or 
NOTES ON TREE PLANTING AT SAN JORGE, URUGUAY. 22 
blackwoods and robinias in 10-foot lines, digging but small holes, 
the earth being nicely pulverised for filling in. We had heavy 
rains whilst this work was going on, and the ground being 
sloping, our young plants were frequently washed out and carried 
down to the bottom of the slope,—doubtless many plants were 
thus replanted two or three times,—but as a whole the plantation 
was fairly successful, and I have since invariably ploughed up 
land in midsummer for plantation at the end of winter with 
rooted tree-plants. 
Forms of Plantations.—The first plantation on land purposely 
ploughed up for it was an irregular quadrilateral ; and in subse- 
quent years I planted some parallelograms, some 120 yards, some 
100, and one 80 yards broad, ploughing prairie-land in January, 
cross-ploughing and harrowing in May and June, when the land 
was fenced in with a five-wire elastic fence, and the trees planted 
in rows 10 feet apart. These tree-plants were obtained from 
nurseries made the previous August or September, almost 
entirely of robinia and blackwood. For the very first planta- 
tions I availed myself of young plants of robinia that had sprung 
up from roots of older trees cut down; and every season I have 
some of this class of young plant to put out. 
For the last three or four years I have preferred to plant long 
belts, 40 yards wide; these belts I do not cross-plough ; but a 
second ploughing in May leaves the ground in fair condition. I 
do not think the trees do so well in the narrow belts as in the 
wider plantations; but consider that other gains balance this loss. 
The belts are planted along the side of a field, utilising the field 
fence for one side, and the belt thus soon gives shelter to two 
fields ; and for the same outlay for young trees and plough-work, 
the length of doubled fence, filled in with woods growing between 
two fields, is doubled in proportion to whether the belt be 40 or 
80 yards wide. Thus a narrow belt will sooner completely 
separate the stock of two adjoining fields; and a scabby sheep in 
one field (they always will rub against wires and fence-posts) will 
not then communicate the disease to sheep in an adjoining field. 
The advantage of this especially applies to boundaries with 
neighbours, from whom before long my land will be separated by 
belts of trees. 
Classes of Trees Planted; and Where, and Why.—When the 
ground of a plantation dips, where it crosses a stream or hollow, 
I plant cuttings of poplars and willows about 4 feet apart, even 
