ERRORS IN PROPAGATING OAK. 211 



be doubly prejudicial to oaks which, after having 

 their health impaired by previous transplantation, 

 have again to struggle with the evils of a second re- 

 moval. We have no cause to wonder, then, that, 

 when treated in this way, they often remain for 

 years in a sickly condition, and, in the end, become 

 . so thoroughly hide-bound, that they require to be 

 lopped down to the ground, before they will put 

 forth a single healthy shoot. It may be worth 

 while to add here, that, from ignorance of this me- 

 thod of cure, whole plantations of oak have often 

 been suffered to perish. 



Besides that now described, there is another way 

 of planting oaks, which has been much practised in 

 Aberdeenshire and some of the neighbouring coun- 

 ties, during the last twenty or thirty years. Seed- 

 lings of one or two years old are used, and the plan 

 of operation is as follows : — A notch is made on 

 the ground with a spade, or with an instrument 

 known in these districts by the name of a planting 

 iron. The root of the young oak is inserted in this 

 notch, which the workman then closes by a stroke of 

 his heel, and thereby fixes the plant. This method 

 is the cheapest of any that has ever been practised, 

 and, simple as it is, answers to admiration with 

 Scots fir, larch, and spruce of one or two years old. 



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