404 PROTECTION AGAINST PLANTS. 



varieties of this species, termed blackberry or dewberry 

 bushes, the latter (R. caesius, L.) growing in moister localities 

 than the common blackberry, which prefers well-drained soils 

 and hedgerows. 



Brambles frequently cover large areas in fresh and moist 

 soils, sending out new suckers every year. To keep down 

 these widespread pests of the forester, seeding-fellings should 

 be dark. Admission of cattle is also useful. In case there be 

 a dense growth of brambles on the ground it should be 

 trampled down round plants that require protection, or be 

 beaten down with a billhook. Brambles should be cut as little 

 as possible, as this only increases the production of suckers. 

 Plants which they are crowding should be set upright, and 

 their branchlets placed over the brambles. If this be done 

 early in the summer then little will be needed in the autumn, but 

 it may be necessary to repeat the operation the succeeding 

 year ; by the second winter, the plants will probably get out of 

 reach of the brambles. Cutting or digging up the brambles 

 is expensive, and not ^o effectual as the above procedure. 

 Where a reproduction area is overgrown with brambles, and 

 there is little natural regeneration, it will be better at once to 

 plant up the area. 



(c) Raspberry (Rubus Idaeus, L.). This grows chiefly on 

 fertile but stony soils rich in humus. Its habit is straight, 

 and it does not produce such dense growth from suckers as 

 the bramble, but may become dangerous, and should then be 

 treated similarly to the latter. Grazing has a very repressive 

 effect on the growth of raspberry canes. 



d. Hawthorn (Crataegus Oxyacantha, L.). 



Hawthorn is not particular about locality, and is widely 

 spread up to altitudes of 3,000 feet. The rich shoots and 

 extensive root-system of this slow-growing shrub, which attains 

 a height of 20 feet, are destructive to young conifers, but in 

 forests open to grazing it protects oak, ash, maple, and other 

 broadleaved trees until they have grown above it, when it 

 forms a thorny defence around them until they are too large 

 to be injured by cattle. It also forms capital hedges, bearing 

 trimming well, and shelters the nests of many useful birds 



