THE NEW FORESTRY. 1 43 



attempt to carry a large ball of soil which is apt to fall to 

 pieces at a critical moment, carrying whole masses of roots 

 with it. Preparation by root-pruning the year before will, 

 however, usually prevent all risk, and with trees of any value 

 that course should always be adopted. Copious waterings 

 should also be given to the roots, which should also be thickly 

 mulched during the summer. 



SECTION XX. — SEA SIDE PLANTING. 



Pure sand, as is well known, is one of the poorest .rooting 

 mediums known so far as surface crops are concerned, but it 

 is also a well established fact that the poorest sand lands 

 produce excellent crops of certain kinds of timber, and 

 numerous examples are recorded on both poor inland sands and 

 on sand banks at the sea shore consisting of pure sand. On 

 the western coast of .France great tracts of sand dunes, once 

 barren wastes, are now clothed with fir forests that yield great 

 quantities of excellent timber and other products, and on not a 

 few places on the British coasts are now established thriving 

 plantations, extending almost from high water mark, consisting 

 chiefly of Pinus pinaster, Scots, Austrian, and Corsican firs ; 

 these species being apparently the most suitable of any.for sea 

 side planting. There is indeed no doubt about timber trees 

 thriving on sand banks — mostly worthless for any other 

 purpose, and the only difficulty is getting the trees established 

 on drifting sands which are apt to bury the young trees. The 

 French set up wattle hurdles among the plants as screens, and 

 Grigor recommends thinnings of fir woods and furze to be 

 stuck in or strewed among the plants, especially near to the 

 sea, in order to break the sand drift for the first few years, after 

 which the trees are well ,able to protect themselves, affording 

 shelter also to the land in a way that greatly enhances its value 

 for farming purposes. Probably the common willow would be 

 as good a subject to plant among firs for. their protection, as 

 anything in such situations. The following extracts from 

 the " Field " on the value of the willow is worth quoting. It 

 states that : — " Between Blackpool and Southport it is exten- 

 sively planted in belt lines to protect plantations and gardens 

 from the breezes which sweep along that part of the coast with 

 unusual severity. It grows well in the light sandy soil of the 

 district; indeed, in some places, it is growing on what were 

 but a few years ago nothing but sand banks. In the well- 



