230 AFFORESTATION OF WASTE LANDS 



be carried on over many years. Nevertheless, as far as possible 

 planting should proceed against the wind direction. Planting 

 on waste lands will ordinarily be done by notching, or with 

 the mattock, as described in Chapter V. Where the land is 

 flat enough it will be a great advantage if a plough can be 

 used to loosen the soil in furrows at the proper distance apart. 

 The distance apart should be kept as small as possible con- 

 sistent with expense, so as to get a cover over the ground at 

 the earliest possible date. The transport of plants will be 

 a heavy item of expense, and it will be economical to form 

 a nursery on the area at an early date, so as to supply plants 

 as cheaply as possible. It is cheaper and better to use a piece 

 of land already used for agriculture, than to prepare a nursery 

 on uncultivated land, and it is often possible to find a piece of 

 suitable land on a farm near by. 



Filling in blanks. 



Owing to the present heavy expense in planting, it is 

 necessary to plant at rather large distances apart, and it 

 is therefore all the more necessary to fill up all failures, as the 

 death of three or four plants in a place will lead to a big gap. 

 For the first two years after planting, therefore, it is essential 

 that all blanks and failures be filled up. They may be filled 

 with the same species as before, but, in larch plantations 

 especially, this is a good opportunity to bring in an admixture 

 of beech, by filling up all failures with this species. 



Weeding. 



All plantations should be looked at annually, and the 

 necessary weeding must be done. As long as the weeds are 

 doing no real harm, expense should be saved ; but when it is 

 found that the plants are beginning to get smothered, weeding 

 is essential. It is a mere waste of money to plant and then 

 to try to save expense by not carrying out necessary weeding. 

 Nevertheless, the tendency is to do more weeding than is really 

 needed, and this should be guarded against. 



