168 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



two or three years after the original planting, at a cost 

 which need not exceed £1 to £2. 



With good surface preparation and careful planting 

 the filling up necessary after the first two years should not 

 be great in any case, but bad seasons and difficult trans- 

 planters have much to do with the actual number 

 required. The aim to be kept in view is that of having 

 a healthy and uniformly distributed crop of at least 

 2000 plants on the ground at the end of five years, and 

 if this is accomplished coarse timber need not be 

 feared. 



A common feature of British planting operations, and 

 one which is perhaps less marked on the Continent, is the 

 large number of failures which occur with nearly all 

 species. As a rule, bad transplanters are not extensively 

 grown abroad, and with ordinary precautions failures 

 need not occur. Their prevalence in British forestry 

 with ordinary species must be due, therefore, to peculiar 

 circumstances which it is worth while considering, as these 

 failures are one of the most discouraging features asso- 

 ciated with British forestry. 



The average percentage of failures in planting opera- 

 tions may be estimated at from 25 to 50 per cent., and as 

 the same species may be transplanted in the nursery with 

 a loss of less than 5 per cent., the difference must be due 

 to faulty methods somewhere. Years of exceptional 

 drought and heat are, of course, responsible for many 

 deaths in all cases and all countries, but these are easily 

 understood. In ordinary seasons more than 10 to 20 per 

 cent, of losses should not occur if the work is properly 

 carried out, and, as a matter of fact, failures in well- 

 managed planting operations in Britain are much lower. 

 The question is one of some importance, and especially so 

 where plantations can only be protected against ground 

 game for a limited period, and filling up cannot extend 



