5 



SHELTFR. This is of the first importance in a nursery, 

 especially where there is any brack in soil or water. Screens 

 may be used as temporary make-shifts and potting sheds 

 where both frost and high winds are to be feared. No time 

 however should be lost in running up the complete shade of 

 trees and hedges as soon as possible. 



" DA.MPING OFF." This is due to a fungus called Phy- 

 tophthera omnivera^ allied to the potato disease. The root 

 and the stem are at first quite healthy, but the seedlings 

 rot away at the ground level and fall over in patches. 



Young Pines are most likely to be attacked before they 

 are pricked out. Late summer sowings which are some- 

 times necessary, suffer most. The disease spreads rapidly 

 and creates fearful havoc. It is intensified by damp, dull 

 weather, over- watering, or over-shading. The remedies are ; 



(1) Keep the plants as dry as possible. 



(2) Take off all shade. 



(3) Dig out the diseased patches at once and replace 



with clean dry sand. The diseased earth is full 

 of spores : cany it away carefully to a distance 

 from the nursery. 



(4) To be safe next year have the seed tins or seed beds 



in some new and distant spot. The old nursery 

 will remain infected with spores, but it is only 

 crowded succulent seedlings that are liable to be 

 attacked. For a full account of this pest soe 

 Marshall Ward's " Timber and some of its 

 Diseases." 



GENERAL. Good and valuable seed is sometimes wasted 

 owing to slow germination being mistaken for badness of 

 seed. Ordinary tree-seeds Gums, Wattles, Pines take 

 from ten days to a month to germinate, according to season 

 and other circumstances. But Ash, both American and 

 European, Pencil-cedar and Junipers generally, Lime, and 

 others which have little interest for planters here, lie in the 

 ground for nearly a year, and sometimes longer before they 

 germinate. The Ash in Europe lies for two years in the 

 ground before germinating, and it is usual to store it in pits 

 with moist sand during this period. I have sometimes put 



