THE UTILISATION OF DISUSED PIT-BANKS. 3 1 



Planting was commenced in the winter of 1898. Pits were 

 made, and when the trees were planted one or two buckets 

 of soil were put into each pit. There being no information 

 available as to what kinds of trees might be successfully grown, 

 it was determined to plant a mixture, and the result now affords 

 a most interesting object lesson. 



The trees and shrubs presently growing on the bank are : — 

 larch (European), larch (Japanese), mountain pine, Scots pine, 

 spruce, Austrian pine, oak, ash, beech, birch, sycamore, alder, elm, 

 snowberry, cotoneaster, apple, rhododendron, spiraea, mahonia, 

 privet, and a few Douglas firs and white alders planted in the spring 

 of 19 1 2. All of these show strong healthy growth, though 

 canker appears on a few of the larches, and the alders show a 

 tendency to produce seed on some comparatively young trees. 

 The largest trees are larch, Scots pine and birch — the earliest 

 planted of these standing from 18 to 24 feet high. The staff, in 

 two of the accompanying illustrations. Figs, i and 2, is extended 

 to its full length of 14 feet, and the photographs were taken with 

 a view to illustrate the varied planting of the bank, with the 

 free, straight growth of the trees, and to give a general impression 

 of the results attained, rather than to show individual specimens 

 of the tallest trees. Among the hardwoods, oak, ash, beech, 

 sycamore and elm are not numerously represented, but what 

 there are of them warrant their inclusion in any further planting 

 that may be carried out. 



For some years after the bank was first planted little was 

 done in the way of filling up, except the using for that purpose 

 of such plants as were left over after the planting on other parts 

 of the estate was finished in each year. The bank may be 

 termed the dumping ground, for a number of years, of what was 

 left over. Whether trees would grow satisfactorily, and what 

 would be best to use as the main crop, was uncertain. The 

 result is that at the present time the growth on the bank is 

 rather irregular both in age and density. Behind the trees in 

 Fig. 2 lies a sheltered plateau lying on the north side of part of the 

 highest ridge of the bank, on which the trees were so thin on the 

 ground as to warrant the entire clearing and replanting of the 

 area. As there were a quantity of well-rooted Scots pines five and 

 six years old in the nursery, these were used for planting on the 

 cleared plateau in February last. The addition of soil in the 

 pits was then found to be unnecessary. The growth made in 



