120 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



and very few need fail in the nursery lines. The commoner 

 species cost from about two shillings and sixpence to five 

 shillings, and scarcer species about seven shillings and sixpence 

 per thousand. At . this rate a home nursery can soon be 

 stocked, but unless the forester has gauged his wants pretty 

 accurately he may, in two or three years' time, find himself in 

 possession of more stock than he can handle and get out in 

 due course, and the trees then get above the planting-out size 

 and become useless. Frequent transplanting will, of course, 

 keep the trees in check and fit for moving, but every time the 

 trees are handled in this way, before they go to their final 

 destination in the woods, adds to their cost. For this reason 

 the nursery should be roomy, so as to avoid crowding, which is 

 the chief danger in home nurseries, particularly where those in 

 charge are not familiar with nursery work. Where the room is 

 limited preference should be given, as before stated, to the pine 

 class, as these are the most difficult to deal with, and 

 the deciduous species may be bought from the public nursery. 

 Young forest trees of the same kind, in nursery quarters, do 

 not all grow at the same rate, and when the plants become 

 thick in the row, and the rows are near to each other, the 

 weaker trees are smothered and die out before the rows can be 

 transplanted. One half of the stock may be lost in this way 

 in a short while. The ash, alder, sycamore, and other broad- 

 leaved species suffer in this way, as the second year after 

 planting in the nursery the strongest seedlings will often make 

 growths from three to five feet long, and, overtopping the 

 weaker trees at an early stage, the latter make no headway and 

 finally perish. The writer has seen what appeared to be a fine, 

 even quarter of ash or sycamore, when lifted, reveal losses from 

 smothering to the extent of nearly thirty per cent. Such losses 

 can only be prevented by giving the plants the room they 

 require. It is not the crowding of the plants in the row that 

 does the mischief so much as the crowding of the rows so 

 closely together that the tops of the strongest trees meet and 

 exclude the light from the weaker ones. At all stages the rows 

 should stand clear of each other so that the light may reach 

 the ground between them. The weaklings at the bottom of 

 the rows will then receive sufficient light to keep them alive till 

 the next transplanting, when the tall and the short plants 

 should be separated. 



The main objects to be kept in view in a home nursery of 

 forest trees are, not to overcrowd it with more stock than can 

 be handled in time ; not to have too many trees of any one 



