I 78 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cover the seed, and finally given a light rolling to imbed the 

 seed more firmly in the ground. 



Pigeons and squirrels should be kept off during winter by 

 shooting, else they will devour large quantities of seed 

 which may not have been properly covered. If mice are 

 numerous, poison should be laid in drain pipes so that other 

 animals cannot reach it. Rats will be kept off by the i inch 

 mesh netting. 



When the seedlings are two years old they should be lifted 

 with balls of earth by means of an ordinary garden trowel, and 

 carried on hand-barrows (with a raised edge 4 inches deep 

 all round) to the nursery, where they are laid out in lines 

 15 inches apart, with 4 inches between each plant. 



The garden trowel is again used in this operation, the ground 

 having been prepared to the necessary width, and the line set 

 at 15 inches from the last row. Small holes at 4 inches apart 

 are then cut the exact size of the ball attached to the root of the 

 plant, the plant and ball are inserted and the earth firmed round 

 it with the hand. No treading with the foot is allowed, as this 

 would break the ball of earth round the plant and otherwise 

 injure the roots. 



The great advantage of this method is that the young seed- 

 lings have the shelter of the parent tree for the first two years, 

 which of course would be denied them if the seed were 

 gathered in the usual way and sown in the nursery beds. 



Preventing Frost Lifting in Seed-Beds. — Sowing tree seeds in 

 rows instead of broadcast has lately come more into practice in 

 the nursery, and although this in itself is some protection against 

 frost lifting, it may be found necessary, in some localities, to give 

 the young seedlings some artificial protection for the winter 

 months. I discovered the beneficial effects of mulching or 

 bedding between the rows by accident two years ago. The 

 leaves from a beech tree, which were shed over the wall into 

 the nursery, got drifted by the wind into a sheltered corner 

 where four beds of Menzies' spruce were sown. Two of the 

 beds were covered with the leaves, and owing to pressure of 

 other work at the time they were not removed. The result was 

 that the other two beds were lifted by a black frost in February, 

 and they had all to be gone over and pricked in again, and the 

 ground firmed about them, while not a plant was stirred in the 

 two beds covered by the leaves. 



