CHAPTER IX. 



Distances Apart at which Forest Trees Should he Planted. 



This is an important matter, and deserves the best attention of the^ 

 intending planter. From a careful consideration of the subject before 

 beginning planting, much disappointment will be avoided, and the result, 

 commercially, will be more likely to come up to expectation than if 

 the matter is undertaken without due regard to the peculiarities of soil 

 and situation of the part about to be operated on. 



Forest lands, or such parts of a country which we generally find 

 embraced within enclosures devoted to the culture of trees, naturally 

 assume a very varied description, so much so that any one part may, in 

 its physical features, be diametrically opposed to another. Of course 

 this is self-evident, and requires no logical reasoning to show that it is so. 

 Coming, however, to specialities, we may for our purpose define aU lands- 

 under the following heads, viz., exposed and high-lying, moderately 

 exposed and at average elevations, and sheltered and low-lying. Situa- 

 tions such as these embrace pretty nearly every feature of counti-y which 

 will come within the operations of the planter in this colony. I will, 

 therefore, have something to say about each in dealing with the subject 

 in hand. 



It is evident that where so much diversity of natural features exists, 

 to plant at one uniform distance apart would be the height of absurdity. 

 Yet that such is often the case in the colony I am aware. The sooner 

 this practice is abandoned and the young plants only put in at such 

 distances one from another in accordance with the special peculiarities 

 of the situation, the better will the result be to the planter and' to the 

 country at large. 



On exposed and high-hjing parts — such as for instance on the bare 

 hill-sides in the Northern Ai-eas, where the elevation ranges from 1,000 

 to 1,600 ft. above the sea, trees should be planted in such a way that each 

 plant is looked upon as a part of a system in order to the proper protec- 

 tion and shelter of the whole, so that fair growths may be obtained. 

 Trees, in order to succeed well upon any site, must, without exception, 

 have some degree of warmth, and the greater their immunity from 

 disturbing elements so much greater is their chance of success. In high- 

 lying gTounds, therefore, such as those to which I have referred, 

 shelter of some sort is absolutely necessary to success in the formation of 

 young plantations, and this can only be most conveniently and cheaply 

 secured by planting the trees thickly on the ground at the beginning. 



