REPORT OX LARCH FORESTS. 303 



the trees were all "pumped," and their growth nearly over. In 

 a few places clay prevailed, and hereupon the dead stocks showed 

 that the trees had died about fifteen years planted. " Moor-pan" 

 wa.s found in some parts, and where the trees came in contact 

 with it, the growth had ceased early, and those still living showed 

 a general rigidness and stuntedness of growth. 



The only apparent difference between larch grown in the south 

 of England and the north of Scotland, consists in the rapidity of 

 their growth in the former country, and of attaining maturity at 

 an earlier age. Eighty years may be the maximum age for a larch 

 plantation in the county of Argyle or lioss-shire, and fifty the 

 maximum age for plantations in Sussex, Surrey, or Kent. 



To what extent the climate affects the larch is difficult to know; 

 all the difference may arise from qualities in the soil. To all 

 appearance, larch would not survive to so great an age in the south 

 as in the north, and the quality of the wood generally in Sussex 

 is much softer than it is in Inverness-shire, taking trees of the 

 same dimensions and a^e. 



One district of Ashdown Forest, on which the writer has seen 

 much larch cut, leads to the belief that soil is the producing 

 cause of all difference and distinctions. The larch referred to was 

 grown upon dry gravelly moorland, on the exposed part of a hill 

 500 feet altitude ; here the quality of the wood was hard, and 

 close in the grain, but not so red in colour as is often seen. 

 Where the quality of the larch was of the latter description, it 

 was grown on soil of the poorest class, and where much exposed, 

 and only in small patches. The great consideration in planting- 

 larch in Sussex, Kent, &c, is to select dry soils of the poorest 

 description, avoiding pan, sand, and ferruginous gravel. Almost 

 all other dry soils are safe to plant, except when the ground has 

 been under cultivation, or newly cleared from a previous crop of 

 trees. Throughout Ashdown Forest many acres of larch are to 

 be seen, of equal value and importance to that in any other part 

 of this country. 



The following are a few valuations of different small plantations 

 in Ashdown Forest : — No. 1. Trees fifty years planted ; soil dry 

 gravelly loam, with gravelly subsoil ; exposure east, sheltered 

 from south and west ; 300 trees per acre, average contents, 20 

 cubic feet; G000 feet at lOd. per foot = L.250. No. 2. Age of 

 trees forty years ; soil light hazel loam, sand subsoil ; 400 trees 

 per acre, average contents 10 cubic feet ; 4000 feet at lOd. per 

 foot = L.1G6, 13s. 4d. No. 3. Age thirty-five years ; soil sandy 

 loam ; 400 trees per acre, containing 6 cubic feet each, at lOd. 

 per foot = L.100. No. 4. Age forty years; soil light moorland, 

 open dry bottom ; 500 trees per acre, average contents, 4 cubic 

 feet ; 2000 feet at lOd. per foot = L.83, 6s. 8d. No. 5. Age thirty- 

 two years ; soil clayey loam, subsoil white sand ; number of trees 



