ON IUDGES AND TREES. MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS. 317 



Experience in the Alps iu Europe has shown that cattle do less dam- 

 age to plants on mounds than to those put out in any other manner. 

 Mound planning will probably be found to succeed where frosts are 

 very severe, the high position of the plants acting as a safeguard. 

 It will invariable fail where the soil is very stiff or hard, or is 

 shallow and rests on an impermeable bottom, or the ground has a 

 pronounced slope, in which last case the mound would be washed 

 away. Unless the species to be raised is a very rapid grower from 

 its earliest age, only middle-sized or larger plants should be used. 



ARTICLE 8. 

 RIDGE PLANTING. 



PREPARATION OF THE GROUND. The ridges are prepared in the 

 same way as for sowing (p. 262), except that they should generally 

 be made both higher and broader. 



PUTTING DOWN THE PLANTS. The plants are put into the ridges with 

 a soil dagger (Fig. 82) or other light dibbei (Fig. 83), and with the 

 same precautions as those described under hole planting (p. 313). 



VALUE AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE METHOD. This is a very 

 expensive and wasteful method and is only suited for irrigated 

 land or in the reboisemeut of dry slopes, in both which cases a 

 trench should be excavated along the upper side, and the excavated 

 earth used in building up the ridges. 



ARTICLE 9. 

 PLANTING ON TREES. 



This method can be used only for the propagation of epiphytic 

 species, such as most of the wild figs. By its means we obtain in 

 a comparatively short time a lofty tree, and in dense forest, 

 especially where the living ground-covering is very thick, admit 

 the planted epiphyte at once to the full enjoyment of light. Under 

 very favourable circumstances the plants, which should be neither 

 too small nor too large, may be simply tied inside a convenient 

 fork of the supporting tree. But it is always safer to make an 

 excavation at the required point, and to put the young fig into it 

 with good soil. 



SECTION XII. 

 Maintenance operations . 



The operations required to maintain a plantation until it is 

 established may be one or more of the following : protection 

 against animals, frost, excessive insolation and dangerous winds ; 



