2 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
forest, being fit for nothing else. Between 500 and 600 acres 
have been enclosed for planting without in any way diminishing 
the value of the deer forest, as none of the good grazing ground 
has been included. The plan adopted was to plant first all the 
ground that could be planted as it stood, and afterwards 
gradually to drain and plant the remainder, if the success of 
the first experiment justified the expense. 
The results of draining and planting in the ordinary Scotch 
fashion have been disappointing. The heavy rainfall, and the 
retentive character of the peat render draining useless unless the 
drains are very close together. The matted texture of living 
peat, which the roots of young plants are very slow to pierce, 
seems also to exaggerate the inherent evils of notching. The 
roots tend to develop in the plane on the notch, and if they have 
been twisted in planting, the root-system has no chance of 
righting itself, and becomes hopelessly deformed. 
A trial is now being made of the system recently perfected 
in Belgium to meet the same difficulties. This system was 
briefly described in the reports of the recent visit of the 
English Arboricultural Society to Belgium. I only wish 
we had heard of it sooner. ‘The moors on the frontier of 
Belgium and Germany very closely resemble ours in soil 
and climate, and in the plants which cover them. A _ proof 
that the resemblance is not superficial is found in the success 
with which Scots grouse have been naturalised there, an ex- 
periment which, as far as I know, has succeeded nowhere else. 
The Belgian Government is now planting so much of these 
moors as is public property up to a level of about 2000 feet, 
and private owners are beginning to follow its example. It was 
found that plants notched into peat at this altitude made no pro- 
gress at all for five or six years. That delay is now avoided by 
setting every plant in the centre of a large turf turned upside down. 
This proceeding is not nearly so expensive as it sounds. The 
ground has to be drained in any case, and numerous shallow 
drains are found to succeed best. These are carefully calculated 
to supply the number of turfs required. The Belgian Govern- 
ment plants very wide, usually at 6 feet both ways,—its object 
being to convert a vast extent of moorland into forest as soon as 
possible. The Government foresters themselves consider this 
distance too wide, and I observed that the plantations on an 
adjoining property were being made at about 4 feet. Let us 
