64 SYLVICULTURE. 



proportion. Planting may take place either with naked seed- 

 lings, usually taken from the seed-beds at two years of age, or 

 with older transplants, usually 2-year-2, taken from the 

 nursery lines either naked or with balls of earth attached to 

 their roots. In planting with two-year seedlings the plants are 

 generally notched or slit-planted, while plants with balls of 

 earth are usually pitted or mound-planted. The rougher the 

 ground and the greater the danger from weeds, the stronger 

 and more robust should be the plants used ; but good 2-year- 

 2 transplants are on the whole the best to use. It is best to 

 plant the young plants singly, as wisps of three or four seedlings 

 or young transplants seldom grow well. When planted, neither 

 seedlings nor transplants should stand deeper in the soil than 

 they have stood in the nursery, unless taken from a nursery 

 with stimsh soil and planted on very light friable soil, when 

 slightly deeper planting diminishes danger from drought. Deep 

 planting is bad for all kinds of plants, but especially for Conifers, 

 and among Conifers especially for the shallow-rooting Spruce, 

 which then endeavours to throw out a new lateral root-system 

 nearer the surface. If planted too deep on a friable sandy soil, 

 the plants may in a short time be able to adjust themselves to 

 their new environment ; but if the soil be so stiff as to prevent 

 free aeration, then the root-system gradually gets suffocated from 

 want of oxygen. And if in lifting the plants from the nursery 

 lines many of the rootlets get damaged, then it is desirable to 

 trim the foliage slightly with the pruning -shears, to* try and 

 restore something like the previously existing normal balance 

 between imbibition and transpiration. Such trimming should, 

 however, be avoided so far as possible ; hence the use of small 

 plants and simple planting methods is preferable to larger plants 

 and costlier methods of planting, if the latter are not rendered 

 necessary owing to strong growth of weeds or other reason. 

 Wherever obtainable, the shelter of woods and plantations 

 should be taken advantage of when drawing up a scheme of 



