26 TRANSACTIONS Ol ROYAL SCOTTISH ARIiORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



when there is a hard frost, as at any other time the cart-wheels 

 would sink. All the sweepings from the hay-loft are also 

 deposited amongst the young trees, so that the ground quickly 

 becomes covered with a vegetation of weeds and grasses. The 

 sowing of Lupin has not been found to give good results, but 

 broom comes up thickly wherever handfuls of the seeds are 

 scattered, and is often afterwards transplanted to other places 

 which are in process of being fixed. 



Fencing. — The area to be planted is enclosed with wire-netting, 

 as rabbits are plentiful. Only one, or at most two, wires are used 

 to support the netting, so that the fencing is not expensive. 



Planting. — In planting, a V-shaped notch is made with an 

 ordinary spade or with one of the Schlich pattern with a very 

 broad top. The plant is then inserted, and the sand simply 

 forced into the hole with the foot. The best time for planting is 

 towards the end of March or the beginning of April. It is 

 advisable, if possible, to plant immediately after rain, as, if the 

 sand is not moist on the surface, it must be scraped away until a 

 moist layer is reached. Two year seedlings are always used. 

 The cost of planting is not high. 



Cost of labour .... los. per acre. 



Cost of carting brushwood, 4 loads per acre . 4s. 

 Plants, 4s. 6d. per thousand . 13s. 



Total . . 27s. 



Or, say, 30s. per acre exclusive of fencing. 

 Some 30 to 40 acres were planted in this fashion amongst the 

 great sand-hillfe about eight years ago. The species mostly used 

 was Corsican pine ; but Banksian pine, Douglas fir and larch 

 were planted in subordinate numbers. The Corsican pine has 

 proved itself the most suitable, and is now the only species 

 planted. During the last three or four years another area of 

 40 to 50 acres has been planted with it in the very midst of the 

 large hills, and the plantation has again proved successful. It 

 seems wonderful that these young plants do not become buried 

 in the sand which, in spite of the care that has been taken to fix 

 it, is continually being driven hither and thither by the wind. 

 The young plants are almost covered over again and again ; but, 

 so long as the tips of their long, conical end buds keep above 

 the sand, they manage to come away. 



The Binsness plantations will undoubtedly in years to come 



