FORMATION OF PLANTATIONS. 



prolonged storms, such as we get on hillsides or by the sea, 

 or against very uncongenial soils, it is always wise policy to 

 defer planting until spring, or just when the trees are about 

 to make a start to growth, as they, with their freshness 

 and vigour uridiminished by the change from the nursery 

 border to the more trying surroundings just referred to, are 

 more likely to take hold at once and succeed. 



The battering and swaying that young trees receive when 

 exposed to the hurricanes of our hillsides or maritime sites 

 so enfeeble them that, in spring, when growth should 

 commence, the majority will be found to be in a very 

 unsatisfactory state, whereas, by inserting in spring, when 

 growth will soon be at its full activity, the chances of 

 succeeding are greatly enhanced. In peat bog the antiseptic 

 properties of the soil act dangerously on the roots of 

 young trees if allowed to remain therein for some time 

 before active growth has commenced. However, with the 

 exceptions cited, tree planting throughout the British Isles 

 generally should be taken in hand as soon as the leaves of 

 the hard- wood species have fallen, which usually takes place 

 about the second or third week of October, much depending 

 on the particular season. Lift the plants very carefully 

 from the nursery breaks, and do not, on any account, tolerate 

 the too-often-enacted practice of tearing the trees from the 

 ground, and before they have been properly loosened on 

 both sides of the lines with a fork. To lift nursery stock 

 properly and the "e^trar-eirpSnse incurred in so doing is 

 money well spent a trench should be thrown out along 

 each side of the line and the soil undermined from beneath the 

 roots, so that the plants can be lifted without tearing or 

 straining the tender rootlets. It is not so important, if the 

 plants are inserted soon after being lifted, that a ball of soil 

 should accompany each, the roots being plentiful and 

 unmutilated making up for the want of soil. Where, 

 however, the plants have not to be conveyed far, such as 

 from the home nursery to a plantation in course of formation 

 on the estate, too much of the soil need not be removed, 

 for if left intact the young tree is far more likely to start 

 away freely than if this was shaken clean off. 



43 



