It will be well, at stated intervals, to examine young plantations formed on high-lying and exposed ground, to see that the plants do not get shaken about with the wind and holes formed around the stems. This latter is highly injurious to the welfare of the plants, as the air passing down the stem side causes the roots to get dry to an inordinate degree. Wind-swaying, where these holes have been formed around the stem, is also hurtful, as the tender roots get strained and barked, and ill fitted for maintaining a healthy condition of the young trees. The holes formed by swaying of the stems should be filled up with fine soil—not stones, as is sometimes the case—and a small piece of stiff, grassy turf tramped firmly against the stem on the side opposite that from which the worst winds may be expected. Should rank vegetation, which, is, however, rarely met with at high altitudes and on exposed ground, interfere with the growth of the young trees, it would be well to have such cut over and either burned or spread evenly over the ground. CHAPTER VIII SEASIDE PLANTING Few persons other than those who have actually been engaged in the work have the remotest idea of the difficulties to be encountered in the formation of belts and plantations on exposed and wind-swept seaside ground. To plant young trees around many parts of the coast of the British Isles, particularly where wide stretches of open seaboard are to be dealt with, without first erecting a shelter-screen of some kind or other, is useless work, and only productive of the most unsatisfactory results. That there are not a few districts, however, where such a preliminary would be needless is well known, all that is required in certain instances being, first of all, to prepare the ground, and secondly, to suit the trees to the soil and situation, seeing that some varieties succeed better than others in certain soils and sites.