THE LARCH AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN SWEDISH FOREST ECONOMY. LXI 
their own country. Swedish forest literature was also more and more influenced 
by the extensive German literature; and accordingly it became more and more 
a matter of course that they should have recourse to Germany for forest seed. 
How unfortunate this import of forest-seed was for Sweden has been fully 
described, as regards the pine, by E. WIiBECK in »Transactions of the State 
Institute of Experimental Forestry», Part IX. We shall show later on that Swe- 
dish larch-plantations also suffered from it. 
After this there is given an account of the treatment of the larch question 
in recent Swedish literature. Swedish forest men become more and more 
sceptical about the larch, with the exception of Eris NILSON (143—744), Who 
studied the larch in Scotland. 
According to an old statement, the European larch was introduced into 
Norway about 1740; but of the larches now in existence the oldest is that 
planted in 1772 at Solum Parsonage (Fig. 46). A fine old larch-wood in 
Norway near the Swedish border dates from 1802 or 1803. 
In Finland the oldest plantations of European larch were made probably 
in 1835, at Fiskon works. 
In Germany larch plantations came into use about the year 1700 accord- 
ing to BERNHARDT (430), and in 1731 the first larch cultivation was begun 
inthe Elartz: 
As the older larch-woods in Scandinavia derive, as a rule, from Great 
Britain, the present writer has thought it important to try to investigate the 
history of the English or Scotch larch. Complete certainty, however, cannot 
now be obtained in this matter, and the original home of the Scotch larch is 
not fully known. 
Nor do we know who first introduced the larch into Great Britain nor 
when this took place. According to MIcCHIE (577), the larch is spoken of in 
an English book as early as 1596; and in 1731 the tree is said to be com- 
mon in England. It is also known that in 1759 larch-plants were commonly 
reared for sale in the nurseries. i 
Two large trees at Dunkeld in Scotland, called "the Mothers”, however, pass 
as the ancestors of the Scottish larch. Their history is told after MIiCHIE (57). 
AS to the continuation of larch-planting in Dunkeld the following interesting 
information can be given. During the years 1740—50 JAMES Duke of Athole 
planted 350 larches at Dunkeld, and during the same period 873 larches on 
an other estate at Blair. In 1759 700 larches were planted in the former 
place in a wood mixed with other trees. "The Duke died in 1764. In 1768 
his son John planted 3 Scotch acres (1.4 hectares) with larch; and before his 
death in 1774, he had planted 400 Scotch acres (187 hectares) Itis stated 
that Duke John every year raised 1,000 plants from seed which had been 
taken from the larches planted by his father. The rest of the plants needed 
he purchased from a nurseryman for 6d. a piece. During the years 1774— 
33 the then Duke of Athole obtained 279,000 plants; but during the whole 
period 1774—1815 1,108,998 larch-plants were planted on 8,071 Scotish 
acres (3,777 hectares). In 1829 the plantations at Dunkeld and other estates 
covered 13,378 Scotch acres (6,262 hectares). Of this area 8,605 acres were 
planted with pure larch. These larch-plantations produced most of the seed 
that was used in the country until larch-seed from the Continent became an 
article of commerce. . From the seed gathered in the country 30,000,000 
