WASTE LAND PLANTING. 
187 
once to be discarded as almost worse than 
useless. 
Next, as to fencing. The land- steward 
looks around him : he sees on all hands an 
abundance of growing trees, but few or none 
adapted to his purpose, and begins to fancy 
that England, though full of trees, has but few 
to meet her most urgent wants. If larch and 
Scotch fir poles can be had at all, it is often- 
times from a distance, and, consequently, at a 
high price ; but as a fence must be formed, 
the outlay is submitted to, and the posts and 
rails are erected. In some parts of Scotland 
there is on the mountain lands materials for 
building stone walls, and where this is the 
case nothing can be preferred to them. The 
late celebrated planter, John, Duke of Athol, 
had the most of his plantations enclosed with 
this description of fence, and he found it to be 
more lasting and satisfactory than any other. 
Throughout England stones cannot be had, so 
that a fence constructed with posts and rails, 
or with turf, must be adopted. The former 
is formed by driving posts into the ground 
five to six feet asunder, and nailing a rail on 
the top of them : the posts should be about 
four feet to four and a half feet high. This 
will protect the enclosure from cattle ; but, in 
order to exclude sheep, three additional hori- 
zontal rails will be required. The other mode 
of fencing, which is as yet new in England, 
consists in forming a wall of turf, &c, taken 
from the surface of the ground on each side 
of the proposed fence line. The turf, or what 
may be considered the tougher part of the 
material, is placed on the outside, whilst the 
heart or centre is filled up with the less adhe- 
sive pieces, and with soil dug out on either 
side of the wall. Another plan is to have a 
sunk fence, that is, to raise the wall a few feet 
only on the plantation side, and on the outer 
side to cast a ditch, the soil from which to be 
applied in raising the said wall or bank, the 
same as in hedge-fencing. In general, the 
great error of workmen in forming such 
fences is the narrow foundation they com- 
mence upon. Turf, when operated upon by 
the frost, wind, and rain, and especially where 
grasses do not rise to bind the mass, is of all 
things the most liable to fall to pieces ; and, 
where there is not a sufficient width of founda- 
tion, it shortly becomes either a useless heap, 
or in continual need of repair. 
Mountain land, and what are usually called 
waste lands, do not generally require clearing ; 
for heath, if not exceeding five or six inches 
in height, is an advantage rather than a hin- 
drance to young plants. Its shelter, indeed, 
even when a foot high, would be most desira- 
ble, the objection to it consisting in the diffi- 
culty which the roots and branches offer to 
the workmen when planting, it being found 
almost impossible to fix the plants sufficiently 
amidst so many branches. Hank broom and 
furze .must be uprooted; heath, again, where 
it is tall, should be burned three years pre- 
vious to the time of planting ; for imme- 
diately after burning, young trees will not 
thrive so well as in land which has regained 
its vegetating power. Another important 
consideration is, to ascertain to what depth 
the peat soil prevails on the surface : if be- 
yond three or four inches, the plants will not 
succeed well ; but in all districts where the 
subsoil is reached with the planting iron, suc- 
cess is certain. In the former case, therefore, 
it is advisable that a person with a pick or 
mattock should precede the planter, skimming 
off the peat with one end, and, where neces- 
sary, turning up the subsoil with the other. 
It not unfrequently happens that there is also 
some parts of waste land covered with a thick 
matting of grass, dry and tough, and most 
hurtful to ligneous vegetation. This must be 
also skimmed off with the mattock, else the 
plants will die. The instrument best adapted 
for this purpose resembles a common pick at 
one end, and the other is made flat at the ex- 
tremity, about five inches broad, and almost 
as sharp as a common garden hoe, thus : 
The trees which experience, the necessities 
of the country, climate, situation, &c., point 
out as best adapted for the districts under 
consideration, are unquestionably the larch 
and the Scotch pine, var. horizontalis, or, the 
horizontal-growing red-wooded pine of Scot- 
land. These trees are so well known, and their 
properties and uses so universally acknow- 
ledged, that it is needless to dwell upon their 
merits. Suffice to say that the variety of 
Scotch pine just mentioned ought in every 
case to be planted in preference to the com- 
mon, soft-wooded kind, the more so, as it is 
quite as hardy as the tree usually known as 
the Scotch fir. Both sorts should be two 
years old, for when of a greater age, pits are 
required so as to contain their increased roots. 
Perhaps an exception may be made in favour of 
the Scotch pine, and those which are three years 
old admitted, but beyond this age pits will be 
required for them. Some obj ect to the introduc- 
