BRITISH FOREST TRKI-.S 81 



method is comparatively more expensive, it is usually adopted 

 only on wet moors and other places where there is danger of 

 the plants being lifted out of the ground by frost, or where, 

 as in the case of shifting sand, the soil is extremely poor. 

 The larger transplants are, however, to be recommended in 

 the filling up of blanks, a measure that should be promptly 

 attended to in the formation of young pine woods, as can 

 easily be understood when one considers their rapid growth in 

 early years, and the tendency towards branch-development on 

 any side offering the enjoyment of light and air. Young plants 

 round blanks soon tend to assume branching and abnormal 

 development, and if they have an advantage of two or three 

 years in growth, they prevent younger plants from thriving. 

 The filling up of blanks with transplants of four and five-year- 

 old and older plants can only take place with large balls of 

 earth, owing to the development of the tap-root, and is as a 

 rule very expensive. But in such cases the filling up of 

 blanks with Weymouth pine, black pine, spruce, or silver fir 

 will generally recommend itself in preference to Scots pine, 

 unless the soil and situation be distinctly unsuitable for any 

 of these other species. 



In its demand for light is explainable the mistake of too 

 close planting of the pine. Thick sowing or dibbling in of 

 many seeds in patches here and there is contrary to the 

 natural habit of the species, more especially on the poorer 

 classes of soil where the youthful energy of the pole stage 

 of growth is squandered in an unprofitable struggle for 

 individual supremacy. One or two-year-old seedlings should 

 not be put out closer than 3 feet x 3 feet, three and four-year- 

 old transplants with balls of earth attached not nearer than 

 4 feet x 4 feet., or in rows of 5 feet x 3 feet to make clearing 

 and thinning out easier and cheaper. 



When seedlings are to be used, they can be raised in 

 temporary nurseries in any sheltered locality with good mild 



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