20 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



As a means of preventing the bad effects of drought there may 

 also be finally mentioned the use of planting instead of sowing in 

 the formation of timber crops on localities with naturally dry soil, 

 as, for example, the putting out of one-year-old seedlings with 

 long roots, instead of sowing Pine seed on dry sandy soil. Large 

 seedlings, or sturdy transplants with consequently better developed 

 roots, and plants with balls of earth attached, are less exposed to 

 danger than smaller material and naked plants. 



Preliminary cultivation of a species less sensitive to heat, like 

 Pine and Birch, as nurses, or the simultaneous sowing of such 

 species in localities exposed to danger from drought, can prove a 

 very recommendable and advantageous means of protection. 



13. Sun-burn or Scorching of the Bark. 



Under sun-burn is understood that scorching effect of the direct 

 action of the sun, which causes the bark to become dry in strips 

 or patches, then to fissure and fall off, and the consequences of 

 which are seen in the death and decay of the wood thus exposed, 

 an interference with the normal growth and development, and 

 even ultimately the death of the injured stems. 



Sun-burn only occurs on the southern, western, and south- 

 western edges of woodlands, when these, having been previously pro- 

 tected by an adjacent crop, are suddenly exposed to the full blj 

 of the sun ; those trees do not suffer from scorching, which have 

 been exposed to insolation from their earliest growth. It can a] 

 be the direct consequence of lopping off large branches from 

 along roads, hedge-rows, &c., that have hitherto had a dee] 

 reaching crown. 



The trees which suffer from sun-burn are invariably such 

 even in their later stages of growth, have a smooth bark withoul 

 any rugged corky protection ; that is to say, the Beech in particular, 

 and in a less degree -Hornbeam, Ash, Maple, Sycamore, and youn^ 

 Spruce and Silver Fir. Species with rough, cortaceous bark, lik< 

 Oak and Elm, do not suffer at all, or are at any rate only exposec 

 to danger during the earliest period of their growth, before thel 

 thicker, fissured bark begins to form. The danger begins about v 

 the pole-forest stage of growth, but older trees are more sensitive 

 in this respect, and exposed to greater danger. In the case of 

 Beech, which is very sensitive to insolation, the appearance of 



