52 FOEESTRY WORK 



by turnips or mangolds. The work of forking or harrovring 

 between the rows and in " earthing " or " ridging " them 

 up all helps to improve and clean the soil. A variety 

 with a good amount of haulm should be chosen to suppress 

 annual weeds. 



It is a mistake to manure nurseries too heavily; this 

 should never be done unless a crop is taken off before 

 seedlings are lined out, as it encourages too rapid growth, 

 which results in weak plants, not able to stand planting 

 out in the poorer soils generally given up to planting. 

 On the other hand, it is also a mistake to let the soil 

 become too poor, so that the plants become starved and 

 stunted; for a tree stunted in early life never grows into 

 good timber. 



If no green or manuring crop is to oe grown on the bed 

 before it is restocked with transplants, it should be given 

 a good dressing of leaf mould or soil from the compost 

 heap. 



Farmyard manure should never be used unless there is 

 to be a cleaning crop. 



On most estates leaves are raked up in the private 

 grounds, and these should be secured by the forester fo» 

 use in the nursery. They should be carted to a convenient 

 place in the woods near the nursery, or to a comer of the 

 nursery itself, and left for at least two years, decomposi- 

 tion being aided by sprinkhng with slaked lime and 

 tnming the heap twice every year. 



The compost heap should be in a Oomer of the nursery, 

 and all annual weeds and leaves taken from the beds 

 should be placed there to rot. Perennial weeds should be 



