TREES BEST ADAPTED FOR VARIOUS SOILS. 255 
Peat.—Few trees will succeed well on an unreclaimed peat bog, 
but where draining and soiling have been attended to at the out- 
set, the numbers that grow and produce a fair amount of valuable 
timber are almost without limit among our generally cultivated 
trees. On recently examining several large plantations that were 
formed eighteen years ago on deep peat, on an estate in Ulster 
within a few miles of Lough Neagh, a useful lesson was learnt as 
to the best trees for planting on this kind of soil. Previous to being 
planted, the peat was generally of the kind which is largely used 
for fuel in Ireland, deep, damp, and in some places almost a quag- 
mire, yielding to the tread, and unsafe to stand upon. A wide 
and deep ditch was opened along the lowest part of the ground, 
and smaller drains run at nearly right angles to the main, usually 
in the damper places where they were most required. This was 
carried out fully a year before planting, and it had a decided 
effect in consolidating the ground for pitting in the following 
autumn. In summer the heath, in many places fully a yard in 
length, was closely burned. Pits, about 18 inches square and 
nearly as deep, were then opened at 3 feet apart, and left exposed 
to the frost during the winter. The following March and April 
soiling and planting were carried on at the same time. ‘The soil 
used was rather stiff clayey loam brought from some distance, 
spadefuls of which were incorporated with the peat previous to 
filling the hole. 
The cost of preparing the ground before planting is apart from 
the subject of this paper, suffice it then to say that the results 
thus obtained warrant the recommending of such a method in 
connection with this class of soil. 
Among conifers that have proved themselves suitable for bog- 
planting are the Larch, Scots Pine, Common and Black Spruces 
(Abies excelsa and A. nigra). The Larch grows rapidly, and is 
perfectly free from disease ; indeed, I cannot remember having 
seen a trace of any of the diseases which have rendered the larch 
so precarious a tree in this country. In thinning a larch planta- 
tion of fully sixty years’ growth I found the trees felled to be 
perfectly healthy, and of exceptional quality, with on an average 
72 feet of wood in each. The subsoil was clay, and the bog 
previous to being planted had been cut over for fuel. Drainage 
and soiling of the pits had been duly attended to. In young 
larch plantations on deep peat bog, previously drained and soiled 
in the way above described, I have found the cubic contents to be 
