Home woods 29 



good from the points of view of shelter, game, or beauty, 

 and, therefore, it is often well to plant some of these 

 small fields with hardy evergreen trees. Never plant 

 such with Californian trees, which are not everywhere 

 successful, but keep to the evergreen trees of Europe 

 Scotch, Silver Fir, Spruce, Corsican, Austrian, White 

 Pine of Canada, and the Cedar of Lebanon, which 

 people use as a pleasure-ground tree only, although it is 

 as easily raised from seed, and as free and vigorous, as 

 any Pine. 



Tail ends of fields running into woods, which often 

 necessitate much fencing within a very small area, are 

 also good places to plant, especially with an evergreen 

 tree which we wish to encourage, as such corners and 

 tail ends are often sheltered by the woods about them. 

 By planting these, and making a simpler line of fence 

 round the field, we improve both the field and the wood, 

 and also lessen the fencing, which is always worth 

 doing. 



Apart from taking advantage of the incidents and 

 nature of the ground, there may be a reason to plant for 

 covert in certain positions, and then we must take what 

 ground we can, always keeping to the principle of mass- 

 ing and grouping rather than the narrow straggling 

 clumps which are so common and, generally, fenced 

 with ugly iron. The larger the mass we plant the easier 

 the fencing becomes and the simpler for everybody, 

 both in making and keeping. For cold and wind-swept 

 districts it is often good to plant on the north and east 

 sides of favourite fields or gardens, and it is pleasant to 

 see how much one can do in the way of shelters with 

 evergreen trees, even in ten years, if we exclude rabbits 

 and choose the right kind of tree. The common idea 



