90 FOREST PLANTING. 



rich by manuring, as this produces a rank growth, which 

 prevents the proper ripening of the wood. All that is 

 required is a ground sufficient to make a healthy tree. 



The place to be selected should have a situation well 

 protected against cold and drying winds ; and yet this 

 location should not be such as to enfeeble the seedlings 

 and render them unable to go through the hardships of 

 young forest trees. If nurseries for forest trees are to 

 be established upon the open ridges of a mountainous 

 country, the proper protection may be obtained either by 

 fences, or, if permanently established, by surrounding 

 them with earth walls from 6 to 8 feet high, on the top 

 of which are planted Birches, Pines and Alders. 



CHAPTER XV. 

 PLANTING FOREST TREES. 



The planting of forest trees can only succeed in places 

 where there is no grass, and where no grass would or- 

 dinarily grow for some years to come. In such places, 

 especially in poor sandy or peaty soil, two-year-old plants 

 without ball are usually selected for planting; assigning, 

 of course, to the proper soil, the suitable kind of trees — 

 to the poorest soil the Pine and Birch. But Spruce 

 should always be intermixed even on the poorest 

 ground. The Spruce can be made to grow upon such 

 soil by means of abundant watering. Even a slow growth 

 of these trees is satisfactory, as they have only to 

 serve as nurses, and to form the undergrowth of the pine 

 forest. 



The mode of planting is as follows : ashes from dried 

 peat-sods, or compost having been prepared the sum- 



