222 TEMPORARY NURSERIES. 



is a resident establishment, but the best tiling that can be done 13 

 to have small, inconspicuous nurseries. As regards rats, the only 

 resource, when they are numerous, is to poison them and to pre- 

 serve as much of the weeds as in consistent with the favourable 

 growth of the seedlings, because these animals generally prefer 

 clean ground when they can get it. Plants, whose roots are avoid- 

 ed by rats, might be grown mixed up with the seedlings. Against 

 insects there is absolutely no remedy except to select a sheltered, 

 not too sunny site, and to use manures which tend to keep them at 

 a distance. Birds are little to be feared, unless the nursery is con- 

 spicuously large ; and then too, as the entire area is generally sown 

 tip within a few days, it is easy enough to employ watchers during 

 the short period required for the complete germination of the seeds. 

 Once the seedlings are up and the ground covered, there will be 

 nothing conspicuous to attract the few birds that peck off buds and 

 leaves. 



PROTECTION AGAINST FROST AND EXCESSIVE INSOLATION. Where 

 trees overhead afford sufficient shelter, no special measure is 

 obviously necessary. Otherwise the necessary protection is secured 

 by means of thatch placed over the beds and along their eastern 

 or western edge, according as it is frost or the sun that is to be 

 guarded against ; and a further precaution would be, as explain- 

 ed under weeding, to preserve weeds. In hot or dry weather the 

 seedlings should be watered from once to four times a mouth ac- 

 cording to the proximity and abundance of water and the necessity 

 for the operation. 



AMPUTATION OF THE TAP-ROOT. As a rule, seedlings raised in 

 temporary nurseries are put out early and therefore require no 

 curtailment of the tap-root in the nursery itself. In the excep- 

 sional cases demanding this operation it should be effected in the 

 same way as in permanent nurseries. 



TRAINING. As regards the training of the seedlings, the con- 

 stant care and watchfulness which the operation requires prevents 

 its adoption anywhere but where there is a resident trained esta- 

 blishment. It is, therefore, very exceptionally resorted to ill 

 temporary nurseries. When it can be carried out, the same rules 

 regulate it as have been given for similar work in permanent 

 nurseries. 



