EARLY CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



277 



Where the land is naturally of a close clayey texture, 

 the growth of the young trees will he promoted by the 

 removal of the earth_, for each plant_, to the extent of six 

 or ten feet in diameter and eighteen inches deep, its place 

 being supplied by earth of a more suitable quality. In 

 refilling the pit thus made the new surface should be 

 raised in the form of a hillock, from six to nine inches 

 above the old level ; allowance, besides, bemg made for 

 subsidence. In retentive ground these pits should be 

 properly drained, otherwise they will become receptacles 

 of water, to the serious detriment of the young trees. 

 In poor soils the same method of pitting may be em- 

 ployed for those species which require richer food. 

 Trenching to the depth of eighteen inches is a useful 

 but rather expensive preparation for the pinetum ; where 

 it is adopted, as it may sometimes be by zealous culti- 

 vators, care should be taken not to bury the sm^face-soil 

 under the lower and inferior soil, or subsoil. 



Early cultivation of the Plants. — All pines should, if 

 possible, be raised from seed. Seedling plants invariably 

 grow most vigorously from the first, and form ultimately 

 the most handsome trees. In the case of new and re- 

 cently introduced sorts, seed is often procured with diffi- 

 culty; and therefore propagators have frequently had 

 recourse to grafts and cuttings. Unexpected success has 

 often attended both methods of propagation. We have 

 already mentioned (p. 94) that we had grafted P. Mo- 

 rinda on common spruces, at Hopetomi, and that they 

 are now fine trees. Mr. Barron, at Elvaston, seems 

 to have been equally successful with the deodar on the 

 common cedar. At present indeed P. nobilis, grandis, 

 and some other species, and many of the singular va- 

 rieties, can hardly be procm^ed from nurseries in any 



