CHAPTER VIII 

 SEASIDE PLANTING 



FEW persons other than those who have actually been 

 engaged in the work have the remotest idea of the difficulties 

 to be encountered in the formation of belts and plantations 

 on exposed and wind-swept seaside ground. To plant young 

 trees around many parts of the coast of the British Isles, 

 particularly where wide stretches of open seaboard are to be 

 dealt with, without first erecting a shelter-screen of some 

 kind or other, is useless work, and only productive of the 

 most unsatisfactory results. 



That there are not a few districts, however, where such 

 a preliminary would be needless is well known, all that is 

 required in certain instances being, first of all, to prepare 

 the ground, and secondly, to suit the trees to the soil and 

 situation, seeing that some varieties succeed better than 

 others in certain soils and sites. 



From experience I have found out how useless it is to 

 plant in a haphazard way, at least, on the more exposed 

 seaboards along the west coast, whereas, by careful manipu- 

 lation, I have been successful in getting up shelter where 

 before it was deemed almost an impossibility. The chief 

 consideration in seaside planting is unquestionably shelter, 

 be it only of a temporary kind, for it may be noticed any- 

 where along our coast that, wherever the direct force of 

 the hurricane is broken, there trees and shrubs are growing 

 best. Another evil a great one, too with which the 

 planter has to contend is the injurious effect on trees, but 

 more particularly on evergreen shrubs, of the saline particles 

 which are driven and deposited with such force on the leaves 



73 



