THE NOVAR SYSTEM OF COMBATING LARCH DISEASE. 339 
XXXV. Zhe Novar System of Combating Larch Disease. 
Over the whole of Scotland and a great part of England and 
Ireland, profitable forestry may be said to be regarded as 
inseparable from the successful growth of the common larch, 
But, unfortunately, in many districts this tree has, of recent years, 
proved so susceptible to the attack of a fungal disease that it 
can no longer be depended on to give a full crop of timber, 
and resort has been had to several sylvicultural systems with a 
view to preventing or mitigating the trouble. The practice that 
has been most generally recommended is to mix the larches with 
some dense-crowned species (spruce, silver fir, Douglas fir, or 
beech), the intention being to surround each individual larch 
with other species immune to disease, so that should the parasite 
appear on any particular tree, the chances of the spores spread- 
ing to other trees of the same species would be reduced to a 
minimum. Incidentally, this system possesses the additional 
advantage of associating the larch—a_ thin-crowned, light- 
demanding tree—with other species having dense foliage. As 
a consequence the ground is more completely shaded, weeds 
and ground vegetation are suppressed, and the area is furnished 
with a thick covering of dead leaves (forest humus), which 
greatly improves the conditions of growth for the larch. Un- 
doubtedly such a system of management has proved an advant- 
age to the larch, but it has not in all cases sufficed to protect 
this tree against disease. Moreover, it is evident that if each 
larch is to be effectively isolated in this way, only a comparatively 
small number of plants of this species can be accommodated 
on an acre, and if the local demand forthe other species is 
unsatisfactory, the financial result of the system as a whole may 
leave much to be desired. Such a system of mixing, too, tends 
to the production of coarse timber by the shade-bearing species, 
whose lower branches are not killed sufficiently early under the 
mild shade of the larch. 
Dissatisfied on the whole with the results of even-aged mixing 
of the larch with other species, Mr Munro Ferguson, of Novar, 
has for some years practised a system in his extensive woods in 
1 Reproduced from the Journal of the Board of Agriculture for March 1906, 
by permission of the Controller of His Majesty’s Stationery Office. 
