UNDERPLANTED LARCH PLANTATIONS AT NOVAR. 35 



7. Underplanted Larch Plantations at Novar. 



By William Mackenzie. 



It is a silvicultural impossibility in these days to grow a full 

 healthy crop of larch. This has been found to be the case at 

 Novar, and it may be said to be the case in most parts of 

 Scotland, England, and Ireland. Larch, as is generally known, 

 is peculiarly susceptible to a fungoid disease, which if given full 

 sway would do an irreparable amount of damage. Attempts 

 have been made heretofore to fight this disease, with only 

 mediocre success, but the system employed at Novar we find, so 

 far, to be a satisfactory solution of the difficulty — that is, we 

 anticipate having a fuller crop of larch at the end of the rotation 

 than would otherwise be the case. All arboriculturists aspire to 

 the successful cultivation of the larch, because, when compared 

 with other wood, the profit from its sale is considerable, and it 

 can be placed on the market at almost any age, which makes 

 larch plantations particularly fitted for planting with an 

 undercrop. 



It is my purpose to describe succinctly, but I hope com- 

 prehensively, this system of underplanting, also the history of 

 the development of the undercrops, and the condition of the 

 plantations as a whole. We have, as I have already indicated, 

 to fight against larch disease, and we aim at having the fullest 

 possible crop of larch. 



The larch is now planted pure. When the plantations reach 

 the age of from 12 to 15 years the diseased stems are cut 

 away, and none but the soundest and healthiest are allowed to 

 remain, these usually numbering 350 to 600 per acre, according 

 to the activity of the disease. The cut stems can be utilised 

 down to those i^ inches in diameter, which goes to show that 

 the havoc wrought by the disease can be made good to a 

 certain extent. Scots fir at that age, it may be here remarked, 

 is quite useless. 



All sizes of larch posts find a ready market. Posts of 3^ inches 

 diameter are sold at 4s. per dozen ; 2 to 3 inches diameter, 

 3s. per dozen; i^ inches diameter (sheep net stakes), 2s. 

 per dozen; and i^ inches diameter, is. 6d. per dozen. The 

 first thinnings realise something like ;£^ an acre, and as time 

 goes on the value of subsequent thinnings grows proportionately 

 greater. What cannot be used is gathered into small heaps 



