2388 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III 



15 miles," And many other passages of a similar nature. The following is 

 abridged from the Highland Society s Transactions : — 



" The experience acquired during a period of more than half a century, in 

 forming all kinds of plantations, suggested to tiie duke many improvements 

 in the mode of planting trees in general, and particularly' that of the larch, 

 and the treatment of that wood during the progress of its growth. The result 

 of that experience has introduced a simple, cheap, and efficacious mode of 

 inserting larch plants into the ground. It has also determined the proper 

 age of the plant at which it should be planted, so as it may acquire the 

 greatest state of perfection at the earliest possible period. It has indicated 

 the proper number of plants to be employed in planting an acre, both 

 in low and high situations. It has proved, beyond dispute, the capability of 

 the larch not only to vegetate, but to thrive luxuriantly, in elevations far 

 beyond what were previously prescribed for its locality ; and it has shown 

 that larch timber may be judiciously employed in the construction of the 

 largest class of vessels. The late duke carried on all his plans in planting 

 systematically, which enabled him to detect any improvement on every new 

 trial. Every new trial did, in fact, discover some improvement en the former, till 

 the very last plantation which he executed gave him greater satisfaction in 

 the work than all the preceding. Seeing the advantages of enclosing the 

 ground before planting it, as practised by his father, in preserving the woods 

 from the depredations of men and animals, he enclosed every piece of ground 

 substantially with a high stone wall, dry built, for which there was abundance 

 of excellent materials on the spot, before it was planted. Seeing, also, the 

 disadvantages of allowing the wild shrubs to interfere with the growth of trees, 

 he had them all previously removed by burning, pulling, and eradicating. 

 These shrubs never grow to a troublesome height at an elevation exceeding 

 700 ft. above the level of the sea. At lower levels, most of them grow from 

 10ft. to 12ft. in height: the juniper pushes out strongly; and even the 

 heath attains to the height of upwards of 2 ft. Feeling, too, the inconve- 

 nience of being shut out from viewing the interior of a plantation, he caused 

 roads to be formed in every convenient direction through the grounds which 

 were to be planted. These roads were not metaled, but they were made 

 quite accessible to wheel-carriages, by the filling up of hollows, and the 

 levelling of elevations ; by making a ditch on each side of them, and suffi- 

 cient openings across the hollows, to let off the superfluous water; and by 

 running them across the face of acclivities, not only to avoid currents of 

 water from the high grounds, but swampy places in the low grounds. Paths 

 only of four or five feet in width were left in the highest parts of the ground, 

 where wheel-carriages could not venture, but which were necessary as foot- 

 paths for the inspection of the woods. These roads and paths were always 

 formed before the ground was planted, as the lines of them could then be more 

 easily traced on the ground. It was not found necessary to drain the accli- 

 vities of the mountains. Open cuts were formed in low swampy grounds, 

 which were always planted with spruce instead of larch, as being a tree more 

 suited to that particular state of the ground. 



" The Scasfm of planli)!'^ the Larch commences as soon as the last year's 

 shoots are entirely strippetl of their leaves. In seedlings, this docs not take 

 place till the end of November or the beginning of December. About the 12th 

 of April, the buds of the larch break forth rapidly into leaf. So that 65 days 

 will embrace the longest period which can be allotted to the planting of the 

 larch. With a planting instrument one man will plant from 800 to 1000 

 larches in a day; and, if 2000 plants are allowed to a Scotch acre, the cost 

 per acre will be two days' wages of a man. 



Age of the Plants, and jMode of P/anling. " Finding great difficulty in col- 

 lecting a sufficient number of .3 or 4 jears transplanted larches, the age at 

 which he had begun to plant, the duke resolved, [)revionsly to the planting of 

 the large forest of 2409 acres, begun in 1800, on trying one or two years 

 seedlings, or at the oldest one-year transplanleil plants. After the large 



