574 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



mer pitting, and the site not bleak, plants of such hard woods as stole may be used whose 

 stems are an inch or more in diameter. 



3652. Nicol is of opinion, *' That generally trees three, or at most four years old from 

 the seed, and which are from twelve to twenty-four inches high, will, in any situation or 

 soil, outgrow those of any size under eight or ten feet, within the seventh year." {Pract. 

 Plant. 130.) 



3653. Sang observes, " The size of plants for exclusive plantations must, in some mea- 

 sure, depend on their kinds ; but it may be said, generally, that the plants being trans- 

 planted, they should be from a foot to eighteen inches in height, stiff in the stem and 

 well rooted. Plants for this purpose should seldom be more than three years from the 

 seed ; indeed never, if they have been raised in good soil. Many of them may be suf- 

 ficiently large at two years from the seed ; and if so, are to be preferred to those of a 

 greater age, as they will consequently be more vigorous and healthy. The larch, if pro- 

 perly treated, will be very fit for planting out at two years of age. A healthy seedling 

 being removed from the seed-bed at the end of the first year, into good ground, will, by 

 the end of the second, be a fitter plant for the forest, than one nursed a second year. The 

 next best plant for the purpose, is that which has stood two years in the seed-bed, and has 

 been transplanted for one season. This is supposing it to have risen a weakly plant ; 

 for, if the larch rise strong from the seed the first season, it should never stand a second 

 in the seed-bed. The ash, the elm, and the sycamore, one year from the seed, nursed in 

 good soil for a second season, will often prove sufiiciently strong plants. If they be 

 weakly, they may stand two years in the seed-bed ; and then being nursed one season in 

 good soil, will be very fit for planting out in the forest. The oak, the beech, and the 

 chestnut, if raised in rich soil, and well furnished with roots at the end of the first year, 

 and having been nursed in rows for two years, will be very fit to be planted out. But if 

 they be allowed to stand two years in the seed-bed, and be planted one year in good 

 ground, they will be still better, and the roots will be found well feathered with fine 

 small fibres. The silver fir and common spruce should stand two years in the seed-bed. 

 If transplanted into very good soil, they may be fit for being planted out at the end of 

 the first year ; but, more generally, they require two years in the lines. The Scots pine 

 should also stand for two years in the seed-bed, and should be nursed in good ground for 

 one year ; at the end of which they will be much fitter for being planted, than if they 

 were allowed to stand a second year in the lines. They are very generally taken at once 

 from the seed-bed ; and in land bare of heath or herbage, they succeed pretty well ; 

 nevertheless, we would prefer them one year nursed. The above are the hardy and most 

 useful forest trees ; and from the observations made, whatever respects the age or size of 

 other kinds, may easily be inferred." (Plant. Kal. 158.) 



3654. According to Pontey, *' the best general rule is, to proportion the size of the 

 plants to the goodness of the soil ; the best of the latter requiring the largest of the 

 former. Still on bleak exposures this rule will not hold good, as there the plants should 

 never be large, for otherwise the greater part would fail from the circumstance of wind- 

 waving, and of those that succeeded, few, if any, would make much progress for several 

 years ; firs of a foot, and deciduous trees of eighteen inches, are large enough for such 

 places. As in extensive planting, soils which are good and well sheltered but seldom 

 occur, the most useful sizes of plants, for general purposes, will be firs of a foot, and 

 deciduous trees of eighteen inches, both transplanted. None but good-rooted plants 

 will succeed on a bad soil, while on a good one, sheltered, none but very bad-rooted 

 plants will fail ; a large plant never has so good a root, in proportion to its size, as a 

 small one; and hence we see the propriety of using such on good soils only. Small 

 plants lose but few of their roots in removal ; therefore, though planted in very moderate- 

 sized holes of pulverised earth, they soon find the means of making roots, in proportion to 

 their heads. It should never be forgotten, that, in being removed, a plant of two feet 

 loses a greater proportion of its roots than a tree of one, and one of three feet a greater 

 proportion than one of two, and so on, in proportion to its former strength and height, 

 and thus the larger the plants, so much greater is the degree of languor or weakness 

 into which they are thrown by the operation of transplanting." {Prof. Plant. 161.) 



3655. The seasons for planting are autumn and spring ; the former when the soil and 

 situation are moderately good, and the plants large; and the latter, for bleak situations. 

 Necessity, however, is more frequently the guide here than choice, and in extensive 

 designs, the operation is generally performed in all moderately dry open weather from 

 October to April inclusive. " In an extensive plantation," Sang observes, " it will 

 hardly happen but there will be variety of soil, some parts moist and heavy, and others 

 dry and light. Tlie lighest parts may be planted in December or January ; and the 

 more moist, or damp parts, in February or March, It must be observed, however, that 

 if the ground be not in a proper case for planting, the operation had better be delayed. 

 The plants will be injured, either by being committed to the ground when it is in a sour 

 and wet, or in a dry parched state. At a time when the soil is neither wet nor dry, 



