WATERING AND PROTECTION OF NUESEKY LINES. 203 



usually sensitive region of the root collmn ; and besides tliis, eva- 

 poration from the roots will go on in the air-spaces surrounding 

 them and thus endanger their vitality or permanently diminish 

 their absorptive power, or at least prevent them from taking up 

 moisture at once to the full extent of their capability, thereby 

 throwing back the whole seedling. 



G. Watering. 



As alreaclly directed, the first watering should be given as soon 

 as the planting is over. As the transplants have necessarily lost 

 a part, very often a considerable part, of their root-apparatus, the 

 total absorptive power of this latter has consequently been appreci- 

 ably diminished, and on this account the soil must be kept con- 

 stantly moist until new roots have been produced and the plants 

 have completely regained their vigour. Water must therefore bo 

 given frequently, but in small quantities at a time so as not to 

 deluge the weakened roots. When the plants have fully recovered, 

 the frequency of the watering may be diminished, even to the ex- 

 tent of allowing the surface soil to become more or less dry during 

 the intervals. The larger and stronger the seedlings are, the less 

 frequently will they require to be watered. 



Nursery lines prepared in the form of seed-beds are best watered 

 by the percolation system of irrigation. When the seedlings are 

 large and stand far apart and the seed-bed form is no longer prac- 

 ticable, then the flooding system is the only possible method of 

 irrigating. It may be carried out in one of two ways, either by 

 dividing the whole area of the nursery lines, by means of little 

 ridges, into small compartments, or by making a hollow round each 

 plant and connecting the hollows of a single line with one another 

 by a common channel. By the former plan all the plants of a 

 compartment are watered simultaneously and the entire area is 

 flushed, whereas by the latter the plants in the several lines are 

 watered in succession one by one and only the soil immediately 

 round each plant is irrigated. Tlu's latter plan should be adopted 

 only in the exceptional case of the plants standing far apart and of 

 the necessity of economising a naturally limited water-supply. 



H. Protection. 



AGAINST ANIMALS. Birds, as a rule, do little damage to seed- 

 lings of the size standing in nursery lines, and special precautions 

 need therefore seldom be taken to keep them out. Perhaps par- 

 rots, which bite off the leaves and buds of many species, are alone 

 to be guarded against. The larger seedlings may also be injured 

 by birds perching on them. 



