6o 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



water through and prevent stones or 

 gravel from stopping up the waterways ; 

 and the streams were deepened and 

 straightened where necessary so as to 

 discharge the flood water through the 

 plantation and out on to the land below, 

 and so into the river in the valley. 



The plan adopted in planting was 

 that usual in Scotland, called notching. 

 The planter, with a spade made for the 

 purpose, cuts the surface in the shape 

 of a cross, and by reversing the spade 

 turns up the four corners of the soil, 

 when a boy following him with a bundle 

 of plants drops one into the hole, and 

 the planter, holding the plant upright 

 with one hand, treads down the notch 

 again over the roots with his feet. This 

 is all that is required with small plants 

 of from 9 to 1 5 inches in height, the 

 best size for planting, such as are called 

 by nurserymen three years' seedlings 

 twice transplanted. I had reared the 

 plants myself in a nursery in a demesne 

 here,of about six acres, transplanting the 

 seedlings wider apart in rows until the 

 third year, when we planted them out on 

 the mountain. I purposely placed the 

 nursery in the highest and most exposed 

 position in the demesne, so as to make 

 the trees as hardy as possible. The large 

 plantation which I formed last contains 

 an area of rather over 700 acres, and is 

 situate on the south-west side of Glen- 

 cree and is called Ballyreagh Wood, 

 from the townland in which it is mostly 

 situated. It was commenced in 1869 

 and took about nine years to complete. 

 The number of plants put out was from 

 300,000 to 400,000 annually, planted 

 about 3 to 4 feet apart, so that there 



The Rarer 

 Conifers. 



must be about 4,000,000 trees in the 

 whole. Besides the Larch and Scotch 

 Fir I planted several thousands of the 

 rarer kinds of coniferae, Abies Douglasii, 

 Thuja gigantea, Cecirus deodo?~a, and 

 atlantica, Pinus insignus, Cupressus 

 Lawsoniana, JV ?llingtonias, Araucaria 

 imbricata, and others, all of which ap- 

 pear to be quite at home in the rocky 

 granite soil of the mountain; but the 

 most successful of the rarer kinds is the 

 Corsican Pine. 



Besides these large plantations I 

 have planted in the demesne and all 

 along the valley to the 

 deer park thousands of 

 the rarer coniferae, of 

 which the most successful are Abies 

 Doug/asii, Thuja gigantea, Pi?ius ins ig- 

 nis, Picea nobilis, Araucarias, and many 

 others, some of which have already at 

 tained a height of 70 to 80 feet. In one 

 place on the way to the deer park I 

 planted one hundred Araucarias all in 

 one group,which I nursed up with Larch 

 and Scotch Fir for shelter. These latter 

 have all been cut away, and the Arau- 

 carias stand by themselves, forming a 

 remarkable feature in the landscape. 

 We are often visited by severe gales, and 

 many trees are blown down, but the 

 Araucarias do not seem to suffer so much 

 from wind, and none of this group have 

 been blown down yet. Wellingtonias 

 also stand the wind very well, Abies 

 Douglasii is apt to have the topshoots 

 blown off when it tops the surrounding 

 Larch and Scotch Fir. The Pinus Lari- 

 cio is one of the best for exposed places 

 and will growin the poorest soil; I have 

 some growing in nothing but sand, as 



