GREATER TREES OF THE NORTHERN FOREST 



33 



qualities will doubtless govern the 

 sidering the slowness of its growth 

 be proper to consult much less 

 the dimensions of trees and 

 the thickness of the last annual 

 layers than the volume and de- 

 velopment of the perfect wood, 

 which alone is useful. 



Planting and Sowing. — Mr. 

 D. Cannon, an Englishman 

 living in France, and an exten- 

 sive planter of evergreen forest 

 trees, writes : " Having regard 

 to the high price of seed of the 

 Corsican and Calabrian Pines 

 and its generally middling 

 quality, we think it preferable 

 to plant out than to sow and 

 more economical. The plants 

 ought not to be taken up before 

 the day, or at most the even- 

 ing before planting out, and it 

 brought from a distance, they 

 ought to be sheltered from the 

 sun and wind up to the mo- 

 ment of planting. It is as well 

 not to plant on hot, scorching 

 days, which sometimes occur in 

 spring, and only to plant in 

 still, overcast weather. Having 

 regard to the lightness of the 

 foliage, the plants ought not 

 to be given more space than 

 4 feet between them in all di- 

 rections, because the contact of 

 the branches of the young trees 

 will better enable them to keep 

 down weeds. If this Pine is set 

 amongst other evergreen trees, 

 the space may be a little more, 

 say 6 feet, having regard to 

 possible losses and to the den- 

 sity of the other trees, which 

 ought never to be allowed to 

 dominate the Pines. Care must 

 be taken to see that those who 

 do the planting do not, for the 

 sake of regularity of spacing, 

 plant the Pines under clumps 

 of other kinds of trees. 



As regards sowing, the com- 

 mon mistake is to sow too 

 thickly, increasing the expense 

 and producing an over-thick- 

 ness of growth, which, though 

 pleasant to look upon during 

 the first few years by reason 



production. It seems, however, permissible to affirm that, con- 

 , its value will always be very high, and that to regulate this it will 



CORSICAN PINE (DES BARRES). 

 (Engraved from a photograph by Maurice L. de Vilmorin.) 



