CHAPTER IV. 



PLANTING. 

 FENCING AND PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS. 



WHEN any planting operations have been decided upon, it 

 will practically always be necessary to fence off the area 

 against rabbits, and sometimes against stock, before planting 

 can be started. And in the case of land being planted up 

 for the first time, it will often be necessary to carry out a 

 certain amount of land drainage, though, if more than a few 

 shillings have to be spent per acre on such drainage, it will 

 usually preclude any possibility of ultimately obtaining any 

 reasonable return on the outlay, except under very ex- 

 ceptional circumstances. 



FENCING OF LAND. 



Rabbit Fences. Seldom, if ever, is it safe to make a 

 new plantation without surrounding it with a rabbit-proof 

 fence for the first 10 or 15 years; by which time the bark 

 of the trees should be too thick for the rabbits to attack. 

 The amount of damage done annually by rabbits in young 

 plantations is enormous. 



A suitable rabbit fence, consisting of wire netting, wooden 

 posts, and one row of wire at the top, will cost from 6d. to 8d. 

 per yard run. 



The wire netting should be 4 feet wide ; I inch mesh, and 

 the No. 1 8 gauge, galvanised wire. 



But, in order to save expense, it is sufficient if only the 

 lower 2 feet of the netting be I inch mesh, and the upper 



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