ii6 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



which already occupies or is more or less indigenous to 

 the soil. This growth may reach a height of two or three 

 feet in the course of the summer, while its roots ramify 

 through the best part of the surface soil and appropriate 

 its plant food and moisture. Under such conditions a 

 young weak seedling would have little chance of getting 

 well established unless carefully attended to by cutting back 

 the surface growth for the first two or three years, which 

 may prove too expensive work. 



In the case of hill-planting, on the other hand, the 

 obstacles to success are of a different nature. On the 

 prevailing class of soils on hillsides, finely divided earth, 

 which is necessary for covering the roots of a transplanted 

 tree, is usually scarce. The so-called soil often consists of 

 gravel or broken rock, and, in ordinary transplanting, the 

 roots must be given more or less unfavourable conditions 

 at the outset by being placed in material which contains 

 a relatively small proportion of moisture and plant food. 

 The planter is therefore compelled to use plants of such 

 a size as can find their requirements met by existing con- 

 ditions. But a still greater objection to the use of large 

 plants is the difficulty experienced in fixing them firmly 

 in the ground. Large plants are invariably top-heavy, and 

 on hillsides, where strong winds prevail to a greater or less 

 extent at all times of the year, such plants are continually 

 subjected to lateral pressure which they are not in a position 

 to resist. Such plants, therefore, seldom succeed on hillsides, 

 and small, stout, and comparatively young trees must be used 

 for planting them. 



Although the general principles of planting are the same 

 in both the above cases, the methods employed in the one 

 are seldom suitable and appropriate to the other. In the 

 one case we must provide for the transplanting of large 

 and top-heavy trees, which are at the outset in a position 

 to contend with the surface growth. Such trees can only 

 be properly planted by pitting. In the other case the 

 method employed must be suitable for small-rooted trees, 

 which are little affected by wind, and which have to be 

 planted in a soil in which pits or holes are difficult to 

 dig, unless at a comparatively high cost. The method best 



