Newton Nursery loading transplants 1981
Photographs courtesy of Alan Duncan, Newton Nursery.
Loading the nursery lorry with bundled transplants directly from the sheughing trenches in the nursery beds.
Difficult to see the people but Willie French the lorry driver is receiving the plants from the fork handled by Alan Duncan with Colin Fraser forking the bundles from the sheugh to Alan’s feet. The young worker at the back of Willie French is unidentified.
This was the most common way to deliver plants to the forests before the general use of polythene plant bags. Loads of up to two hundred thousand young trees could be loaded onto a lorry which would then do a run to one single forest but more likely several forests which could be 150 miles distant. The bundles of trees were carefully built with their roots inwards at the sides, front and back of lorry but the middle was generally a jumble as they landed. If there were several drop offs, bundles were built in internal walls to signify the different orders or covers used to mark the differences. The canvas covers kept the trees from drying out too much but there was a risk of overheating if left too long on the lorry in hot weather.
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Groups: Forest Nurseries, Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Groups of people