THE ARDROSS WORKING-PLAN AND LARCH CANKER. 65 



vigorous trees. By planting larch pure the soil is too much 

 exposed, healthy conditions are interfered with, and the 

 disease is likely to be dominant ; hence, the larch should be 

 mixed with another species, which is better able to shelter the 

 ground. For Ardross we recommend the Scots pine on the 

 dry parts of the area and the spruce on the moist parts.^ The 

 mixture can be made — 



^^ Either by planting larch and Scots pme, or spruce, in alternate 

 lines, so that each species occupies one-half of the area ; 



"(9r, one line of larch alternating with two lines of Scots 

 pine, or spruce, so that larch occupies one-third of the area. 



" In either case the following would happen : — If the larch 

 remains fairly healthy, the thinnings will be made so, with the 

 advancing age of the woods, that larch ultimately occupies 

 one-half of the area, if not more. If the larch becomes badly 

 diseased, it will be removed in the thinnings, and the Scots 

 pine or spruce, as the case may be, will form a fully stocked 

 wood to grow on to maturity. Even diseased larch can be used 

 for various purposes, or sold at remunerative rates. To enable 

 the forester to control these operations, it is essential that the 

 two species should be placed into alternate lines, and not mixed 

 irregularly." 



It requires, I think, very little discernment to see that in a 

 case such as this, one has a choice of a pure larch wood, or of 

 one of larch mixed with Scots pine or spruce, on the one hand, 

 while one is tied down to a pure wood of Scots pine or spruce 

 on the other ; but what, I ask, have our foresters been doing 

 in this way ever since the larch was introduced into the 

 country? Have they not, just as the authors of the plan 

 propose to do, been planting larch in mixture with other 

 species — Scots pine chiefly — and taking the chance of getting 

 the best results they could ? What is there which is new about 

 this in the working-plan.? Absolutely nothing; but there is 

 something which is very dangerous. 



It would be tiresome to reiterate all the details of the life- 

 history and method of propagation of the fungus, but it may 

 just be stated that the commonly accepted theory as regards 



^ Due regard is to be paid to the individual requirements of these two 

 species as regards moisture in the soil, but none is to be paid, apparently, to 

 those of the larch, although it is quite as indispensable in its case as in those 

 of the others to give attention to this very important matter. — A. D. R, 

 VOL. XXII. PART I. E 



