REPORT ON LARCH FORESTS. 401 



advantage to the crop is still apparent as compared with closer 

 planting. It is true, close planting and early thinning will ac- 

 complish the same end; but it rarely happens that thinning is 

 done in time to prevent the death of the lower tier of branches. 

 As well may we expect an animal to be healthy and thriving with 

 only one lung, as look for a tree to be so with only a few 

 branches at top. The plants were in general small, and were 

 planted without burying the roots too deep, a very prevalent 

 error even in modern planting, and one which should be carefully 

 avoided on the part of the larch. 



The writer has made several experiments in order to prove the 

 difference between deep and ebb planting, and has found as the 

 result, that on rich and deep soil the deep planting proved more 

 frequently fatal than on light dry soil ; but in all cases, and 

 on all soils, if the roots are covered, it is all that is required for 

 the prosperity of the trees. 



No importance seems worthy of being attached to the rock 

 formation ; the trees grow equally well upon all the different 

 rocks, provided only there be open fissures and crevices for the 

 roots, and the ground dry — all of which advantages the Athole 

 larch possesses in a large degree, with exceptional cases, how- 

 ever, sufficiently clear to prove the rule. 



The practice of keeping down rank and luxuriant plants, in- 

 cluding juniper, whins, brackens, and grasses, for several years 

 subsequent to planting, tended greatly to promote the prosperity of 

 the young plantations, and is a practice worthy of our imitation. 



Another circumstance, regarded by some persons as the most 

 potent of all, in rendering the Athole larch so pre-eminently suc- 

 cessful, was the seed, most of it having been imported direct from 

 its native mountains in Italy or Switzerland. Whether this be of 

 vital importance or not has not yet been fully established ; but 

 one thing is certain, that the first plants introduced have not been 

 surpassed in growth by those raised from seeds from trees acclima- 

 tised in this country, or from Tyrol. Again, from the fact of the 

 oldest larches at Dunkeld and Blair having been grown in the 

 London nurseries, and even grown and treated as exotics, was in 

 no way prejudicial to their future success. 



The greater part of the Athole larch forest is depastured with 

 blackfaced wethers, which are purchased in autumn when two 

 years old, kept over winter and during the succeeding summer, 

 and sold next autumn, having been kept twelve months. This 

 mode of consuming the plantation grass is profitable, and adds 

 very considerably to the revenue from the woods and forests. In 

 conversation with the shepherds, they informed me that though 

 their cows do very well in the forests, yet they produce more 

 butter, by at least one pound per week, when grazing on open 

 pasture. The butter, however, is fully admitted to be sweeter 



