26 Practical Forestry 



to exposed ground often proves fatal to young trees, this 

 should not altogether form a criterion for rearing them in 

 situations unfavourable to the development of strong, 

 healthy plants. The soil should be good, friable loam, on 

 an open, porous subsoil ; but the quality of ground required 

 for different seedlings is so diversified that it is next to 

 impossible to suit all within the small bounds required for 

 a home nursery. 



As water is indispensable where seedlings are raised, as 

 well as for numerous other purposes in the nursery, it is 

 well to have provision made for a continuous supply, either 

 by a stream running through the ground, or in close con- 

 tiguity to it, or by having a pipe laid on from the main water- 

 supply. 



From six acres to ten or even fifteen acres will be found 

 sufficient nursery ground for most estates, but it is always 

 advisable to add a little more than is really required, so 

 that the brakes may not be all under forest trees at the same 

 time, but undergo, when found necessary, a course of green 

 crops, which will not only enrich, but clean, the ground 

 and leave it in good condition for replanting with seedling 

 forest plants, bearing in mind that farmyard manure should 

 always be applied first to the green crop, and never directly 

 to the plants themselves. When a plot has become impover- 

 ished by repeated croppings of forest trees, a heavy coating 

 of well-decomposed farmyard manure should be applied, 

 and the ground planted with potatoes, or sown down with 

 turnips. This has an almost magical effect in improving, 

 regenerating, and cleaning the ground, and leaving it in the 

 best possible condition for receiving a crop of forest plants. 

 Land intended for nursery ground should be thoroughly 

 trenched to the full depth of the soil, taking care, at the 

 same time, that the best soil is kept within a reasonable 

 distance of the surface, and, where necessary, heavily 

 manured or enriched by the addition of lime, vegetable soil, 

 or loam as the case may be. 



In laying out the ground into brakes it will be found con- 

 venient to have these either square or rectangular in shape 

 and, if possible, parallel with each other. The brakes should 



