26 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



labour, cheap and rubbishy planting material, method of 

 planting, e.^. notching where pitting should be adopted, cheap 

 and therefore poor type of seed from which the plants are 

 raised. 



The cost of the labour involved in the preparation of nursery 

 ground, the formation and sowing of seed-beds, the lifting, 

 assorting, and transference of seedlings to the transplant lines, 

 the protection and tending of both seedlings and transplants 

 together with the rent of the ground, represent the difference 

 between the cost of the seed and the value of the transplants 

 produced. The value of the transplants ready for planting in 

 the forest may easily be fifteen times that of the seed. Therefore 

 the use of cheap seed of an unsuitable type of tree or of poor 

 germinative quality, would be false economy when we consider 

 the subsequent outlay necessary, not only to produce planting 

 material but to bring that material to timber dimensions. 



The present time finds us up against new conditions : a 

 greatly accelerated planting programme and a limited amount 

 of planting material and seed. We must make the best of both 

 and exercise due economy combined with efficiency, and true 

 economy lies in a saving of planting material and labour. 



Planting density therefore requires to be carefully considered. 

 It may be pointed out at once that the number of plants and the 

 cost of planting varies inversely with the square of the planting 

 distance. At 3 feet 4840 plants are required, while at 6 feet 

 only one quarter of that number, or 12 10 plants are required. 

 Now with material and labour limited and dear, it is evidently 

 worth while paying special attention to the cost of an operation 

 which is so delicately adjusted as to vary in multiples of the 

 differences of distances. With abundant plants and labour at a 

 comparatively low rate of cost, and a desire for immediate effect 

 in establishment of cover for amenity and game, our system of 

 close planting has developed, with also a certain amount of 

 misconception of what is understood to be the practice on the 

 Continent. We must keep in mind that continental foresters in 

 speaking of planting distances are frequently referring to the 

 planting of young and therefore small seedlings. These they 

 put in in close spacing in the light sandy tracts of places like 

 Nuremberg, which many members of this Society have seen. 

 But when the continental forester is dealing with transplants, he 

 speaks of distances like (1-3 to 1-5 m.) 4^ to 5 feet in the case of 



