PLANTING. 73 



subsequent beating up of blanks during the next two years 

 usually brings the total cost up to 45s. to 55s. an acre. 



The rate and the cost of pitting vary also considerably. The 

 cheapest pitting with pick and spade known to me is that done 

 on an Argyllshire estate in 1908-09, when pits 4 ft. apart and 

 9 inches broad and deep were opened in autumn at the rate of 

 800 a-day by a man at 3s. 4d., equal to 4s. 2d. per 1000, or about 

 11s. 4d. per acre. The cost of planting was found to be about 

 the double of that, or 22s. 8d. per acre ; and taking the cost 

 of plants at about 7s. 6d. a 1000 from the home-nursery, this 

 adds 20s. 6d. for plants, and makes the total first cost about 

 55s. an acre, exclusive of beating up blanks subsequently. This 

 is, however, an exceptionally low cost with exceptionally small 

 pits, and in general pitting usually costs from 3 to 4 an acre, 

 though this may, on suitable soil, be reduced by using the 

 C- or the S-conical spade. 1 



Thus soil-preparation, planting, beating up and weeding during 

 the first two or three years after planting may be roughly estim- 

 ated as now costing about 3 to 4 an acre for notching, and from 

 4 to 6 for pitting, according to the amount of drainage and 

 preliminary bracken-cutting, &c., needed, the size of plants and 



1 Two very interesting and instructive accounts, well illustrated, of Sir 

 John Stirling-Maxwell's moorland pit-planting (with the Belgian form of 

 the C-conical spade) through inverted turves at Corrour (Inverness-shire) 

 will be found in the Roy. Scot. Arbor. Socy. Trans, for 1907 and 1910 (vol. 

 xx., p. 4, and vol. xxiii., p. 153). Shallow surf ace- drains 12 ft. apart were 

 cut 24 in. wide at top, 15 in. at bottom, and 10 in. deep ; and the peat-turf 

 thus loosened was cut into 20-in. lengths, and the 24-in. by 20-in. sods 

 removed, inverted, and laid regularly over the area at 3 ft. apart (4840 

 per acre). This soil-preparation cutting turf-drains, and lifting and 

 placing the turves in autumn, and boring pits through them with a 6-in. 

 C-conical spade in spring cost 46s. 8d. per acre, while planting (with 

 sand and compost added in the pit) cost 16s. 8d., making 63s. 4d. per 

 acre, excluding the cost of the plants, "which were for the most part 2- 

 year seedlings from the home nursery, and their cost, though it cannot 

 be exactly estimated, is very small." 



