THE ANNUAL EXCURSION. 519 



it As to indiscriminate planting, the late Mr Young, at Durris, 

 planted a lot of black Italian poplars, and in a few years the 

 whole crop was gone. The Douglas fir had been propagated 

 largely at Durris both by self -seeding and in the usual way, and 

 it produced very good timber. It grew very rapidly, and he had 

 himself measured a Douglas fir which in three years had grown 

 14 feet in height. For pit- wood, it should be planted close, and 

 allowed to grow for thirty years, by which time it would be 

 ready for the pits. 



Mr John Methven, nurseryman, Edinburgh, said he thought 

 there was a great deal of truth in Mr Robertson's contention 

 that Nature was the best thinner of plantations. In all planta- 

 tions, both here and in Germany, there were a considerable 

 number of deaths among the trees, and these dead trees had to 

 be removed, or they would form breeding-grounds for injurious 

 insects and other woodland pests. Trees that were not growing 

 well, or had lost their crowns, should also be removed. As to 

 larch disease, his theory was that the larch, being a precocious 

 grower, was very liable to be injured by spring frosts, which 

 burst the young buds. So far as his observation went, it was 

 the early growing trees in southern exposures which were most 

 liable to be affected bj' the disease. The larches that were grown 

 on the northern side of a hill, and which did not come into leaf 

 so early, were not often affected by disease. 



Mr Pitcaithley said he did not think that any practical 

 forester would accept the theory that larch disease was caused 

 by spring frosts. They were indebted to the Germans for 

 showing them the true nature of larch disease. Professor 

 Hartig had thoroughly investigated the question, and his 

 writings on the subject had been translated by Dr Somerville 

 for the use of English readers. For himself, he thoroughly 

 accepted Professor Hartig's theory as to the larch disease being 

 the result of a fungus growth on the blisters caused by the 

 attack of the larch-bug. The bug punctured the tree at the 

 base of the bud, and it was always there that the disease took 

 root. 



Mr Robertson said Mr Methven's idea that the larches grown 

 on a northern exposure were generally free from disease was 

 wholly a fallacious one. He had seen larches on the northern 

 side of a hill that were killed off by the disease. He quite 

 agreed with Mr Pitcaithley as to Hartig's theory of the larch 



