AND PLANTING ON PREPARED GROUND. 67 
of trenching is frequently compensated for by taking’ ‘a crop 
of potatoes, carrots, or other roots, during the first season of 
the plantation; and even when this method is not resorted 
to, trenching in many cases is less costly than it at first ap- 
‘pears. In all prepared ground where ornament and rapidity 
of growth are required, it is necessary to keep the surface 
clear and free of weeds during the first two or three years 
after planting, until the trees form a cover sufficient to pre- 
vent surface vegetation ; and the labour in doing so is always 
much less on trenched ground than on that which has only 
been dug or ploughed. Another advantage arising from 
ground that has been well trenched is, that in it trees of a 
greater size will more readily take root and become estab- 
lished than in ground prepared in any other way. But when 
plants are of the ordinary size, their growth in six years in 
trenched ground is generally equal to that of ten years in any 
other description of ground. Dry, sandy soil is frequently over- 
spread with a closely matted herbage, chiefly composed of the 
Fescue and other wild grasses, which, without being trenched, 
render any mode of planting very uncertain. The closeness 
of the surface sward intercepts the influence of showers, and 
the depth of its fibrous roots is a great hindrance to the 
growth of young trees. Furze not unfrequently forms a close 
cover on good soil, well adapted for the growth of timber. 
The preparation of such places is most speedily accomplished 
by trenching the ground. By any other method the furze is 
apt soon to reappear and interfere with the growth of the 
trees. By trenching, the ground is softened and rendered so 
clean that subsequent clearings are seldom required, as the 
trees generally advance rapidly, and soon subdue all native 
vegetation. In planting ground from which timber has re- 
cently been removed, and in all hard and inhospitable soils, 
trenching is to be recommended. It should be performed in 
autumn, and the planting is generally most successful after 
the severity of the winter is over. 
Plantations consisting chiefly of the broad-leaved trees are gene- 
rally formed by pit planting, and the plants used are commonly 
