The bark of the stock is cut into a =T= shape, opened with the end of the budding knife, and the bud slipped neatly in. Bast matting will serve for tying, until a junction takes place, which is usually effected in five or six weeks. CHAPTER IV THE HOME NURSERY: ITS FORMATION AND MANAGEMENT In the course of my experience on large estates where planting has been extensively engaged in, few things have been more particularly impressed upon me than the importance of having a well-managed and well-stocked home nursery, where the propagating and raising of trees and shrubs required for forest and ornamental planting may be taken in hand. The numerous advantages of a home nursery, especially where planting is extensively carried out, are now so well known and appreciated by every proprietor of large estates that comment on this subject seems almost unnecessary. Where ornamental planting, the formation of woods and plantations, game coverts, or hedging is performed on an extensive scale, the convenience of a home nursery cannot be over-valued, the plants being at hand when wanted, of the size and in the quantity required, and known to be well rooted, sturdy, and free from disease. The advantages in these cases are too well known to require comment, and plants, more especially those of a large size, sent from even a short distance by either road or rail, cannot be expected to succeed equally with those raised and planted on the same day. The extra soil, or ball, with which large plants can be removed for a short distance is also much in their favour, but it is next to impossible to retain this where packing and transit have to be resorted to. It is well known that too sudden a change from rich, well-sheltered nursery borders to bare, exposed hillsides often proves fatal to young plants; and, when we consider that few public nurseries are at a greater elevation than about 500 ft., the necessity of proprietors rearing their own stock, whose plantations are, perhaps, upwards of 1,000 ft. above sea-level, will the more readily be seen. There are certain difficulties to contend with in planting high-lying ground, more especially if the soil is poor and thin, and the situation exposed, and in these cases the advantage of using hardy plants that have frequently been transplanted in a well-chosen home nursery at a fair altitude is very noticeable, especially when contrasted with others that have been grown under more favourable circumstances and in a sheltered position. Some plants seem better adapted than others for this removal, but in the majority of cases the shock sustained by transferring from low-lying ground to that at a great elevation is only too apparent, and one from which the plants seldom recover. The same holds good in the case of seaside and town planting.