PLANTING. 



57 



plate is furnished with sharp steel edges riveted to it {Jig. 10, c). The 

 fixed share (a, Jig. 10), which divides the turf for each side of the double 



Fig. 9. 



nioldboard, is six inches high at the 

 shoulder, with a sharp edge tapering 

 to a point at (6). The sole of the 

 plough is screwed and bolted to the 

 instrument by the bolt sockets (e), 

 and the nut screw sockets (<f). The 

 f base of the triangular plate f(Jig.9) 

 is twenty-one inches, with a curve 

 of one inch, which facilitates the 

 action of the instrument when paring 

 in gravelly or stony ground. The 

 whole length of the plate is thirty- 

 five inches from the base ( /*) to the 

 point of the share (6). Wherever 

 the land is of a moderately level 

 surface, and when paring is de- 

 sirable, this plough will be found 

 a valuable implement. The whole 

 surface may be pared as in clayey 

 soils, where burning the turf is 

 essential ; or spaces of twenty-one 

 inches, as in heath soils, may be pared off with intervals of thirteen 

 inches, on which the reversed turf may rest to decay, and become food 

 for the roots of the trees. When the soil is of sufficient depth to allow 

 of trenching, the common plough, following the track of the paring 

 plough, will effect this object at a comparatively small expense. 



Much difference of opinion prevails on the comparative advantages and 

 disadvantages of trenching ground for forest trees ; nothing is more certain 

 than that trenching and manuring is more advantageous to the trees than 

 holing, or any other mode of preparation. But there are certain soils which 

 will produce valuable timber, and that cannot be ploughed or trenched ; these 

 have already been mentioned : there are others which are capable of re- 

 ceiving benefit from this mode of preparation, but where it would be inex- 

 pedient to bestow it. There is one instance in which trenching cannot 

 on any account be dispensed with, which is that of ground near a mansion, 

 where the value of trees in respect to landscape effect, shelter, shade, 

 concealment, and the improvement of local climate, have equal if not 

 superior claims to that of the actual value of the timber produced by 

 the individual trees of the plantation. The question as regards other sites 

 and soils, intermediate between these two now mentioned, and of a nature 

 as regards texture and quality similar to the soils described in Chapter IV., 

 under the numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6, which are capable of rearing mixed plan- 

 tation, or a variety of different species of forest trees in perfection, the 

 process of trenching or ploughing, and also manuring when possible, 

 ought to be adopted. In this instance, however, it is highly necessary, 

 before adopting the more expensive preparation, to ascertain exactly the 

 cost of each mode of planting, and the probable return of profit from 

 the outlay. As many local circumstances interfere with the performance 

 of these different processes, as the comparative cheapness of labour, of 

 manure, the facility of obtaining the most proper sized plants, to anticipate 

 two or three years' earlier return of produce, &c., it would be of little use 

 here to give any calculations of expense and profits, as data by which to 

 estimate the results of either mode of practice, that would be applicable 



