114 PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



room for a variety of treatment — a fortimate circum- 

 stance when the planting is extensive^ as it enables the 

 improver to have his work better executed than it would 

 be were he obliged to confine his operations to a few 

 weeks at a time. Six months in winter^ inclusive of 

 November and April, are the utmost limits within which 

 planting may be hazarded. Indeed, April and one-half 

 of March should be excluded except in late seasons, or 

 in high, cold, and wet grounds. On light, dry soils the 

 best season is at the beginning of winter, and on heavy 

 and moist situations towards its close. Very wet, snowy, 

 or frosty weather presents the only interruptions to the 

 progress of planting; in some years these will reduce 

 the planting season to within half the period stated 

 above. 



Pitting, though the most expensive, is the most cer- 

 tain method of planting, and therefore should be adopted 

 in the woods of the park. The only allowable exception 

 to this rule would be the use of the slit or T manner of 

 inserting the trees, which, in exposed localities, and with 

 seedlings, will less subject the plants to wind- waving, 

 and so will be more successful than ordinary pitting. 

 The trees may be planted at from three and a half to 

 four and a half feet apart, according to the soil and 

 situation — these distances including both the nursing 

 and the principal trees. In hardwood plantations such 

 intervals will place the trees from seven feet to nine feet 

 apart. Larch, spruce, and Scotch firs make excellent 

 nurses, and are extremely useful in yielding shelter, and 

 in drawing up the hardwood into tall clean trunks. In 

 sheltered situations and in good soils such nurses may 

 be omitted. Masses of hardwood are sometimes re- 

 quired to produce particular eifects, and in these cases 



