REPORT OX LARCH FORESTS. 413 



duly thinned, the crops have proved remunerative. The accounts 

 from Ireland are also favourable, and diseases are all but unknown ; 

 the exceptional cases are upon soft, boggy ground, where its roots 

 decay, as in Scotland upon certain mosses and cold clays. 



No proprietor in Scotland has suffered so much from diseased 

 larch as His Grace the Duke of Buecleuch, and the reason is that 

 extensive tracts of damp clay land have been planted. In Liddes- 

 dale, and the southern parts of Teviotdale and Tweeddale, larch 

 in general grows indifferently, owing doubtless to the cold and 

 clayey soils that prevail. It is also owing to the cold clays in 

 Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Peeblesshire, and Dumfriesshire, 

 that so much disease has occurred amongst the larch. In the 

 above named counties, where the soil is sufficiently dry to main- 

 tain life, the trees frequently survive to forty years old, and con- 

 tain from eight to ten cubic feet of red, hard, and most durable 

 wood, which, though not of large dimensions, pays well to grow 

 for fencing purposes, and common farm buildings, including 

 cottages. 



There is a red clay soil overlying sandstone, and sometimes 

 porphyritic rocks, which proves fatal to larch, but just so in pro- 

 portion to its wetness. This soil predominates in the neighbour- 

 hood of Melrose, in some parts of Jed Forest, in Annandale 

 about Drumlanrig, and some parts of the Lothians. There is, 

 however, nut only in every comity in Scotland, but probably 

 in every parish, patches of ground capable of growing and sus- 

 taining good larch, even in those districts regarded as unsuitable, 

 at same time in every locality there are soils entirely unsuitable 

 to grow larch timber ; so that exceptions may justly be taken 

 "pro and con? The writer, though anxious to make his state- 

 ments clear and understood, feels he has but imperfectly per- 

 formed the task. 



Some statements are doubtless introduced which may appear 

 irrelevant to the subject, but as they have all contributed in 

 some degree to enlighten the question to the writer, he concludes 

 they may so act with others, and in conclusion he remarks — 



First, There are no important phenomena connected with the 

 diseases of larch but are clearly traceable, either directly or 

 remotely, to defects of the soil, situation, or climate. 



Second, The diseases of larch are confined to districts, locali- 

 ties, or classes of soil, rather than to individual trees. The well- 

 grown larches are in certain groups or localities by themselves, 

 and so are diseased ones (speaking generally), a circumstance 

 that could not readily occur from other cause than that of the soil. 



Third, The soils inimical to larch are essentially different, and 

 produce different diseases, e.g., wet ground produces ulcers ; rich 

 soils, Coccus laricis; low situations attract frost; severe and 



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