180 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



With smaller plants, or two-year seedlings, the packing 

 adopted by continental nurserymen is the best. The 

 plants are carefully packed into open crates with moss or 

 other material round the roots, and the top of the crate 

 covered in with canvas. Plants when packed in this 

 way can travel for a month without injury, and it 

 constitutes the only satisfactory method of packing 

 seedlings. 



'Sheugliiiig' or laying in the plants either in nursery 

 or temporary depots before planting out should be 

 carefully done, and if they are to remain for more than 

 a week or ten days the bundles should be untied, and 

 the plants opened out, so that all roots are brought into 

 contact with the soil. 



In planting, it matters little what method is adopted, 

 provided that the roots are brought into close contact 

 with fine soil, and the ground trodden firmly enough to 

 maintain capillarity and prevent undue aeration. This 

 usually means some form of surface preparation, an 

 operation seldom performed in Great Britain. Under 

 ordinary circumstances pit-planting usually gives satis- 

 factory results, for the simple reason that the finer soil 

 taken out of the pit can be used for placing on the roots, 

 whereas in slit-planting the roots have to take their 

 chance of coming into contact with soil, roots, stones, 

 or any other material that may happen to lie on the 

 spot in which they are placed. 



Slit-planting is sometimes condemned, as already 

 stated, on account of the twisting or bending of the 

 roots with which it is accompanied. This bending, how- 

 ever, in itself will not prevent trees from growing, nor does 

 it do any permanent injury to any species except pines. 

 To the latter, and especially Scots pine, Weymouth pine, 

 and other fibrous-rooted species, it appears to leave bad 

 or even fatal effects for many years, owing to the difficulty 



