lO TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



nurserymen of Great Britain have met us very fairly. They 

 have had, undoubtedly, a very great shortage of transplants at 

 the present time, but I would like to point out that the charge 

 they make for 2-year seedlings is low, in fact in many cases 

 it compares quite favourably with pre-war charges. I speak 

 from memory, but as far as I can remember the price of 

 2-year seedlings for Sitka was los. per looo, quite a reasonable 

 price. The price, I think, for Norway spruce was 7s. 6d., and 

 Douglas ranged about 20s. for 2-year seedlings. Thus if you 

 plant some of those species as 2-year seedlings, or even if 

 you take them from the public nurseries and line them out at 

 4s. 6d., and allowing 3s. say for tending during the summer 

 months, it means you can plant Douglas and Sitka at no very 

 high price. The only other point I would like to make reference 

 to is spacing. As far as our experience goes — and we have had 

 a very considerable investigation on this point, because 

 obviously we want to get the whole advantage of past ex- 

 perience — we find that 4 ft. 6 ins. seems a reasonable distance 

 at which to plant Scots pine, although perhaps we could go as 

 far as 6 feet for Douglas and 5 ft. 6 ins. for larch. We have 

 seen many plantations where those distances were quite 

 justified. The widest spacing I have seen was 9 feet at Avon- 

 dale, but here, undoubtedly, there were not enough perfectly 

 formed trees to the acre to yield what would eventually form a 

 satisfactory crop. I think this plantation was about 15 to 18 

 years old, but we have also seen several other plantations where 

 successful crops have been established by planting at 7 feet 

 apart. And may I raise a point about planting 2-year-old 

 seedlings ? Where it can be done the method is cheap, but 

 where rabbits are abundant 2-year seedlings suffer a tremendous 

 amount of damage, more in my experience than 2-year i-year 

 transplants. In our experience of the drought, which was 

 exceptional, over a wide area of Great Britain during the past 

 year, we found that 2-year seedlings did not resist so well 

 as 2-year i-year transplants. Such material, well heeled in, 

 gave better and larger plants. Our Divisional Officers' reports 

 show that 2-year i-year transplants seemed to be, on the whole, 

 more resistant to really severe drought conditions than 2-year 

 seedlings. If we want to reduce the initial cost of plantations, 

 and at the same time to have them well looked after during the 

 whole period of their growth, I think we shall have to increase 



