FORESTRY WORK BY BOY SCOUTS AND SCHOOLBOYS. 1 63 



useless to stay any longer in these conditions, so we departed 

 for Kelso. 



"The second squad came up on Tuesday of the following 

 week. For two days the weather was still unpropitious. But it 

 gradually improved, and on the third week it was almost ideal. 

 After doing some fencing, we got to real forestry work, i.e. 

 planting out four-year-old Scots pines. The method of pro- 

 cedure was as follows — the squad of six men went along and 

 each made a slit like the letter L, raising up the sod into which 

 a boy inserted a tree, and heeled it tightly round. One boy 

 could attend two men easily, whilst some carried the trees. It 

 was surprising how quickly the trees could be planted by this 

 method. They were planted in rows three feet apart, each tree 

 three feet from its neighbour. 



" Another method of planting is by pitting the trees. This is 

 adopted where the ground is full of the roots of the trees that 

 have been cut down, or when the trees are too big and old to be 

 put in by slitting. A hole about a foot square is dug out — not 

 an easy job sometimes. Into one of the corners a five-year-old 

 Scots pine is placed, and the loose earth, and finally the sod, 

 placed around it. The scouts, following the men who made 

 the pits, planted the trees. At this we soon became quite 

 expert. 



" We then did a little beating up, as it is called, t.e. planting 

 a tree in the place of one that had died, or beside one which 

 was rather delicate and sickly. By slitting and pitting we 

 reckoned we had planted 20,000 trees, calculating about 4000 

 trees to the acre. The number of trees that can be filled into 

 a little space absolutely surprised us. 



"Our last job was in the nursery. Here a high degree of 

 skill and care is required ; but we soon proved equal to the 

 occasion, and were of great assistance. A bed of two-year-old 

 larch had to be planted out. One man dug the plants out of 

 the seed-bed and graded them into first and second qualities. 

 The other six men set to work on a piece of fine loamy ground. 

 The soil must be of the nature of that used for moulding, i.e. 

 must stand up well when cut through with a spade. An 

 almost vertical trench about 9 inches deep was cut out, and 

 against the side of this the young larches were placed between 

 3 and 4 inches apart. They were held in position with a hand- 

 ful of soil. Whilst the boys were doing this the men followed 



