DISEASED TREES 2^1 



struggle with a tangle of weeds of varying density. 

 It will require help, and the giving of this help by 

 freeing it once or twice during the growing season 

 can equally well be done by the woman. Broom, 

 whins, grass, young birch, bracken, etc., may all 

 require removal in favour of the young trees on the 

 area. A plantation of several hundred acres will 

 provide a good deal of work. Again, disease may 

 attack the young plants in early life. Plantations 

 require careful inspection in this respect and the 

 cutting out of all diseased plants, which should be burnt. 

 Also from one cause or another some individuals in a 

 newly formed plantation may die out in the first year 

 or two of their life. All blanks occurring in this fashion 

 require filling in with fresh live plants, work a woman 

 can easily perform. Young plantations of conifers 

 are apt to be attacked by insects. A weevil is es- 

 pecially bad in parts of this country. It breeds in all 

 felling areas and from here the mature beetle spreads 

 into newly planted areas of young trees and infests 

 and kills them. A variety of traps are made use of to 

 get rid of this pest. In Germany this work is usually 

 in the hands of women and girls. The larch sawfly 

 is another pest which women could attend to success- 

 fully. Birds, black game, animals, e.g. deer, also commit 

 injury in plantations. Preventive measures are in 

 force to combat them which women could attend to as 

 well as men. Barking felled trees can be done by 

 women. In fact it may be said at once that the em- 

 ployment of women in the woods would enable a good 

 deal of work to be attended to which in the past has 

 perforce, owing to a paucity of establishment, been 

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