MODES OF FOREST PLANTING. 63 
recommended, and under any circumstance it is unfavourable 
for plants to be inserted immediately after burning. The 
play of the wind on a bare surface disturbs the plants, and 
the absence of all other vegetation exposes them to the de- 
predations of vermin and casualties which do not assail them 
when surrounded by young vegetation. 
Throughout the north of Scotland two-year-old seedling 
Scotch pines and larches are planted at once into moorland, 
to nearly as great an extent as transplanted plants; and the 
expense of forming plantations of this sort is generally con- 
siderably under £1 sterling per acre, including the cost of 
draining, fencing, etc. Where the cost is above that amount, 
it is commonly incurred in consequence of the plantation 
being of a small extent; the expense of enclosing in that case 
often exceeds that of plants and planting. 
Of the last 1000 acres of moorland which I planted, in four 
or five different lots, about a fifth part consisted of one-year 
transplanted plants. The average cost of this extent did not 
exceed 15s. per acre for plants and planting, with all neces- 
sary upmaking. About one-third of the whole was larch, and 
the others were native Highland pine, with a small proportion 
of Norway spruce; and the average number per acre was 
3500, which placed the plants about three and a half feet, 
asunder. The closest planting was formed on the outsides, 
on hill-tops, and on bleak exposures, also along moist grassy 
patches, overspread with rank herbage; the progress of firs 
on such being always marked by a slowness of growth, until 
they form a cover and suppress the surface vegetation, when 
their effect tends to dry the ground, and convert its energies 
purely to the growth of wood. 
In very exposed and bare ground, the deseription of plant 
most apt to succeed is Scotch pine, one year old, and one 
year transplanted—a plant only two years old, but trans- 
planted into nursery lines at the age of one. This descrip- 
tion of plant is most tenacious of life, and seldom fails; yet 
it is not in ordinary demand; it is sold commonly about 3s. 
to 4s. per 1000. 
