CHAPTER XVII. 



Planting on the Sea-coast. 



These is no doubt that planting on the sea-coast is a work of very 

 great difficulty, and consequently it is often attended with, many disap- 

 pointments when undertaken. This is especially the case in this climate, 

 where, besides the usual drawback of the situation to contend with, there 

 is the no less difficult one of the extreme dry weather in summer to be 

 considered. However, by care, attention, and some nursing during the 

 first two or three years of the plantation's existence, a fair ijesult may at 

 all times be looked for. 



Of course, it must always be understood that in planting near the sea, 

 it is seldom indeed that the result will ever be good timber trees. 

 Ligneous growths, as a rule, are very shy of the blasting influences of 

 the sea breezes, and we invariably find that even those kinds of trees 

 which grow in such sites are liable to become somewhat stunted, and show 

 a tendency to a crouching habit, as if they shrunk from and tried to throw 

 ofE the cold and withering vsdnds charged with saline matter. This dislike 

 of trees to the sea-coast is quite apparent from the fact that we find the 

 greater extent of sea-coast barren, and generally devoid of these. 



The grand object in seaside planting is to secure shelter either to 

 houses, stock, or crops. Many places on the coast which would otherwise 

 be uninhabitable from their exposure to the sea-breeze, have been 

 converted into pleasant and beautiful- abodes by careful and well-executed 

 planting. To do this, however, requires a greater amount of skill and 

 practical oversight than planting trees under any other condition which 

 will come Avithin the planter's experience. Little assistance wiU be 

 derived from nature, so that the best of ai-tificial means must be appUed 

 to the subject in order to arrive at the object aimed at. 



As a rule, also, it will be found that planting on the sea-coast is con- 

 siderably more expensive work than the operation of planting is in more 

 inland parts of the country, and this from a greater preparation of the 

 groimd and the erection of guards being necessary. 



The formation of sea-side plantations has been carried out very 

 successfully in some parts of Scotland, in France, and at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and although these have, generally speaking, been carried 

 out under very unfavorable circumstances in regard to soil, salt water, 

 and strong winds, several of them have flourished in a remarkable 

 manner, and given every satisfaction. In the Gulf of Garcony, in 

 France, over 13,000 acres of poor open sandy waste have been put under a 

 Tery thriving crop of Pinus Pinaster. This was done by simply sowing 



