6 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—MARCH. 
There are some sorts of ground, such as bare moorland, 
partaking of moss to too great an extent, in which it is 
difficult to plant so successfully in any other month, on ac- 
count of the soil retaining a great deal of moisture, and 
swelling during severe frosts, thereby raising and ejecting 
the plants, notwithstanding the most careful drainage. All 
plantations on soils of this kind are most successfully made 
during the opening of the season. 
In the nursery, during favourable weather, this is one of the 
busiest months in the year, when everything fit for the forest 
should be cleared out, and the plots filled up by transplanting 
seedlings, or by digging over the ground in preparation for 
seed-beds. All plots that are exhausted should receive a 
dressing of well-rotted manure or vegetable mould. In such 
parts as have become wild, or stand in need of renewal, plant 
potatoes or turn it over preparatory to a turnip crop. 
At this season nothing is more necessary to be guarded 
against, both in the formation of forests and in the nursery, 
than the exposure of the roots of plants to sunshine, or to 
the drying influence of the weather. In lifting nursery 
plants in bright weather, it is of great advantage to form them 
speedily into bundles, and puddle the roots with earth and 
water made to the consistency of thin paint, and to expose 
them as little as possible until they are again planted. 
Elm seeds which have been kept dry since their ripening, 
if not yet sown, should be sown early this month. Birch 
also, and all other crops, except those of the pine tribe 
should be put into the ground before the end of this month. 
Graft the different kinds of forest and ornamental trees 
propagated by that method, such as beech, elm, oak, labur- 
num, etc. ‘ 
Dig between nursery lines ; this will encourage the growth 
of fibrous roots, and will be found the best method of keep: 
ing down weeds. 
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