24 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



form which will serve both to shelter the plantation 

 itself and secure shelter for the surrounding land. 

 This can be done by laying out convex lines on the 

 exposed boundaries, Upon these bends, when the 

 wind strikes, the force will be weakened, there being 

 the least resistance. Straight or concave lines on 

 these exposed sites would have no power of expelling 

 or throwing off the wind, and it would rush through 

 the plantation, carrying destruction with it. If this 

 once takes place, the success of the planting will be 

 marred throughout the remainder of its existence. 

 Straight lines are unnatural, and seldom beautiful. 

 There is, however, one exception to this almost 

 universal rule, and that is in laying out avenues or 

 vistas. Here it is important that the eye should take 

 in at once, at one glance, the whole of the beauty 

 which it is intended to create. Further, the greatest 

 extent of the new plantation should be laid off against 

 the prevailing winds, and also on the highest and 

 most exposed position. 



This being then the form required on the exposed 

 sides, we obtain the reverse, i.e., the concave, on the 

 unexposed sides, which gives the greatest amount of 

 shelter both to the live stock and the cultivated land, 

 and also secures throughout a uniform line of beaut}-. 

 It may be necessary, from the natural contortions 

 of the ground, to sometimes bring a concave line to 

 the exposed surface ; when this cannot be avoided 

 the forester must secure safety by choosing such 

 trees as are deep-rooted and umbrageous, and plant 

 these thickly, say at least six rows deep, along the 

 whole line so exposed. These will resist, rather than 



