2180 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PARTJIl. 



tula, with a handle about 1 ft. 6 in. in length ; and, laying the plant up to the 

 neck, tread down the raised sod with the toot. In this method, two men may 

 plant 1000 plants in a day. When the ground is rocky, or very stony, I use 

 a dibble shod with iron, having a cleft at the extremity to lead down the root, 

 putting the plants into the ground in the manner that cabbages are planted. 

 One man will plant as many in this way as two in the other ; yet the first 

 method is preferable where the ground admits of it, as 1 have always observed 

 fewer plants to fail by it. My reason for planting direct from the seed-bed, 

 without transplanting in a nursery, is, that it comes nearest to the operation 

 of nature. Plants that have been removed from the seed-bed, and trans- 

 planted in the nursery, must necessarily have their roots pruned considerably 

 before they can be planted in pits of the kind above described, v.'hich adds 

 greatly to the expense. Besides, nursing causes a luxuriant growth in this 

 hardy mountainous tree, which spoils its nature, and robs it of longevity." 

 {Hunt. Ere/. Syh, i. p. 290.) 



Culture in Plantations. Little remains to be added to what has been said 

 on this subject in our general introduction to the ^ibietins, p. 2132. The 

 Scotch pine, when planted with a view to the production of timber, should 

 always be in large masses ; and when with a view to ornament, in single trees 

 or in small groups. It should never be planted in belts, or in narrow plan- 

 tations, unless the plants are thinned out, so as to admit of their retaining 

 their branches Irom the ground upwards ; in which case the timber produced 

 will be of little use. When the plantations are made on a surface that is 

 tolerably even and regular, the plants should always be inserted in lines, for 

 the greater convenience of future culture ; but when the surface is rocky, 

 steep, and in other respects irregular, the plants can only be put in accord- 

 ingly. The nice points in the management of Scotch pine plantations are, 

 the thinning and pruning ; both of which should be performed very sparingly, 

 where tall clean timber is the object in view. Both operations must be guided, 

 in a great measure, by the quantity of timber which the soil is estimated to 

 produce on a given space. 



The Culture of the Scotch Pine in the North of Scotland has been thus 

 detailed to us by Macpherson Grant, Esq. of Ballindalloch, in Inverness-shire, 

 a successful and very extensive planter : — " In the northern counties of 

 Scotland, the Pinus sylvestris has for a long time been pretty extensively 

 planted ; and, although this is the native locality of the tree, it has been very 

 generally remarked that the artificial are very inferior to the natural woods. 

 Much discussion had arisen, and many theories had been broached, to 

 explain this inferiorit}', till it was at length suggested that it might very 

 probably be caused by the circumstance of the seed, from which the plants 

 were produced, being collected from unhealthy and stunted trees, in districts 

 more accessible than those in which the tree attains its greatest perfection. 

 Premiums for the greatest quantity of plants grown from seed gathered in the 

 natural forests have for some years been offered by the Highland and Agri- 

 cultural Society of Scotland; and have been awarded to Mr. Grigor, nursery- 

 man at Elgin, who has taken great |)ains to further this object, and wlio last 

 year likewise obtained a premium for the best Report on the Xatural Forests of 

 Scotland. (See p. 2 165.) Until within thelast20years,|)lantations, in this part of 

 the country, were formed of Scotcii pine alone ; but it is now usual to mix them 

 with larch in nearly equal proportions; and here we plant about two larches 

 to one pine. The Scotch pines are procured from the nurserymen two-ycars- 

 old seedlings ; and they are placed at once on the hilly ground, where they are 

 finally to remain. A workman, with a common S|)ade, makes a double cut at 

 right angles, like the letter T,thus H ; raising the turf slightly with the spade, so 

 as to admit the insertion of the plant at the point where the two cuts meet : 

 a woman or boy follows with the plants; and, having placed one in the open- 

 ing, compresses the turf by stamping on it with the foot. In this manner, a 

 man and boy will plant about 1000 in a winter day (six hours). The number 

 of plants is about 5000 to the imperial acre. The larches are of the same 



