MODES OF FOREST PLANTING. 55 
with those who are most expert at the work. In a dry, 
sandy, or gravelly moorland, with a cover of open heath, not 
exceeding five or six inches in height, this mode of planting 
is not only the most speedy, but also the most successful and 
economical. It is not practised with plants of a great size ; 
but it is adapted for Scotch pines and spruce two-year seed- 
lings, or for such one-year transplanted, and for larches, 
either one or two year seedlings, or for one-year seedlings, 
one year transplanted, and for other plants not exceeding 
the size of these, at the ages stated. In England, the 
‘use of the small planting spade or hand-iron is almost alto- 
gether unknown; and there the system of notch or slit-plant- 
ing has been termed a coarse operation, because the plant is 
inserted among the herbage without the soil being prepared 
or pulverized ; but the cause of its being spoken of thus 
disparagingly arises from ignorance of the advantages con- 
nected with the system. It is necessary here to explain that 
the herbage with which the plants are associated by this 
mode of planting is that of the heath, which, when of a 
moderate size, is far more favourable to the young plants than 
. if they were inserted on a bare prepared surface. A cover of 
heath affords great protection, while its open stems do not. 
retain moisture to rot the plants, nor do its roots injure them 
like those of a grassy vegetation. Moorland of the usual 
description, situated at a considerable altitude, when much 
disturbed and pulverized, is generally less adapted to the 
growth of young plants than soil less expensively prepared. 
This arises not only from the prepared soil and pulverized 
spots being deprived of a shelter of heath, but also from the 
circumstance of these places, thus prepared, absorbing an 
excess of moisture, which causes the ground to swell during 
frost, and subside in open weather, whereby the plants are 
ejected. For this reason, the planter of experience, in the 
progress of notch planting, will diverge from the regular dis- 
tance if the spot happens to be bare, with a broken surface, 
to take advantage of the nearest point possessed of a heathy 
sward, into which he will insert the plant. In the native- 
