RAISING THE PLANTS 37 



A skilled man can spread the soil very evenly, but this 

 "work should never be entrusted to beginners, especially 

 ■when very fine seed, such as that of Sitka Spruce, is being 

 sown. They should practise until proficient upon a 

 dummy bed or a bed of Acorns or Chestnuts, although 

 these seeds are now seldom sown in such beds. 



A safer way of distributing the covering soil is to sift 

 it over the bed by means of a |-inch mesh riddle. 



A great drawback to broadcast sowing is that those 

 trees in the centre of the beds, especially when left for 

 two years or more, have not sufficient root room and do 

 not develop so well as those on the edges of the beds, 

 where the roots are not cramped for space. This can be 

 obviated to a certain extent by thinning out the weakest 

 plants at the end of the first year, by cutting them off 

 with scissors, not by pulling them out, as doing so will 

 loosen the others in the soil. Line-sowing allows equal 

 room for the majority of seedlings to develop their roots. 



(2) Sowing in Lines running the Length of the Beds. 



For the seed of most conifers the lines should be about 

 6 inches apart, unless the seedlings are to be lifted at one 

 year old, when 4 inches is sufficient. For cleaning pur- 

 poses the former width is better. The seed of hardwoods 

 should be sown in lines 9 inches apart. 



A line is stretched from end to end of the bed at dis- 

 tances marked off, and a small drill made with a hoe to 

 the depth required. A good rule to follow is to bury the 

 seeds at a depth equal to tiie length of the seed. Scots 

 Pine and Larch will thus be buried about J inch deep, 



