522 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



home-saved larch seed and 20,000 seedlings off foreign seed. 

 These were grown in two adjoining breaks, and got the same 

 treatment in every way. The seedlings grown from the home- 

 saved seed did very well, but of the 20,000 seedlings grown from 

 foreign seed, he had only about a hundred plants which did any 

 good, and he had never used foreign larch seed since that time. 



Mr Munro Ferguson said it was clear that the subject of larch 

 disease required further consideration. With respect to the seed 

 imported from abroad as compared with the seed produced at 

 home, they had to remember that very often the season in this 

 country was unfavourable for the ripening of the larch seed. 

 He did not know how far the climate in the Tyrol was more 

 favourable for the ripening of the larch seed. There seemed to 

 be some uncertainty about that yet. Mr Robertson had raised 

 an important question as to the planting of mossy land. That 

 question had been fully dealt with in a paper by Dr Schlich, 

 which had been published in their Transactions. Dr Schlich 

 investigated this question in Germany, where he had examined 

 three places at which mossy land had been planted. In one 

 case he found a very good crop of trees growing in moss land, 

 but in the other two cases, where the moss had been very well 

 drained, the crop was a failure where the moss was more than 

 two feet deep. At the Paris Conference there was a great deal 

 of discussion on the thinning of plantations. He had got the 

 reports of that Conference, and he would suggest that the Editing 

 Committee should go over the reports, and consider how far 

 these discussions should be reprinted. Thinning was probably 

 carried out as scientifically in France as it was in Germany. 

 As to thinning, the only practical suggestion he had to make 

 was that they should have in this country what might be called 

 a forest garden, on which the results of the different systems of 

 planting, thinning, and trimming could be demonstrated. That, 

 however, could only be carried out by the Government. Many 

 of them had doubtless tried these plots before, but continuity 

 could not be ensured unless such work was undertaken by the 

 State. As to naturally seeded wood, that kind of wood was 

 perhaps not quite so open to disease, but this was perhaps 

 because it was less exposed to the attack of bugs than where 

 it was grown thick. But forest pests, whether they were larch 

 disease, or rabbits, or squh*rels, or crossbills, attacked the trees 

 whether naturally grown or planted. They should try and 



