or by clipped hedges or high walls. The soil, light and friable, and, if naturally poor, enriched by manuring with leaf mould and road scrapings, and as free from weed seeds as possible, should be laid up into beds 4 feet wide, with perfect drainage, in the previous autumn, so as to have a fine mould on the surface.
About the middle of April, but earlier or later according to the climate, the seed should be steeped in warm water for a day or two and dusted with red lead when damp, in order to keep mice and birds from attacking it.’
On a dry day the seed should be sown broadcast as evenly as possible, and thick enough to have about one plant to the square inch, or less if the seedlings are to remain two years before transplanting. If the soil becomes dry the beds must be watered and shaded as the seed begins to germinate, which should be in fourteen to twenty days after sowing. At this time great care must be taken to prevent the seedlings from damping off, and it is better to keep the bed rather dry than wet. If weeds appear they must be carefully pulled up when quite small. If the soil and season are favourable the seedlings will in the first season be 4 to 6 inches high. If they should be too thick to stand a second season in the seed-bed, the strongest should be lifted and pricked off in lines about the end of March in the second year, and if there is much risk of a severe frost it is wise to transplant them all, as this check will retard their too early growth.
After transplanting they should remain two years in the nursery lines, except in the case of strong one-year seedlings, which may be fit to plant out one year after transplanting, but this must depend on the soil and the nature of the ground where they are to be planted out. Except for planting in woods or in places overgrown with coarse grass or fern, seedlings of one year old plus two years transplanted, or two years old plus one year transplanted, are, in my experience, large enough ; and any which, from overcrowding or other causes, are not then strong enough may be rejected and have another year or two in the nursery. There will always be a considerable proportion of young trees which are inferior to the rest in size and vigour, and these are better separated when transplanting ; whilst all those whose leaders are frosted or immature should be rejected, no more than forty to fifty per cent of the whole being usually fit to plant out at three years old.
The raising of such trees may cost from 20s. to 30s. per thousand in a private nursery, and though they can often be bought cheaper are, in my opinion, worth the extra cost.
Mr. Robertson writes on the same subject as follows:—
"Here we are now, I am glad to say, as little troubled with larch disease as most people, and the reason is simply that we endeavour to keep the plants strong and healthy at all stages of their growth, so as to be better able to resist attack. It must not be forgotten in these days of continental forestry that larch is a light- demanding tree, and ought not to be grown on the same principle of density as
1 It is a regular practice in some nurseries where large quantities of larch are raised from seed to soak it for a day or more in water, and then spread it out on a floor where it is daily turned over and sprinkled with water until it seems ready to germinate. By adopting this practice the germination is quicker and more regular.
