144 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



kept public gardens at Lytham, which extend to within 

 about fifty paces of high water mark, the willow again is 

 planted near the sea for shelter'; and though the soil is poor, 

 the trees in three or four;years have grown twenty feet or 

 thirty feet high. The elm, beech, sycamore, oak, laburnam 

 and other deciduous trees become as brown and withered in 

 foliage during the summer as if a severe black frost had passed 

 over them; but the willow towers aloft, and is green and 

 luxuriant to its topmost branches. In the extensive park 

 around Clifton Hall, and close to the sea, the plantations have 

 all been protected in the same way from the blast. In some 

 places the willows appear to be of good age, and are consider- 

 ably taller than the spruces, oaks and other trees which they 

 guard from the storm." Grigor also writing in the last edition 

 of his "Arboriculture" on sea side planting, says : — "that, the 

 willow has no rival among deciduous trees for planting as 

 shelter to other trees, a statement which we can corroborate 

 from observation. We have not seen the experiment . tried, 

 but we have little doubt, from what we have seen of the 

 willow's behaviour on poor sand banks, that it would be one 

 of the best of nurses in such situations, provided it was planted 

 one or two years before the permanent crop was put in and 

 planted thick enough. Good sized cuttings inserted deeply 

 enough would answer very well. After the permanent crop 

 became established, the willows could be , gradually removed. 

 On the bleak sand dunes of Gascony, the French foresters 

 sowed seeds of Pinus pinaster and broom at the rate of two 

 pounds of the former to five pounds of the latter to the acre, 

 and in a little over twenty years many acres of thriving plan- 

 tations were thus established. The broom was the nurse in 

 this case. Anything in the shape of low bush or grass, to bind 

 the drifting sands, or dead brush-wood or furze laid amongst 

 the trees to prevent the sand from blowing, appears to answer 

 the purpose, and in a few years the trees can take care of 

 themselves. These are the only difficulties to contend with, 

 and once overcome success is certain." We would recommend 

 planting instead of sowing. 



The preparation of the trees for sea side planting is, 

 however, an important matter. They ought to be procured 

 when only one or two years old, and nursed for a year or, two 

 in the locality and soil in which they are to be finally planted. 

 In sand bank localities there are unusually plenty of spots on 

 which a nursery could be readily extemporised, and in which 

 the little trees could be grown till they are one or two feet 



