So BRITISH FOREST TREES 



and transport were rendered cheap and easy, the actual 

 operation of planting was of the simplest and cheapest 

 possible description, and the success was satisfactory, as 

 good results could be achieved with the young material at a 

 very reasonable outlay. And whenever possible, notching 

 of naked seedlings has other advantages besides cheapness 

 over planting with transplants having balls of earth attached, 

 for in the loose or light soils where alone it is practicable, 

 the seedlings maintain themselves better against drought 

 than if planted out with earth around the roots, a fact 

 that has its explanation in the greater ease with which 

 the comparatively undamaged and undiminished tender 

 root-system can establish itself in the easily penetrable soil. 



When notching is the method employed, as is usual on 

 moist soils except those that are tenacious, the use of yearling 

 seedlings has a decided advantage over older plants, as the 

 roots are much less likely to get damaged during the planting 

 operations. Yearling seedlings should be pricked out in 

 rows not more than 4^ feet apart, and should be set from 

 2\ to 3! feet apart in the rows; but where trenching has been 

 carried out, the rows are usually further apart, and the plants 

 closer together in the lines. Long, thick, wedge-shaped 

 notching spades should be used, so that the rootlets may not 

 be damaged, and because planting too deep is in the case of 

 the Scots pine less of a mistake than planting too shallow. 

 On very dry or light soils, indeed, the seedlings are put in 

 so far that only the top bud appears above the ground a 

 method that would of course not be applicable in moist 

 localities or on stiff soils. 



Planting with two-year-old plants is dearer, without being 

 necessarily more successful, than when good yearling seed- 

 lings have been used. Transplants over two years old, and in 

 unfavourable circumstances even two-year-old plants, are put 

 out with balls of earth attached to the roots ; but as this 



