68 SOWING AND PLANTING IN THE FOREST 



Notch-planting. This is usually performed with an ordinary 

 spade, an L or T shaped cut being made in the ground. The 

 handle of the spade being pressed downwards, the slit in the 

 ground is opened, and a young plant is inserted. The spade 

 is then withdrawn and the soil is firmed with the foot. This 

 method has been largely used for planting one and two year 

 seedlings of larch and pine, but it cannot be recommended, as 

 the roots are usually bent over into an unnatural position and 

 do not get a firm hold on the ground. Trees planted thus are 

 very apt to get blown down later on, more especially as the 

 method can only be carried out on light sandy soils ; if tried 

 on stiff soils the plantation is almost bound to be a failure, as 

 the roots get compressed out of shape, and also because the 

 slits in the ground often open out in dry weather. On light 

 soils, free from stones, the advantages of notch-planting, 

 cheapness and rapidity, may be retained, while getting rid of 

 the defects of the system, by using Schlich's vertical notching 

 spade ; this is a heavy V-shaped spade which makes a verti- 

 cal cut into the ground some 10 inches deep. The plant is 

 inserted by a boy with its roots going straight downwards, 

 and the spade is then slantingly inserted two or three inches 

 away, and being pushed backwards and forwards the hole is 

 closed. The author planted with this spade 16,000 Scotch 

 pine and 6,000 Corsican pine, two-year seedlings, in autumn 

 1905, and in spite of the very dry summer of 1906, in July, 

 1907, there were 90 per cent, of the Scotch pine and 80 per 

 cent, of the Corsican in a flourishing condition. During the 

 short autumn days a man and boy, working together, planted 

 between 900 and 1,000 plants a day, and with a little more 

 practice would have been able to improve upon this. If this 

 spade is used on land covered with short growth of heather it 

 is advisable to clear about one square foot of the surface round 

 the planting spot with a hoe, as this enables the plants to get 

 a start, and it is easier afterwards to discover failures. 



Peg-planting. Where the soil is sandy, the surface free from 



