed is germinating, 
to shelter it from the wind and sun. The sowing of the seed and 
subsequent treatment of the plants should be the same as carried 
out in ordinary home or public nurseries, but being of slower 
growth, they might stand an additional year in the nursery lines 
before being planted out, and the seed should be sown rather 
tater than usual, as larch is extremely liable to be injured by 
late frosts. The selection of the seed from trees standing in 
similar localities to that of the future plantation should be care- 
fully attended to, and only cones off trees possessing good timber 
qualities and of clean growth should be gathered, as the import- 
ance of this matter to the ultimate success of the plantation is 
often ignored, or neglected, with unsatisfactory results. 
It may be argued that a strong vigorous plant from a public 
nursery is more likely to survive the ordeal of transplanting than 
a weaker and less vigorous one, owing to the greater amount of 
reserve matter stored up in the stem of the former than in the latter, 
and this is, no doubt, perfectly true when both plants have been 
growing under the same conditions, and are subjected to the same 
treatment before being finally planted out; but when the stronger 
plant has several great disadvantages to contend with which are 
not shared by the weaker, the positions of the two plants may be 
considered as reversed. It must also be remembered that the 
embryo growths in the buds of the stronger plant require a 
proportionally larger amount of nourishment to develop them, 
and therefore the apparent advantage in regard to reserve 
material is less than might appear. It must be admitted, then, 
