48 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that it is a mistake to plant larch except where the general 

 conditions suit its growth ; and foresters who still plant it 

 indiscriminately are exceptional. 



The difference between the cost of planting any given area 

 with hardwoods alone, and that of planting it with a mixture, 

 has had a great influence in promoting the system under 

 discussion. It is a cause which still exists and will be much 

 more difficult to overcome, because of the difference between 

 the cost, per unit, of seedlings of the common conifers and of 

 those of the most valuable hardwoods. This difference must 

 always be very considerable, and is therefore likely to remain 

 a factor in favour of mixing hardwoods with the cheaper kinds ; 

 but discretion ought to prevent this circumstance from having too 

 great an influence. The difference in cost has, of course, been 

 greatly increased through the depredations of ground game, which 

 necessitate the practice of using large hardwood transplants, 

 where, but for the existence of these pests, smaller ones would 

 have served the purpose better, at probably less than half the 

 cost. Not only have these enemies of forestry affected the cost 

 of regeneration in this way, but they have, in many instances, 

 practically wiped out the hardwoods from stretches of young 

 plantations, and left large areas with nothing but conifers. 

 This also has had a very considerable influence on stimulating 

 the system of mixtures; the mixtures being planted with the 

 idea that there is a remote chance of having a hardwood crop, 

 but with the certainty that, if this is destroyed, there will still be 

 a crop of some kind on the ground. It is therefore satisfactory 

 to know that the real destructiveness of ground game, and 

 especially of rabbits, is beginning to be realised by many land- 

 owners, and that they are being reduced to reasonable numbers, 

 or, better still, exterminated. The removal of this cause may 

 thus be said to be within sight, and it is hoped that the day 

 is not far distant when 2-years hardwood seedlings, or 3-years 

 once transplanted, may be generally used for planting-out 

 purposes. This will reduce the cost of planting any area with 

 pure hardwoods to about that which is incurred in planting 

 the mixtures under the present system, and it will undoubtedly 

 give better results. Further, with rabbits kept in their proper 

 place, there is no reason why natural regeneration should not 

 be greatly resorted to ; and where rabbits have been abolished, 

 or sufficiently reduced, it is simply astonishing to see how many 



