Mountain and hill and down planting 119 



land into forest as soon as possible. The Government 

 foresters themselves consider this distance too wide, and 

 I observed that the plantations on an adjoining property were 

 being made at about 4 feet. Let us take this example as 

 better suited to Scotland. To plant at about 4 feet, drains 

 will be required every 12 feet, with three rows of plants 

 between. If they are made 2 feet wide at the top, tapering 

 to 15 inches at the bottom, and 10 inches deep, and the turfs 

 are cut every 20 inches, the drain will yield exactly the 

 number and size of turfs required. As the drain is formed, 

 the first, second, and third turfs are thrown alternately to left 

 and right, always face downwards. 



' The turfs are left for a year. By that time the ground 

 has begun to dry, the turfs have sunk considerably, and the 

 herbage below them has begun to decay. They are not good 

 subjects for notching, as the notches would be apt to gape in 

 dry weather. But they are very good subjects for what may 

 be called miniature pit-planting. A heap is made of the best 

 soil or gravel available near the spot, and this, if pure, is 

 mixed with basic slag, about half an ounce of slag to the cubic 

 foot of soil. The planter cuts a circular plug from the centre 

 of each turf with a long-handled planting tool, leaving a hole 

 deep enough to allow the roots of the young plant to be spread 

 out to their full depth. In this hole the tree is planted with 

 two small handfuls of the prepared soil, while the plug is 

 broken up to fill in the top. 



'Trees planted in this fashion seem to suffer little more 

 interruption in their growth than would be occasioned by 

 a move from one part of the nursery to another. The extra 

 expense is partly made up by the use of smaller plants, which 

 soon outgrow larger plants which have been notched into 

 natural surfaces five or six years earlier. On the Belgian 

 moors, where they plant little except Spruce, these are usually 

 four years old (two years in the seed-bed, and two years trans- 

 planted). But Scots Pine, two years old, would be quite 

 suitable for the purpose, and could be taken straight from the 

 nursery if they had not been sown too thick.* Transactions 

 Scottish Arboricultural Society. 



