PLANTING AND REGENERATION 115 



has been removed. In many cases, no doubt, this is the 

 correct thing to do, but instances do occur where little 

 or no return is obtained from the outlay thus incurred. 

 Such instances are where the soil rests on a rocky formation, 

 which prevents any deep-rooting tree from securing a firm 

 hold upon it, or where the soil is of such a poor and inferior 

 nature that it is practically sterile, and not worth the trouble 

 and expense of the draining bestowed upon it. A certain 

 amount of judgment is necessary, therefore, in undertaking 

 drainage work on a large scale. To expend £2 or £'6 

 per acre in the form of drains, without any probability 

 of rendering the ground capable of growing a profitable 

 species, is poor economy, and it is probably better to plant 

 a great deal of wet and swampy ground with birch, willow, 

 poplar, or any other moisture-loving tree, confining the 

 draining to a few deep cuts here and there, which will 

 enable the surface moisture to get away as quickly as 

 possible. On the margins of rides, or in any other spots 

 where the presence of moisture is particularly undesirable, 

 draining of course must be conducted from other motives, 

 but in ordinary cases a careful examination of the soil as 

 regards depth and chemical qualities should be made before 

 thorough and expensive drainage is taken in hand. 



Apart from the above considerations, the drainage of 

 ground to be planted is much the same in principle as 

 the drainage of agricultural land, and needs no particular 

 description, it being of course imderstood that open drains 

 are the only ones permissible in woods. 



Planting. 



Ordinary forest-planting may be conveniently divided 

 into two classes, according to the nature of the ground to 

 be planted. The planting of deep rich ground, covered 

 with a rank growth of grass or other herbage, must be gone 

 about in a different way from the planting of a bare hillside 

 with a thin soil, and covered with a scanty or slow growth 

 of short grass or heather. In the former case the obstacles 

 to successful transplanting consist in the natural growth 



