112 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



technically known as seedlings, or it may be applied to trees 

 of twenty or thirty years of age and as many or more feet in 

 height. In the latter case, planting becomes a branch of 

 arboriculture or horticulture, and is only applicable to parks 

 or pleasure grounds in which expense is a secondary considera- 

 tion. It is only when trees are transplanted at an early age 

 that the operation can be accomplished with an expenditure 

 of time and money which is sufficiently small to render the 

 ultimate results or returns profitable to the planter ; and it is 

 with this class of planting that we now propose to deal. 



Preliminaey Operations. 



Preparation of Ground. — Before the actual operation of 

 planting is performed it is often necessary to prepare the 

 ground in some way or another in order that the young 

 trees may not be interfered with by other growth, or their 

 development checked by adverse conditions. In the case 

 of waste ground this preparation usually consists in 

 burning or grubbing strong woody growth which already 

 occupies the ground, such as gorse, broom, bracken, 

 heather, etc. 



Gorse is the most difficult growth to deal with success- 

 fully, as it seeds so plentifully, and burning does not destroy 

 the plant below the surface. Where it is plentiful, there- 

 fore, considerable expense must be incurred before the ground 

 is in a fit condition for planting. Probably the cheapest 

 plan in the long-run is that of grubbing it in lines or strips 

 about 4 feet apart, so that the trees can be planted in the 

 grubbed portions. The growth on the intervals should be 

 cut over at the same time, and left on the ground until the 

 seeds present have germinated, when the whole should be 

 burnt in the early autumn, previous to planting. When 

 so dealt with, the growth of the old stumps still left in the 

 ground is weakened, as the shoots they make after cutting 

 are checked by the tops lying on them, and the burning 

 not only destroys these shoots, but also the seedlings which 

 have come up around them. 



Broom, brambles, etc., should be dealt with in much the 



