168 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



smaller scale than is usual to-day. Planting operations 

 were not conducted on a large scale, and the sowing of 

 acorns was more often the rule than the planting of seedling 

 oak, this tree being the most important species at that 

 time. Facilities for the rapid conveyance of trees to all 

 parts of the country were not then so numerous, and estate 

 owners were thrown more upon their own resources in the 

 way of providing young trees for their parks and woods. 

 The " seminary " occupied an important place in the older 

 system of woodland economy, and a considerable part of 

 the works of all the older writers on forestry is taken up 

 with a description of collecting and sowing seeds and the 

 propagation of plants. 



But at the present day all this has been changed to a 

 great extent. The development of public nurseries, the 

 increase in the number and use of species which only ripen 

 their seeds in large numbers abroad, and which rarely pay 

 to procure and raise on a small scale, and the means of rapid 

 transit from one end of the country to the other, have all 

 tended to minimise the importance of the home nursery, and 

 to make the average estate more and more independent of 

 it. Still, good reasons yet exist for the maintenance of 

 home nurseries on a moderate scale, and we will endeavour 

 to see what they are. 



It is a well-known fact that the chances of successful 

 transplanting are largely increased by the speedy transfer 

 of the plants from their old site to their new. The root 

 hairs and fibres are easily destroyed by exposure to sun, 

 wind, or dry air, and this is especially the case in spring, 

 when the air is drier and the sun increasing in power, and 

 the roots of most trees or seedlings are covered with young 

 root hairs, or are beginning to make their new roots. When 

 plants are raised in a distant nursery, packed or tied into 

 bundles, and conveyed by rail or waggon for long distances, 

 the chances of injury from this cause are greatly increased. 

 Careful handling and the absence of all delays on the road 

 do much to reduce these chances to a minimum, but still 

 they do exist to a greater or less extent, and their effect is 

 seen in the percentage of deaths which follow or accompany 

 ordinary planting operations. 



