REPORT ON LARCH FORESTS. 377 



The writer's maxim for planting clay soils is, — avoid doing so 

 with larch, as it almost invariably fails on clay within twenty 

 years. 



Pure sand is not well adapted for larch, the roots ramify 

 widely at first ; but while they increase rapidly, both in length 

 and numbers, such roots as rapidly decay, and render planting a 

 failure. If, however, the trees are allowed abundance of room, 

 the branches and surface roots spread, and the trees may prolong 

 their growth and appear healthy ; meanwhile, they are decaying 

 in the base of the stem or trunk. Sand, therefore, though the 

 opposite extreme from clay, produces upon larch the same fatal 

 results, but differently brought about. 



Soils composed of certain proportions of sand and clay are 

 termed loams, these vary greatly in quality, according to the 

 proportions of which composed, but are all to some extent 

 adapted to the growth of larch. Soils in which sand greatly 

 preponderates have the tendency of producing over rapidity of 

 growth, with its baneful effects. Those in which clay pre- 

 ponderates either produce succulent roots, which are short- 

 lived, or those of an opposite extreme, which do not nourish 

 the plant. The first is the result of too much water, the second 

 the result of stiffness of clay, which the roots refuse to enter in 

 dry weather. 



The writer was accpuainted with a larch plantation in the 

 county of Sussex, near Tunbridge Wells, grown upon a sandy 

 loam, with a subsoil of white sand at a depth of 18 inches. 

 The plantation was upon elevated ground, 400 to 500 feet 

 altitude. At the time the writer first saw it, it was thirty years 

 old, and was being cut down. On examining the zones or annual 

 layers of wood, they were found to vary from one-fourth to one 

 inch in thickness. In some cases the trees individually were 

 making 5 cubic feet of wood annually. The plantation was not 

 cut down on account of having attained maturity, but for other 

 reasons. Though only thirty years old when cut, it already 

 showed signs of decay, and would, if it had stood till forty years 

 planted, been considerably past maturity. The heart-wood was 

 soft and spongy, and difficult to cut, producing the same effect 

 upon the saw as poplar or willow. Notwithstanding the soft- 

 ness of the wood when newly sawn, it became much hardened 

 when exposed to sun and air, and such wood was highly valued 

 for weather-boarding houses, being very durable. 



The above is a singular instance of the successful growth of 

 larch on sandy loam, and but for the trees being clothed with 

 branches to the ground, and the elevated position of the ground, 

 and thorough open subsoil, which absorbed all superabundant 

 water, they would have died at an early age. Upon similar soils 

 throughout the county of Sussex, where the ground was flat, the 



