373 REPORT ON LARCH FORESTS. 



larcli died at about twelve years planted, having grown very 

 rapidly up to ten or eleven years. Soft sandy loam on low 

 situations, though, the ground was undulating, produced similar 

 effects ; hence such soils should not be planted with larch for 

 timber. Spruce is much better adapted for these soils, and pays 

 better upon them than larch. 



Upon muiry soil of certain qualities larch grows well, while 

 upon other descriptions it degenerates. In an extensive larch 

 plantation in Roxburghshire, in an elevated district, grown upon 

 moor soil, is an illustration of both success and failure. Part of 

 the ground bears a good crop, and part an inferior one, while 

 some parts are quite bare. Of the soil, when it is dug up or 

 trenched, there is little difference in the appearance throughout 

 the plantation. The difference of growth seems due to the 

 varied conditions of the soil as to compactness or firmness ; and 

 as an unvarying rule throughout this plantation, wherever the 

 spade enters freely there the larch thrives well. Where the 

 plants have failed, a hard " pan " is found within a few inches of 

 the surface. 



Moor soil that has been under cultivation at any time, and 

 subsequently planted with larch, invariably disappoints the ex- 

 pectation of the planter. The plants grow rapidly during a few 

 years, so long as they enjoy the benefits of the cultivated soil, 

 and inexhausted manure ; but the main roots of the tree thus 

 grown very soon decay, and it is henceforth only supported by a 

 few minor surface roots, which at most only maintain its vitality ; 

 meanwhile the heart-wood is contracting rot, and the whole tree 

 gradually decays. 



At the present time the writer is cutting a plantation of larch, 

 about twenty years planted, upon soil as above described, and he 

 finds nearly all the trees " pumped." The few exceptional sound 

 trees are where the soil is naturally deep, and the roots well 

 exposed to the surface. 



Within the same inclosure, and similarly situated, are portions 

 of larch planted upon the ground in its uncultivated state, and 

 hereupon the trees, though generally not so large as those upon 

 the once cultivated ground, are quite sound in the heart, and but 

 for the hardness of the soil, I have no doubt would attain a good 

 size and considerable age. 



Moor soils are in general adapted to coniferse, but are often 

 compact and overlying a subsoil of " moor pan," in which latter 

 case no roots Avill enter or go through. What is therefore required 

 on the part of the planter, is to see that moor soils are free, loose, 

 and open ; if they are naturally so (except sand) he may safely 

 plant, but if bound and hard, he must either break up and render 

 them open, or forego the attempt at growing larch. 



Sandy soil can probably be less improved for planting (if natu- 



