186 THE DEVELOPiMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



well founded. Laid out on an elaborate scale with 

 clipped hedges, gravelled walks, and various other orna- 

 mental features, it has either to be cultivated entirely by 

 spade labour at great expense, or what is more usual, 

 becomes a series of patches of weeds and rubbish, inter- 

 mixed with breaks of trees, beds of potatoes or roots, and 

 various other mixtures which neither make for ornament, 

 utility, nor economy. While a permanent nursery on a 

 large estate is a desirable feature in many ways, it should, 

 in most cases, be no larger than can be kept in good order 

 at moderate expense, and there can then be few objections 

 to it. But the form of nursery of greatest benefit in large 

 planting operations is that which consists of a corner of a 

 field, or of the land to be planted, in Avhich trees purchased 

 from a distance can be lined out for one, or at the most 

 two years before they are finally set out. In such 

 nurseries economy in labour may be obtained through a 

 liberal use of the plough in making single furrows, as 

 deep as possible, about one foot apart, and placing the 

 trees in these with or without deepening them with the 

 spade, according to the condition of the soil. Where the 

 trees are to stand for one year only, and with some fast- 

 growing species this is quite long enough, this furrow 

 system of lining out answers admirably, and little or no 

 cleaning or hoeing is necessary the following summer. 

 The plants thus treated recover from the process of 

 removing, make short, well-ripened shoots, become accus- 

 tomed to the local soil and climate, and can be perman- 

 ently planted the following year without requiring to be 

 out of the ground for more than a few hours. The cost of 

 bedding them out in this manner is slight, 2s. to 3s. per 

 1000 at the outside, while the risk of failures is reduced 

 from 20 to 30 per cent, to not more than 5 per cent., 

 provided reasonable precautions are taken in other 

 respects. At present this style of nursery is chiefly 



