REPORT ON LARCH FORESTS. 427 



20s. per acre, including plants, planting, and fencing ; no drains- 

 were required. 



As to the yield from thinnings, I can give no accurate account ; 

 but, no doubt, in the best managed part, the revenue up to the 

 present time has been more than enough to repay the formation 

 of the plantation, and to give a rent for the land equal to that of 

 the best cultivated soil in the district. It already appears quite 

 certain that at the age of sixty years the judiciously thinned planta- 

 tion will have yielded more than three times the value of that 

 raised in a thicket. 



In a Highland district, I planted thirty-five years ago 500 im- 

 perial acres with larch chiefly, but mixed with Scotch fir. Only 

 very few transplanted plants were used, — two-year old seedlings of 

 both sorts prevailed. The larches were grown[from Scotch seed, 

 and were consequently acclimatised ; the Scotch fir were from 

 seed of the native forests in the north of Scotland. The plants 

 were all inserted by the notch system of planting, giving nearly 

 3000 per imperial acre, or placing the plants a little less than 

 four feet asunder. The formation of this plantation on the 

 whole, including fencing, plants, and planting, did not exceed L.l 

 per imperial acre, and the previous yearly value of the ground — 

 500 acres of bare heath soil — was only about Is. per acre, orL.25 

 rent. The larches being generally vigorous, the thinnings have 

 been chiefly formed by the removal of Scotch fir, although in 

 some parts each kind prevails according to circumstances. I am 

 unable to give an account of the revenue derived from thinnings, 

 but they are believed to have been sufficient to defray all 

 expenses, and to have yielded a rent equal to that of good arable 

 land. This plantation is altogether very vigorous, and though 

 only about half-grown, its present value of timber has been 

 estimated by competent wood merchants at L.31,600, or L.63,4s. 

 per imperial acre. 



The introduction of railways throughout the country has given 

 rise to a constant demand for railway sleepers ; and as there is 

 every prospect that the demand will be permanent, those entrusted 

 to the management of woods can hardly commit a greater mis- 

 take than to imagine that railway sleepers can be produced at any 

 age, in close plantations where the trees stand at distances of only 

 six or eight feet asunder. Yet the common practice too frequently 

 goes to indicate a belief in this fallacy, and sometimes it is even 

 asserted by writers on forest management. This is greatly calcu- 

 lated to mislead, for no such productions can ever be met with. 



Judicious thinning protects the tree very much against the 

 influence of disease. Trees that become top-heavy for want of 

 being early relieved, are apt from the influence of winds to have 

 their roots broken and injured, although they are not thrown 



