I 3 8 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



be planted up, and for lifting the transplants out of the 

 nursery, whereby the danger of the roots suffering from 

 drying up is minimised. Otherwise planting in pits, and 

 in moister localities tumping or planting on mounds, are 

 the usual methods of planting employed. It frequently 

 happens that in these young plants there is no decided 

 leading-shoot, but rather a tendency to forked growth, 

 which should be counteracted by clipping off the minor 

 shoot. 



The distances at which the plants are put out are 

 in general the same as with the spruce, that is about 4 

 feet x 4 feet on the average for transplants ; but where 

 young seedlings are notched in, planting is often as close 

 as 4 feet x 2 feet owing to the slower development 

 of such plants, and the consequent delay in the formation 

 of canopy. On the better classes of soil a wider distance, 

 up to 6 feet x 6 feet, is occasionally in usage when older 

 transplants are put out ; but when high forests of oak are 

 underplanted, or woods are fringed with silver fir, rows of 

 6 feet x 3 feet are usually found quite close enough. 



The most suitable time for planting out silver fir is spring ; 

 planting in autumn should only be undertaken when 

 special circumstances demand it. And as in regard to 

 other species also, but especially in the case of silver fir, 

 planting is least likely to be successful and satisfactory if 

 carried out during dry east winds, which are prone to 

 stimulate the plants to excessive transpiration through the 

 foliage before the roots have established themselves so as 

 to provide for the further due supply of moisture from the 

 soil. 



For the preparation of transplants, two or three-year-old 

 plants, but mostly the former, and more seldom one-year- 

 old, are taken from the seed-rills and pricked out in rows 

 in the nursery, where they should stand for three years in 



