CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—APRIL. 7 
APRIL. 
All plantations of hardwood trees should have been com- 
pleted before, or in the early part of this month; but it is 
still suitable for transplanting all sorts of the pine tribe, par- 
ticularly by the notching mode. Larches are also successfully 
transplanted this month in a late season, or in late districts, 
provided the plants have been removed carefully, and pro- 
tected before their buds have been expanded; and it some- 
times happens that such plants escape injury from late frosts 
better than those inserted at an earlier period, particularly in 
plantations having a southern slope. 
Complete the grafting of forest trees; look over and re- 
pair the clay where any defects appear in those grafted last 
month, when the clay has dried and become sufficiently firm. 
Earth up the lines of dwarf grafts, leaving the scion only 
above ground. 
In the nursery the transplanting should be finished as soon 
as possible ; and in South Britain the sowing of all sorts of 
coniferee seeds should commence about the middle of this 
month. In the North of England, and in Scotland, the most 
approved time is about the last week of this month, or early 
in the next, when the weather is in a settled state; for in 
some soils excess of rain immediately after the sowing, and 
before the soil gets dry, is fatal to the crop of larch, Scotch 
fir, etc. 
Immediately after sowing, all sorts of coniferous crops are 
liable to be picked by birds; the beds should therefore be 
securely netted over or overlaid with even drawn straw, fern, 
or the spray of silver or spruce fir. As protection from birds 
by the latter methods forms a shade on the surface, the cover 
of earth on the seed should be made very slight. When none 
of the foregoing methods of protection is adopted it is neces- 
sary to set a watch on the crop. The destruction by birds 
is always greatest early in the morning and late in the after- 
noon. 
