Home woods 31 



being in most cases grown for planting gardens and 

 pleasure grounds, should not be used in woodland plant- 

 ing. For that we must go to the forest nursery, which 

 will give us young and healthy seedlings, the best for all 

 purposes of planting. One or two instances of this may 

 convince the planter of the gain of getting very young 

 trees. In planting a field of Larch, some of the plants re- 

 ceived were so very small that the men put them thickly in 

 lines at one side of the field (in stock as it were) to allow 

 them to get bigger. Left there and forgotten, they grew 

 much better than the regularly set-out plants. In another 

 case of planting a field of Corsican and Scotch Pines, 

 mainly small plants, some parts of the field were planted 

 with larger ones, about a yard high, which happened to 

 be in the place, where they stood too close. While the 

 little trees never failed, about two-thirds of those of the 

 larger size perished the first season. Thus will be seen 

 at once the advantage of always getting very young trees 

 in all planting of woodland. 



Time of planting. Where we plant good trees in 

 a liberal way, for which there is so often room to spare 

 in poor ground, a plan seldom followed, but a very good 

 one, is that of dating the wood on a stone block, as in 

 the Oak wood at Althorp ; or on stout iron posts, as 

 in the woods near Virginia Water. It is very interesting 

 when examining a well-grown wood to know its age, 

 which may also be duly recorded in an estate book of 

 planting — a useful book to have on every estate where 

 the woods are of any extent. 



A source of failure. A common source of failure with 

 the nobler evergreen trees is the mixed-muddle way 

 which is common everywhere with us, and fatal as re- 

 gards the evergreen wood. Planters think merely of the 



