DIFFERENT FORMS OF REGULAR PLANTING COMPARED. 291 



the transplants in the best conditions for their future growth. 

 For these reasons also the rectangular system should generally 

 be followed in planting under a high nurse crop that is capable of 

 producing its own seedlings or is to be cut over for coppice. 



The rectangular arrangement should be adopted also in the fol- 

 lowing cases : 



(1) When an agricultural crop is to be raised between the lines 

 of seedlings. 



(2) Where grass is a valuable commodity and its production 

 cannot be at once or altogether stopped. 



(3) In pasture land where the presence of trees is required to 

 foster and improve the production of grass. 



(4) When a nurse crop is put down, to be shortly followed by 

 the species whose propagation is desired. 



(5) When the growth of weeds is so tall an-1 dense that the 

 plants put down cannot overtop it until they have attained a 

 certain height and, therefore, a certain spread of crown. What is 

 then required is only to prevent the weeds from invading the lines, 

 and this end can be secured only by putting down the plants close 

 together in the lines. If the square system were adopted, the 

 planting would have to be so close, both for convenience of super- 

 vision and for the safety of the plants, that it would require the 

 cutting away of nearly the entire mass of weeds, not only once in 

 order to put down the plants, but for several successive years 

 afterwards until the plants became strong enough to be able to 

 resist suppression. Such an operation would be as undesirable as 

 it would be extravagantly costly. Tall weeds are very useful in 

 affording shelter to young plants, and if they are shrubby their 

 usefulness in this respect is turned to the best account by allowing 

 them to form part of the leaf canopy until they are overtopped. 



SECTION Y. 

 Closeness of planting. 



The distance that should intervene between two consecutive 

 planting spots will be determined by the following consider- 

 ations : 



(i) The nature of the species used. The more delicate or the 

 more slow-growing they are, the closer together must the plants 

 be put. Sucker-producing species may be planted further apart. 

 And so on. 



(ii) The time in ichich it is desired to produce a leaf-canopy. 

 In purely pasture lands, there must of course be no leaf-canopy 



