LAYING OUT A NURSERY 35 



trenched two spits deep, and another dressing of gas-lime 

 given and left on the surface to wash in. When trenching, 

 all stones should be carefully picked out for use on the paths 

 or roads, and the earth well broken up. 



No plants can be put in the nursery until some months 

 after the gas-lime has been applied, as the plants would be 

 poisoned if put in before oxidation had taken place. 



Any large nursery should be divided up into sections, of 

 about i acre each, by hard roads about 12 feet wide, so that a 

 horse and cart can be drawn along without doing damage. 

 These sections should again be divided up by paths about 4 

 feet wide, so as to admit of the use of wheelbarrows or hand- 

 carts. Then these smaller sections may be again divided up, 

 as may seem convenient, by narrow trodden tracks 15 or 18 

 inches wide. 



About yV 1 of the nursery will generally be devoted to the 

 raising of seedlings ; and it is advisable to have this portion 

 laid out in long, narrow beds, 4 feet wide, running north and 

 south. These beds may then be weeded and tended from 

 either side without being trodden upon. The broad roads 

 can be made of broken brick, rubble, etc., and finished with a 

 coating of ordinary road metal, and, for neatness, the earth 

 should be kept off the sides by an edging of brick on end or 

 of i inch creosoted boards ; but on economic lines, this latter 

 expense is not warranted. 



NURSERY MANAGEMENT. 



A portion of the nursery should always be under a 

 "cleaning" crop, as, for instance, potatoes or roots. And 

 "green" manuring, especially with lupins, can always be 

 recommended for any vacant part of the nursery. 



It is preferable never to use ordinary farmyard manure, 

 as it contains so many weed seeds, but good leaf mould and 

 the application of artificial manures will easily compensate 



1 This presumes that some seed is sown broadcast and some in 

 drills, and that the plants are planted out in the woods when 4 years 

 old. ' 



