NOTIONS ON ARTIFICIAL BE STOCKING. 217 



plants of these species. It had nevertheless been 

 remarked that beech seedlings taken from the forest 

 at the moment of germination, could be transplanted 

 in an open place, provided they were put into the 

 ground up to the cotyledonary leaves. The fact is, 

 that it is the young stalk which is the most sensitive 

 part. Hence a new plan has been devised for these 

 species. Narrow trenches are dug and the earth 

 heaped up on the edges, so that the trenches have a 

 depth of about four inches. The seed is sown at 

 the bottom, and as the young plants grow up, the 

 earth is put back into the trench till .the ground 

 becomes level. This plan has never failed, especially 

 when care has been taken to dig the trenches east 

 and west, so as to shelter the seedlings on the south 

 side. 



The soil of the nursery becomes rapidly exhausted, 

 since it no longer receives the dead leaves or the 

 constant shelter which the leaf-canopy formerly 

 supplied. Moreover, it becomes poorer in the 

 inorganic elements of the young plants. It is there- 

 fore necessary by fresh manuring to give back what 

 it has lost. These manures may be either farmyard 

 refuse or guano or soluble salts, but in the majority 

 of instances, mould prepared expressly in a corner of 

 ; he nursery is used. For this purpose leaves and 

 herbaceous plants are collected and heaped up after 

 being mixed with fine earth, and the whole is 

 sprinkled from time to time with water or still better 

 with liquid manure. This mould is used especially 

 in covering up seeds. If there is no mould available 

 and the nursery is to be maintained in the same 



