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laid out, and the upper soil carefully prepared to suit the nature of the trees -which are to 

 be sown. Most of the coniferae prefer a light dry soil with a considerable proportion of 

 sand, and this has the advantage that the seedlings are easily shaken out and freed from 

 each other for transplanting. In the case of Scotch fir and larch, the seed is sown in 

 May or June, and left in the seed bed for two seasons. The seedlings are then planted 

 out in lines fourteen inches apart, and three inches between each plant, are left thus for 

 sometimes two years, and then planted out for good. It is thought better, if the frost 

 can be prevented from killing the seedlings, to sow in April, and transplant one year 

 after, or even the same autumn, as soon as the leaf bud is hard. The spruce requires two 

 years in the seed beds, as its growth is slower than that of larch. The pinus pinaster, 

 austriaca, and laricio are sown in May or June, and transplanted the same autumn into 

 rows six inches apart, the plants close together. Hence they are transplanted the fol- 

 lowing autumn, into rows fourteen inches apart, where they are left one or two years 

 before being planted out. It is considered an object to shorten tap-roots and encourage 

 laterals. (This last idea, it will be noticed, may assist the tree; but not that main object 

 of forest preservation, the connection between the upper and lower strata.) 



The Earl of Seafield's woods, in Strathspey, give an instance of the rapidity with 

 which planting is going on in Scotland. There are 60,000 acres, of which half are 

 in timber, yet so young, that the commissioner saw little large wood ready to cut, but 

 plenty of thinnings. The overseer intends gradually to plant the whole, so that, in 

 course of time, a thousand acres could be cut annually and a thousand planted out, which 

 could not, it is said, faU to bring in a large revenue, without trenching on the capital of 

 timber. Three lines of Scotch fir the commissioner saw lifted and tied in bundles for 

 planting out. This was done expeditiously by the five-pronged fork, two men digging 

 out the young trees, which are then lifted by women, the earth shaken ofi", and tied in 

 bundles for planting. This list will give some idea of the progress on only one estate :— 

 Duthil Hill, 700 acres, planted six years; Deshar, 1,100 acres, within seven years; 

 Sluemore, 600 acres, five years ; Revock, 700 acres, four years ; Bengalupin, 1,200 acres, 

 six years ; Advie, 300 acres, one year. 



A point here presents itself which, though it seems vague, and not according 

 with Canadian experience, it might be well to examine and find the meaning of. The 

 Strathspey overseer considers that " in Strathspey, at least, the land should be left barren 

 and untouched, after it is cleared of trees, until the natural herbage, whether heather, 

 grass or moss, which existed before the trees grew, recovers ; and that if planted before 

 this takes place, failure will result." 



It may be remarked that oak is now little planted here, its use for ship-building 

 being much less than formerly ; whUe, even for backing for ironclads it is abandoned in 

 favour of teak, which has not the injurious effect on the iron produced by the contact of 

 oak. Scotch fir and larch are much planted, and are rapid in natural reproduction. 

 Whenever the natural vegetation has sprung up in places formerly covered with coni- 

 ferous trees, the seeds germinate. This is then protected by wire fences with gi-eat 

 success. In a large tract of self-sown forest in the Grantown district, enclosed six years 

 ago, the Scotch firs average six feet high, while individual trees run up to ten feet. 



"Wire fence, tarred, three feet eight inches high, can be constructed for seventeen 



