44 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



After ploughing, the furrows should be subsoil-ploughed if pos- 

 sible, and the soil stirred to a fair depth, but the necessity for the 

 work depends upon the nature of the subsoil. We should then 

 choose a suitable spell of weather for planting, and proceed as 

 follows : By means of the planting-iron seedlings would be put 

 in one to two feet apart along the bottom of the furrows, using 

 10,000 to 20,000 plants per acre, according to the species and size 

 of the seedlings. In good soil, and with fast-growing species, the 

 smaller number would be amply sufficient, but where the condi- 

 tions are reversed the larger number would be none too many, if 

 expense be left out of account. In ordinary cases, however, 10,000 

 to 12,000 would be about the thing. Allowing 10s. per acre for 

 ploughing, £1 for planting, and £2 for plants, would bring the 

 total cost per acre to between £8 and £4. For the first year or 

 two after planting weeds and rubbish must be kept down until 

 the plants are out of danger, after which we may leave them 

 alone for a time. 



"When ploughing is out of the question, as on rocky ground, 

 or in replanting old woodland, small patches may be cleared of 

 weeds with the spade, the soil loosened up, and three or four 

 plants put in each patch, the latter being about a yard from the 

 next one. Weeds, &c, must be kept down as before. 



For either of the above methods to be successful, it is 

 necessary that ground-game should be almost, if not quite, 

 absent ; but the same may be said of all planting operations. 

 It is also necessary that the seedlings should be planted so that 

 their taproots are left in a natural position, and that they are 

 not weakened, or practically killed, by long exposure. We do 

 not assert that these methods are applicable in all cases, but we 

 merely give them as suggestions which can be modified to suit 

 each particular case. What we desire most to emphasise is the 

 necessity for close planting, thus following more closely in the 

 footsteps of Nature, and rearing timber by natural instead of 

 artificial methods. 



It may be asked, " Why incur the expense of planting so 

 many hundred trees which can never hope to reach maturity ? " 

 The answer may be best given by considering what takes place 

 in the struggle for existence. We have said that this struggle 

 terminates in the survival of the fittest. What are the fittest ? 

 In sylviculture they are those trees which Nature has endowed 



