WOODS OF THE NOVAR ESTATE. 33 



free from it, The three woods mentioned all lie on warm southern 

 slopes, at elevations ranging from 50 to 900 feet above the sea. 



It is a noteworthy fact that in parts of Claisdruim and of Con- 

 tullich Belt, where self-sown larch, six to fourteen years old, stand in 

 dense masses on the ground, the young trees suffer very little from 

 disease, the bark having, generally speaking, a peculiarly healthy 

 appearance. In parts of the lower portion of Temple Park and 

 of the centre of Cnoc-an-Eiliknaidh, both of which have been 

 previously noticed as carrying crops of remarkable vigour, aged 

 respectively fifteen and fourteen years, the side-branches of larch 

 are dead to a height of 8 or 10 feet; and these dead branches are 

 sometimes loaded with spore-bearers of the fungus, while the stem 

 and higher living branches appear quite healthy. This looks as 

 though the fungus might have attacked the lower branches after 

 their death ; but the matter requires further observation and study. 

 Throughout the plantations it is noticed that the stems of young 

 trees standing in a free position, and in a generally thin crop, are 

 frequently attacked by disease, the power of which seems to depend 

 rather on unfavourable local conditions than on the degree of density 

 of the crop. For example, in the open, breezy Acharn plantation, 

 where the soil is unfavourable, the young trees are badly diseased; 

 while, as before mentioned, the dense, self-sown crops in Clais- 

 druim and Contullich Belt are comparatively healthy. It may 

 turn out that fairly dense crops of healthy young larch can be 

 raised on this estate, if none but the most suitable localities are 

 selected for them. 



Two years ago an experiment was tried in the low-lying Cross 

 Hills plantation, where disease had attacked almost every stem, 

 of making a thinning among the young trees, then twelve 

 years old and of good height, by removing those of them which 

 were most diseased ; and the crop was under-planted this year with 

 spruce, silver fir and Menzies fir. It remains to be seen whether 

 the effect of this thinning will be to cause a more vigorous develop- 

 ment of the remaining stems, and thus to enable the best of them 

 to contend successfully against the fungus ; but Cross Hills is a 

 locality very unfavourable to the growth of larch. An experiment 

 in under-planting with silver fir has also been commenced this year 

 in the western, the most diseased, portion of Assynt Hill, where 

 the crop is fifteen years old, and where it is not easy to account 

 for the violence of the attack. 



In such badly infected places, it is impossible to deal effectually 



