EEPOKT ON LARCH FORESTS. 3S5 



to at an early age, owing to young wood "being required in the 

 district, and especially on the estate, for fencing purposes. So 

 well was this plantation thinned, that it is found on cross-cutting 

 the trees that they show from their growths to have been rather 

 over than under thinned. 



The plantation is situated three-quarters of a mile inland, and 

 at an altitude of 150 feet. It is somewhat sheltered from the 

 extreme influence of the sea by rising ground intervening. The 

 exposure is towards the north-east, and the ground sloping in the 

 same direction. 



The soil is a dry sandy loam, with an open gravelly subsoil 

 upon sandstone rock. The herbage is a mixture of coarse grasses 

 and heath. The number of trees upon the ground is 136 per acre, 

 which averages 30 cubic feet of saleable timber. The annual in- 

 crease of wood at this date is a little over one foot per tree, or say 

 Is., which multiplied by 136, the number of trees per acre, gives 

 L.6, 16s. per acre per annum. The whole of the crop throughout 

 this plantation is in a thriving and promising condition, and cal- 

 culated to remain in a healthy growing state till at least eighty 

 years old ; at which age, assuming the growth to continue at the 

 present rate, the value would stand thus — 136 trees, at present 

 value 30s. each=L.204 per acre. Add to the above the increase 

 of the next twenty-five years, at L.6, 16s. per year, L.170 + L.204 

 =L.374 amount at eighty years. Though quite within the bounds 

 of possibility to attain the latter amount, yet the probability is 

 that it will not attain it, as there are innumerable obstacles that 

 come in the way. Few plantations altogether escape the disasters 

 of wind, and scarcely any altogether escape disease. It is, how- 

 ever, worthy of remark, that this is amongst the most valuable 

 plantations of similar extent of any in Scotland at the present 

 time. Its superiority of growth is due exclusively to the soil and 

 the timeous and judicious early thinning which it received. 



The ground surrounding this plantation, and similar to it, is 

 letting for grazing purposes at 2s. 6d. to 3s. per acre. The planta- 

 tion has been depastured with cattle from an early age ; but the 

 ground being hard and dry, the trees have suffered no evil from 

 it ; on the contrary, certain benefits are derived from cattle graz- 

 ing in a larch plantation such as this. The effects of the treading 

 of cattle about the base of the trees are to bare the roots, exposing 

 them to the atmosphere, and thereby encouraging their growth, 

 and rendering them hard and less liable to contract ground-rot; 

 also strong roots so exposed are in great demand for boat-building 

 purposes, and for these high prices are paid. There is little doubt 

 that the grazing in this case has been highly beneficial. Let not 

 this, however, induce any one to pasture plantations with cattle 

 where the soil is wet and of a clayey description; the effects in such 

 cases are decidedly bad. 



