PLANTING 



CHAPTER III. 



Of the different modes of rearing forest-trees : By sowing the seeds on the 

 spot where they are to remain for timber. By sowing the seeds on 

 nursery beds, and afterward* transplanting the young trees to their 

 timber sites. Modes of propagating and of transplanting, preserving, 

 and training, proper shoots or suckers produced by coppice roots or 

 stools. Comparative advantages and disadvantages of the different 

 modes ; and of simple and mixed plantations. 



BI-FORE the seeds of forest-trees are sown on the spots where the plants 

 are to remain for the produce of timber, or the young trees are trans- 

 planted from nursery beds to their timber sites, the land should be fenced 

 and properly prepared for their reception. As fences, however, are con- 

 structed of various materials, turf, or earth, stones, wood, and thorns, or 

 other armed shrubs, and the judicious adoption of the best kind of fence 

 depending on local circumstances, this part of the subject, perhaps, may 

 be more conveniently discussed under a separate head. It has been 

 supposed, with good reason, but certainly without the evidence of such 

 clear and undisputable facts as are absolutely necessary to bring full con- 

 viction to practical men, that when forest-trees are reared immediately 

 from seed, and consequently whose tap roots, proper roots, and rootlets 

 have never been disturbed or curtailed, they grow faster, attain to earlier 

 maturity, and produce sounder timber, than such as are transplanted from 

 nurseries. The facts brought forward respecting the structure and growth 

 of trees confirm this opinion ; but when useful or profitable planting is the 

 object of the planter, it is necessary to inquire whether these apparent 

 advantages are not lost for the most part, or entirely, in the extra cost or 

 expense which attends the execution of this method, in comparison to that 

 of transplanting ; or whether the extra feet of timber, that may be thus 

 gained, will repay with profit the increased cost of production. A detail 

 of the different processes of these two first-mentioned modes of rearing 

 forest-trees may assist materially in coming to a just conclusion on this 

 important question. The oak being one of the most valuable of forest- 

 tree.s and its roots penetrating more directly, and to a greater depth in the 

 subsoil than those of any other tree approximating to it in value, it has been 

 thought to suffer great injury by transplanting, and lias, therefore, been 

 chiefly insisted upon to be raised immediately from seed on its timber site. 

 Should the land on which it is intended to rear oak immediately from 

 I, be not in a clear state of tillage, it must be brought into that state 

 by the most eligible means; these, of course, will depend on the nature 

 of the soil and condition of its surface. If the soil to be sown is clayey 

 and tenacious, retentive of moisture, and covered with coarse plants, as 

 _:TS (carix), rushes (juncus), thistles (carduus), and turfy hair-grass 

 (aiia cii'-pito-a), the- surface should l>e pared and burnt, the ashes care- 

 fully applied, and the soil ploughed as dee]) as the nature of the subsoil 

 will permit. It should have a clear out summer fallow, with repetitions of 

 cros.s ploughing and harrowing, ;1S often as is necessary, to bring 

 the land to a friable and deep tilth. It should be ploughed into ridges 

 twelve feet wide, sufficiently high to give an inclination from the 

 crowns of the ridges on each hand to carry <>H' sill surface water, and be 

 well water-furrowed. A dressing should be applied of compost of dung, 

 coal ashes, road scrapings, sand, &c., or any other manure that can be 

 procured, which may have a tendency to divide the texture of the tenacious 

 soil, and make the tilth friable and deep. This part of the process will 

 be found highly useful, and also necessary to insure a well-founded hope' 



