9 48 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. PART III. 



them may be sufficiently large at two years from the seed ; and if so, are to be preferred to those of a 

 greater age, as they will consequently be more vigorous and healthy. The larch, if properly treated, will 

 be very fit for planting out at two years of age. A healthy seedling being removed from the seed-bed at the 

 end of the first year, into good ground, will, by the end of the second, be a fitter plant for the forest, than 

 one nursed a second year. The next best plant for the purpose, is that which has stood two years in 

 the seed-bed, and has been transplanted for one season. This is supposing it to have risen a weakly 

 plant ; for, if the larch rise strong from the seed the first season, it should never stand a second in 

 the seed-bed. The ash, the elm, and the sycamore, one year from the seed, nursed in good soil for a 

 second season, will often prove sufficiently strong plants. If they be weakly, they may stand two years 

 in the seed-bed ; and then being nursed one season in good soil, will be very fit for planting out in the 

 forest. The oak, the beech, and the chestnut, if raised in rich soil, and well furnished with roots at the 

 end of the first year, and having been nursed in rows for two years, will be very fit to be planted out. 

 But if they be allowed to stand two years in the seed-bed, and be planted one year in good ground, they 

 will be still better, and the roots will be found well feathered with fine small fibres. The silver fir and 

 common spruce should stand two years in the seed-bed. If transplanted into very good soil, they may be 

 fit for being planted out at the end of the first year; but, more generally, they require two years in 

 the lines. The Scots pine should also stand for two years in the seed-bed, and should be nursed in good 

 ground for one year ; at the end of which they will be much fitter for being planted, than if they were 

 allowed to stand a second year in the lines. They are very generally taken at once from the seed-bed ; 

 and in land bare of heath or herbage, they succeed pretty well ; nevertheless, we would prefer them one 

 year nursed. The above are the hardy and most useful forest trees ; and from the observations made, 

 whatever respects the age or size of other kinds, may easily be inferred." (Plant. Kal. 158.) 



C837. According to Pontey, " the best general rule is, to proportion the size of the plants to the goodness 

 of the soil ; the best of the latter requiring the largest of the former. Still on bleak exposures this rule 

 will not hold good, as there the plants should never be large, for otherwise the greater part would fail 

 from the circumstance of wind-waving, and of those that succeeded, few, if any, would make much pro- 

 gress for several years; firs of a foot, and deciduous trees of eighteen inches, are large enough for such 

 places. As in extensive planting, soils which are good and well sheltered but seldom occur, the most 

 useful sizes of plants, for general purposes, will be firs of a foot, and deciduous trees of eighteen inches, 

 both transplanted. None but good-rooted plants will succeed on a bad soil, while on a good one, Shel- 

 tered, none but very bad-rooted plants will fail ; a large plant never has so good a root, in proportion to 

 its size, as a small one ; and hence we see the propriety of using such on good soils only. Small plants 

 lose but few of their roots in removal; therefore, though planted in very moderate-sized holes of pul- 

 verised earth, soon find the means of making roots, in proportion to their heads. It should never be 

 forgotten, that, in being removed, a plant of two feet loses a greater proportion of its roots than a tree 

 of one, and one of three feet a greater proportion than one of two, and so on, in proportion to its former 

 strength and height, and thus the larger the plants, so much greater is the degree of languor or weakness 

 into which they are thrown by the operation of transplanting." (Prof. Plant. 161.) 



6838. The seasons for planting are autumn and spring ; the former, when the soil and 

 situation are moderately good, and the plants large ; and the latter, for bleak situations. 

 Necessity, however, is more frequently the guide here than choice, and in extensive 

 designs, the operation is generally performed in all moderately dry open weather from 

 October to April inclusive. "In an extensive plantation," Sang observes, " it will 

 hardly happen but there will be variety of soil, some parts moist and heavy, and others 

 dry and light. The lightest parts may be planted in December or January ; and the 

 more moist, or damp parts, in February or March. It must be observed, however, that 

 if the ground be not in a proper case for planting, the operation had better be delayed. 

 The plants will be injured, either by being committed to the ground when it is in a sour 

 and wet, or in a dry parched state. At a time when the soil may be termed neither wet 

 nor dry, the operation of planting is most successfully performed. The mould does not 

 then adhere to the spade, nor does it run in ; it divides well, and is made to intermingle 

 with the fibres of the plants with little trouble ; and in treading and setting the plant 

 upright, the soil is not worked into mortar, which it necessarily must be, if in a wet state, 

 evidently to the great detriment of the plants. It is therefore improper to plant 'on a 

 retentive soil in the time of rain, or even perhaps for some days afterwards, or after a 

 fall of snow, until it has for some days disappeared. Whereas, on a dry absorbent soil, 

 it may be proper to plant in the time of gentle showers, immediately after heavy rains, 

 or as soon as the snow is dissolved." (Plant. Kal. 157.) 



6839. Pontey is a decided advocate for autumn preparation of the soil, and spring planting. 

 " Autumn planting," he says, " is advisable only in few cases, while spring planting may properly 

 apply to all." 



6840. According to Sang, the proper time for planting the pine and fir tribes, and all evergreens, is 

 April, or even the first fortnight in May. " Attention should be paid, that no greater number of plants 

 be lifted from the nursery than can he conveniently planted on the same day. Damp weather is the 

 best. When very dry, and the plants rise destitute of earth at their roots, their roots should be dipped 

 in mud (puddle) so as to be coated over by it. In all cases, care should be taken not to shake on" any ad- 

 hering earth from plants at the time of planting." (Plant. Kal. 341.) 



6841. The operation of inserting the plants in the soil is performed in various ways ; 

 the most general mode, and that recommended by Marshall and Nicol, is pitting ; in 

 which two persons are employed, one to operate on the soil with the spade, and the other 

 to insert the plant and hold it till the earth is put round it, and then press down the soil 

 with the foot. Where the plants are three feet high or upwards, this is the best mode ; 

 but for smaller plants modes have been adopted in which one person performs the whole 

 operation. 



6842. Sang describes three kinds of manual operation employed by him in planting, and in part in 

 sowing trees : by pitting ; by slitting simply, or by cross, or T slitting ; by the diamond dibber ; by the 

 planting-mattock ; and by the planter. In filling an area with plants, he first plants those intended as the 

 final trees, and afterwards the nurses ; or one set of operators plant the former, while another follow with 

 the latter, unless the time for removing the nurses, as in the case of evergreen pines and firs, should 

 be later than that for planting the principals. (6832.) " The plants, if brought from a distance, should be 



