CHAPTER IX. 



SEASIDE PLANTING. 



FEW persons other than those who have actually been 

 engaged in the work have the remotest idea of the difficulties 

 to be encountered in the formation of belts and plantations 

 on exposed and wind-swept seaside ground. To plant young 

 trees around many parts of the coast of the British Isles, 

 particularly where wide stretches of open seaboard are to be 

 dealt with, without first erecting a shelter-screen of some 

 kind or other, is useless work, and only productive of the 

 most unsatisfactory results. 



That there are not a few districts, however, where such a 

 preliminary would be needless is well known, all that is 

 required in certain instances being, first of all, to prepare the 

 ground, and, secondly, to suit the plants to the soil and situation, 

 for that certain varieties of trees succeed better than others 

 in certain soils and situations is a fact that is well known. 

 From experience I have found out how useless it is to plant 

 in a haphazard way, on the more exposed seaboards along the 

 west coast, at least; whereas, by careful manipulation, I have 

 been successful in getting up shelter where before it was 

 deemed almost an impossibility. The chief consideration in 

 seaside planting is unquestionably shelter, be it only of a 

 temporary kind, for it may be noticed anywhere along our 

 coast that, wherever the direct force of the hurricane is broken, 

 there trees and shrubs are growing best. -Another evil 

 a great one, too with which the planter has to contend is 

 the injurious effect caused to trees, but more particularly 

 evergreen shrubs, by the saline particles which are driven 

 and deposited with such force on the leaves and branches as 



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