2180

ARBORETUM AND FRU'lfCETUM.

PART III.

tula, with a handle about 1 ft. 6 in. in length ; and, laying the plant up to theneck, tread down the raised sod with the foot. In this method, two men mayplant 1000 plants in a day. When the ground is rocky, or very stony, I usea dibble shod with iron, having a cleft at the extremity to lead down the root,putting the plants into the ground in the manner that cabbages are planted.One man will plant as many in this way as two in the other; yet the firstmethod is preferable where the ground admits of it, as I have always observedfewer plants to fail by it. My reason for planting direct from the seed-bed,without transplanting in a nursery, is, that it comes nearest to the operationof nature. Plants that have been removed from the seed-bed, and trans-planted in the nursery, must necessarily' have their roots pruned considerablybefore they can be planted in pits of the kind above described, which addsgreatly to the expense. Besides, nursing causes a luxuriant growth in thishardy mountainous tree, which spoils its nature, and robs it of longevity.

( Hunt. live/. St//., i. p. 290.)

Culture in Plantations. Little remains to be added to what has been saidon this subject in our general introduction to the Abietinse, p. 2132. TheScotch pine, when planted with a view to the production of timber, shouldalways be in large masses ; and when with a view to ornament, in single treesor in small groups. It should never be planted in belts, or in narrow plan-tations, unless the plants are thinned out, so as to admit of their retainingtheir branches from the ground upwards; in which case the timber producedwill be of little use, When the plantations are made on a surface that istolerably even and regular, the plants should always be inserted in lines, forthe greater convenience of future culture; but when the surface is rocky,steep, and in other respects irregular, the plants can only be put in accord-ingly. The nice points in the management of Scotch pine plantations are,the thinning and pruning; both of which should be performed very sparingly,where tall clean timber is the object in view. Both operations must be guided,in a great measure, by the quantity of timber which the soil is estimated toproduce on a given space.

The Culture of the Scotch Pine in the North of Scotland has been thusdetailed to us by Macpherson Grant, Esq. of Ballindalloch, in Inverness-shire,a successful and very extensive planter : — “In the northern counties ofScotland, the Pinus sylvestris has for a long time been pretty extensivelyplanted; and, although this is the native locality of the tree, it has been verygenerally remarked that the artificial are very inferior to the natural woods.Much discussion had arisen, and many theories had been broached, toexplain this inferiority, till it was at length suggested that it might veryprobably be caused by the circumstance of the seed, from which the plantswere produced, being collected from unhealthy and stunted trees, in districtsmore accessible than those in which the tree attains its greatest perfection.Premiums for the greatest quantity of plants grown, from seed gathered in thenatural forests have for some years been offered by the Highland and Agri-cultural Society of Scotland; and have been awarded to Mr. Grigor, nursery-man at Elgin, who has taken great pains to further this object, and who lastyear likewise obtained a premium for the best lleport on the Natural Forests o/Scotland . (Seep.2165.) Until within the last 20years, plantations, in this part otthe country, were formed of Scotch pine alone; but it is now usual to mix themwith larch in nearly equal proportions; and here we plant about two larchesto one pine. The Scotch pines are procured from the nurserymen two-years-old seedlings ; and they are placed at once on the hilly ground, where they are■finally to remain. A workman, with a common spade, makes a double cut atright angles, like the letter T,thus H; raising the turf slightly with the spade, soas to admit the insertion of the plant at the point where the two cuts meet:a woman or boy follows with the plants; and, having placed one in the open-ing, compresses the turf by stamping on it with the foot. In this manner, aman and boy will plant about 1000 in a winter day (six hours). The numberof plants is about 6000 to the imperial acre. The larches arc of the san> e