228 ON THE REPLANTING OF WOODLANDS. 



placed, after liaviug carefully attended to all the preliminary 

 arrangements recommended by some authors. And that landed 

 proprietors should test ere they attempt such a system of 

 replanting, as some have been bold enough to lay down for their 

 guidance, I maintain that if any author who recommends the 

 course I have here censured, has a plantation in a healthy and 

 vigorous condition, which has escaped both the ravages of the 

 beetle and tlie fungus, he ought to invite all interested parties in 

 some public manner to visit such a coveted sight. 



I know many practical arborists who have suffered in reputa- 

 tion in consequence of failure in growing a second crop. And 

 what shall we call the loss of proprietors ? Both may have been 

 equally ignorant of the fallacy of these recommendations, often 

 so plausibly set forth, consequently the blame rests upon the 

 ignorant and confiding, when the guilty escapes free. Let me, 

 in conclusion, exhort the Highland and Agricultural Society ttt 

 circulate the following cpieries in their " Transactions " or other- 

 wise, viz. : — 



1. Does the pine beetle {Hylobius Ahidis) only attack plants 



on recently cleared land, and that only when the branches 

 and other debris of the former crop was left lying on the 

 gTound ? 



2. Have they been found also on young plants introduced at 



various dates, ranging from three, five, and eight, up tfi 

 twenty years, after the former crop was cleared ? 

 .'3. Did larch suffer from them equally or nearly so as did the 

 Scotch fir ? 



4. At what date or dates did you observe them on the ground 



after it was cleared ? 



5. On what kind of soil, and what subsoil ? 



6. How long did they continue to harbour in the cleared 



woodland ? 



7. How long after the former crop was cleared did you replant 



the ground ? and wliat success had you with the same 

 kind of plants ? 



8. Could you specify any class of soil upon which either the 



beetle or fungus produced greatest injury ? 



9. Was this injury equal at various altitudes ? 



10. Did fungoids attack many of the plants ; and at what 



states of their growth cUd thev do so ? 



11. Were the damages caused thereby equal on all kinds of soil, 



or was it confined exclusively to one or various kinds ? 



12. What class or kind of plants suffered most by them ? 



13. State the condition of the soil before you planted the 



ground ; and how you treated it either prior or subse- 

 quently to your planting it, and the results thereof, &c. 

 Such cj[ueries, if once truthfully recorded, printed, circulated, 



