134 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



amongst the thick growth to find your " Cypre " or your 

 " Cedar," but they are there all right. A lot of other species 

 are there too, but if all goes well the object will have been 

 attained, and there will eventually be an area of forest flourish- 

 ing under natural conditions but carrying an increased pro- 

 portion of valuable timber. 



In the second method, young trees grown in a nursery were 

 planted out, just as we plant them at home, only at a greater 

 spacing, for the rate of growth is so much more rapid. This 

 system does not work out quite so well under tropical con- 

 ditions. The transplants being somewhat slower in becoming 

 established, are apt to get overgrown before they have become 

 strong enough to compete in the race with the bush. To 

 afford them a proper chance entails more " cutlassing " than is 

 necessary in either Methods i or 3, and so increases the cost of 

 establishment. 



Mention was made above of a nursery, but a tropical nursery 

 bears no resemblance to what we are accustomed to in Scotland. 

 Nature provides " pots " cheaply in Trinidad, and these are 

 taken full advantage of. Bamboo poles are felled and cut up 

 into lengths averaging roughly about a foot, the cut being made 

 just below each joint. Here is a pot practically ready made, it 

 only remains for a hole to be made with a punch and hammer 

 in the cross-section, which is the joint of the bamboo, for 

 drainage purposes. In this pot the seed is planted, and when 

 the tree is big enough, the pot with the tree growing in it is 

 carried to the forest. A tap is given with a cutlass which splits 

 one side of the pot, the whole of this is planted, tree, pot and 

 all. The action of the soil soon rots the bamboo and the 

 young tree grows through it, the split aiding the disintegration. 



Method 3 has no exact parallel in Scottish silviculture. It is 

 known locally ag "Planting at Stake." Seeds are "planted," 

 one can hardly write " sown," as only one seed is placed in each 

 hole and a little stake or twig is put in to mark the spot. After 

 the initial clearing of the ground the bush need only be kept in 

 check along the rows of seedlings, and this is one point in 

 favour of this method. Then the young tree comes away 

 quicker and much more strongly, it having all the advantage of 

 a spot to germinate in, entirely free of surface vegetation as 

 against Method i, and it does not suffer from the set back 

 entailed in transplanting, as against Method 2. The seedling 



