6 



In France a plan for inducing a dense growth of lateral roots in seedling oaks, 

 has been found successful, — it is to spread the acorns over a layer of broken stone, 

 cover them with as rich a soil as possible, and water them well. Another plan is 

 to pinch off the plumule or first bud of the seedling, 5 or 6 days after it appears 

 so as to throw all the energy of growth into the root. 



Pricked out plants are generally placed in rows, called nursery lines. The 

 soil devoted to them must be carefully prepared, though not perhaps quite to the 

 same extent as that of seed-beds. 



Seedlings should be pricked out while young, sometimes when only a few weeks 

 old. 



When the object is to produce large and strong plants, they may be pricked out 

 a second or even a third time, after an interval each time, of one, two or more 

 years. 



Plants may be pricked out at any time, provided it is done carefully and rapidly ; 

 when the soil is fairly moist ; and during showery weather, else the plants may 

 have to be watered. 



The distances between the nursery lines and between the plants in the lines 

 depend on the size of the plants, their more or less rapid development, and the 

 time which they are to remain in the lines. Ordinary two-year-old seedlings of 

 Pine which are to remain for two years in the lines, may be placed from 3 to 6 

 inches apart in the lines with a distance of 6 to 12 inches between the lines. 



The pricking out can be done in a variety of ways according to the description 

 of plants. The more usual methods are, either to make a separate hole for each 

 plant with a planting peg, a small hoe or a garden trowel, or to open shallow 

 trenches, into which the plants are placed at the proper distance apart. In either 

 .case the roots should be placed in a natural position and the soil well pressed 

 around them. 



Transplants are much superior to seedlings, especially in unfavourable local- 

 ities ; their root-system is fuller and more compact, aud they are altogether bet- 

 ter developed. 



PLANTING. 



The first consideration in planting is to interrupt as little as possible the pro- 

 cess of growth. 



Two general rules should always be borne in mind : — (!) the plant should be 

 placed in the ground to the same depth as that at which it stood in the nursery ; 

 (2) the roots should not be crowed together but be placed in a natural position. 



In the majority of cases the plants should be placed flush with the ordinary 

 surface of the ground; but sometimes they must be placed in pits dug out below 

 the surface, where for instance the ground is sloping and hoeing the weeds at first 

 soon levels the surface, or when the climate is dry and hot ; on the other hand in 

 wet swampy soil on a level surface they should be planted on mounds. 



In planting with balls of earth, care should be taken that the plants are not 

 too large, otherwise the roots will project beyond the ball and be des royed in 

 transplanting ; again, it is essential that there should be no vacant space between 

 the ball and the soil where it is planted, which often occurs even after careful 

 planting, when the soil is stiff and shrinks. 



If the planting is without balls of earth, great care has to be taken with the roots. 

 If the soil be rich and fairly open, the hole may be made just large enough to 

 hold the roots placed as they spread naturally, but if the soil be stiff", the hole 

 should be made larger and deeper so as loosen and work the ground, and make 

 it easier for the roots to spread in starting. The soil taken < ut of the pit should 

 be placed in two heaps, the top good soil being kept separate from the indifferent 

 lowest soil. 



In placing the plant in t> e hole, it should be held so that the root, system is in 

 a natural position, the good soil is then gradually filled in about the rootlets, at 

 first pressed down gently, then more firmly, and at last pressed firmly with the foot. 



The plant should be held in position by a boy, whilst a careful man fills in the 

 earth. 



