WOODS AND PLANTATIONS. 365 



to visit the nursery and examine the plants, and choose what may be 

 wanted for the season's planting operations ; and in doing so he should 

 attend to the following : 



1st, The plants should be quite healthy and free from insects. I 

 often meet with larch-trees very much infested with the white scale or 

 bug. This spreads very much in a plantation, and should be guarded 

 against. 



2d, The bark should be of a perfectly healthy character, and the 

 leaves entire and well formed ; if otherwise, the plants are in degree 

 unhealthy, and therefore should be rejected. 



3d, The plants should not be too much drawn up, for tall slender 

 plants seldom do well. 



4th, There should be plenty of fibrous roots ; this is a very important 

 point to attend to. Long tap-rooted plants generally make great failures 

 when planted out, and are very backward in starting to grow. 



5th, Plants for exposed situations should be short and hardy, and of 

 the size called one-year seedling two years transplanted. 



6th, If the plants are wanted for low-lying, warm, and sheltered 

 places, good tall well-rooted ones should be chosen. 



Of course the size of the plants required must vary with the situation 

 where the plants are to be put. Many, in choosing plants, look at the 

 appearance of the trees above the soil, and not at the roots. They con- 

 sider that if they have been making fine long growths, that is all that is 

 required. If the trees have been standing in the rows for some years, 

 and not been transplanted since removal from the seed-bed, they will 

 no doubt show fine growths, but in all likelihood the roots will be very 

 poor. If the plants have been regularly transplanted, there will be a 

 mass of fibrous roots, and this is what is wanted in young trees intended 

 for removal to plantations. It is through the fibrous roots that the 

 plants live ; and consequently the more of these they have, the more 

 likely will the result be successful. 



In purchasing specimen plants of any kind, and more especially of 

 the pine tribe, care should be taken to see that they have been trans- 

 planted, and well supplied with fibrous roots. 



The following table shows the number of trees required per acre at 

 different distances apart : 



