KEPOKT ON LAECH FORESTS. 425 



from the apparent suitableness of the soil, I expected a remark- 

 able instance of the value per acre of young larch timber. I was 

 accompanied by an experienced forester, who is in the constant 

 practice of selling timber, and, on nearing the plantation, the 

 party had the advantage of the accession of a wood merchant 

 from the saw-mills of the district. A narrow track or road to 

 the peat moss, about nine or ten feet wide, which was reserved at 

 planting time, had become so completely obscured by the growth 

 of trees that it could not be recognised, and the remote corner 

 was reached with difficulty. I found that, on account of a suc- 

 cession of proprietors and managers, the thinning of the planta- 

 tion, though performed to some extent, had not been practised 

 sufficiently. The Scotch firs had been nearly all removed, but 

 the larches stood far too close. The dead, grey, twiggy branches 

 formed an almost impassable thicket, and extended up to the 

 height of from twenty to thirty feet on the stems of the trees, 

 surmounted by a canopy of waving foliage, in some instances 

 sixty feet in height. I found the average distance of the trees 

 to be about 7 feet, or about 900 trees per imperial acre. 

 We heard the sound of the woodman's axe at the time, but in 

 his absence the plantation was irreparably ruined. The trees 

 were far too tall for their girth, and, for want of side branches, 

 will not readily swell or acquire girth. They are adapted for 

 propwood, posts for wire fences or other palings, and valued at 

 Is. 6d. to 2s. each ; or if sold in one lot, they would readily fetch 

 L.60 per acre. The trees have become top heavy, with roots 

 very contracted through confinement ; they are now apt to be 

 blown over on being relieved by thinning. They are just in 

 that precarious state which makes it difficult to say what should 

 be done with them. The extent of the part referred to is from 

 twenty to thirty acres ; and, under the treatment they have re- 

 ceived, the goodness of the soil has accelerated their ruin. Had 

 the spot in question stood on the outside of a forest, or had it 

 1 >een contiguous to arable land, no doubt the cutting down of the 

 space at once would be the most profitable mode of procedure ; 

 but as it stands surrounded by many hundred acres of wood, the 

 difficulty of establishing a succeeding crop of young trees among 

 the old roots, and exposed to the ravages of vermin, makes one 

 hesitate. 



Another plantation of the same age (thirty-six years), com- 

 posed of equal numbers of larch and Scotch fir, planted by the 

 same mode, stood on the lower slope of a hill, and at an eleva- 

 tion similar to the plantation formerly described, of about 400 

 feet. This plantation was of easy access : it stood along a public 

 roadside, and was very much under view. There the management 

 was all that could be desired. The trees, chiefly larehes, stood 



