METHODS AND PRACTICE 181 



these species have in replacing the bent or twisted roots 

 by others of a normal habit of growth. The absence of 

 fine soil, a matted surface, and the difficulty of firmly 

 treading in the plant are more often causes of failure 

 from slit-planting than any twisting or bending which 

 occurs with the roots. 



For small plants the dibbling or notching method in pre- 

 pared spots is the most successful method. Circles from 

 two to three feet in diameter should be skimmed over with 

 a broad-faced mattock, and the soil picked or loosened up 

 to a depth of one to two feet. This produces a bed of 

 loose earth, in which small plants can be dibbled in as 

 easily as on a dug or ploughed surface ; the only difiiculty 

 being the frequency with which the plants are thrown 

 out by frost on loose soil, but in spring planting this is 

 largely avoided. The expense of notching on this 

 system is, however, fairly high — at least double that of 

 slit-planting — but the results are very much more 

 satisfactory. 



Slitting is only suitable for loose, friable soils, which 

 do not puddle when trodden in wet weather, are toler- 

 ably free from stones, and have a thin surface growth of 

 heather, or fine grass, which does not form a thick, 

 matted turf Such conditions may be brought about 

 occasionally by ploughing the surface, putting in a crop 

 of oats, rye, or other cereal, and slitting in the plants the 

 following season. Or another cheap method is that of 

 taking out a deep furrow Avith the plough, placing the 

 plants at regular distances in this furrow, and turning 

 back the sod into its former position. But these forms 

 of preparation for planting are not possible on a large 

 scale, for it seldom falls to the lot of the forester to plant 

 arable or pasture land of this class. 



Experienced planters, however, have always main- 

 tained that pit-planting, all things considered, is the 



