PLANTING. 



63 



raised from the nursery with C-conical spades or with naked 

 plants, is more likely to prove successful, though costing more. 

 The Number of Plants needed per Acre can easily be 

 calculated for planting at equal distances in lines (in squares 

 or rectangles), by multiplying the distances into each, other to 

 give the average growing-space and dividing the 43,560 sq. ft. 

 in an acre by this. But if planting be done in equilateral 

 triangles as sometimes happens (especially in windy places and 

 shelter-belts), then the number of plants needed for squares or 

 rectangular lines has to be multiplied by 1'155 i.e., about 

 one-sixth more has to be added. 



But in practice mathematical regularity is neither possible nor 

 desirable, and on broken or stony ground the plants have just 

 to be put in where there are suitable pockets of soil. Planting 

 in squares or lines (e.g., at 4 x 4 ft., or 5 x 4 ft.) is easier, 

 though triangular planting best utilises the growing-spaces. 



The Different Methods of Planting. One of the great 

 advantages of planting over sowing is that wherever any special 

 soil- preparation has to take place, as is always the case except 

 in dibbling or notching, it confines this to the lowest limit. 

 Thus if large pits of 12 in. square have to be opened 4 ft. apart 

 from centre to centre, this only means specially preparing 2722 

 sq. ft., or one-sixteenth of each acre, whereas strips prepared for 

 sowing, even if made wide apart, represent a much larger 



