THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 39 
plantation, as the other trees are there to take its place as the 
dominant or main crop. When the larch is to form the bulk 
of the plantation, the most suitable trees to mix with it are 
spruce on damp soil, and Spanish chestnut or beech on ordinary 
soil. The first is used in short rotations of thirty to forty 
years, and the beech in longer rotations of fifty or more years, 
as its timber is of little use before that time. Corsican pine 
and silver fir are also suitable trees to mix with larch. The 
larch should usually form about three-fourths of the crop, the 
other fourth being of one or other of the species named.! It 
is by no means easy to state definitely the soil best suited 
for growing sound larch. Being a _ shallow-rooted tree,? it 
prefers soil with a loose surface, and free from heavy surface- 
growth, but containing enough moisture to meet the require- 
ments of the tree during dry summers. It is therefore on slopes 
of hill ranges, and in valleys where the soil consists mostly of 
gravel or sandy loam, loose and porous, with sufficient surface 
moisture, that the larch thrives best. Flat ground, where the 
water accumulates on the surface and becomes stagnant, is 
not at all suited to its growth. It should not be planted on 
soil too dry on the one hand, or too stiff and wet on the 
other; yet it is difficult to say where, at times, it will not 
succeed. 
Spruce is suitable for being mixed with almost any other species, 
and it can be advantageously grown along with light-demanding 
trees of quicker growth. One great advantage is its ability to 
produce heavy timber on shallow soil with a rather moist subsoil, 
or on moor or heath-land, where no other tree can grow to 
maturity. The situation should be well sheltered, as, being a 
shallow-rooted tree, it is very liable to wind-fall. Hollows or 
valleys where there is abundant moisture suit it well. 
Silver Fir is very useful in thickening up a light-demanding 
wood of long rotation, as it is one of the best shade-bearing trees 
we have. It is also useful in forming shelter. Silver fir is very 
apt to grow rough and knotty, which reduces the value of the 
timber; but, where big timber is aimed at, this is a good tree to 
1 The proper proportion in any mixture depends mainly upon local circum- 
stances. Where thecanker-disease is prevalent, no three-fourth larch admixture 
would likely be of much use in protecting it against infection. —Hon. Ep 
2 Larch is naturally a deep-rooting tree, though it can accommodate itself 
to stony parts of rocky hill-sides, etc.—Hon. Ep. 
