154 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



Grigor also, writing in the last edition of his " Arboriculture " 

 on sea side planting, says : "that the willow has no rival 

 among deciduous trees for planting as shelter to other trees, 

 a statement which we can corroborate from observation. 

 We have not seen the experiment tried, but we have little 

 doubt, from what we have seen of the willow's behaviour on 

 poor sand banks, that it would be one of the best of nurses in 

 such situations, provided it was planted one or two years before 

 the permanent crop was put in and planted thick enough. 

 Good sized cuttings inserted deeply enough would answer 

 very well. After the permanent crop became established, the 

 willows could be gradually removed. On the bleak sand 

 dunes of Gascony, the French foresters sowed seeds of Pinus 

 pinaster and broom at the rate of two pounds of the former 

 to five pounds of the latter to the acre, and in a little over 

 twenty years many acres of thriving plantations were thus 

 established. The broom was the nurse in this case. Any- 

 thing in the shape of low bush or grass, to bind the drifting 

 sands, or dead brush-wood or furze laid amongst the trees to 

 prevent the sand from blowing, appears to answer the purpose, 

 and in a few years the trees can take care of themselves. 

 These are the only difficulties to contend with, and once 

 overcome success is certain." We would recommend planting 

 instead of sowing. 



The preparation of the trees for sea side planting is, 

 however, an important matter. They ought to be procured 

 when only one or two years old, and nursed for a year or two 

 in the locality and soil in which they are to be finally planted. 

 In sand bank localities there are usually plenty of spots on 

 which a nursery could be readily extemporised, and in which 

 the little trees could be grown till they are one or two feet 

 high and fit to plant out in the usual way. Barring the few 

 difficulties described, we do not know any description of 

 land that may be so easily and so profitably planted as sand 

 banks near the sea coast, and on some estates there is plenty 

 of scope for the reclamation of such lands by planting. 



