THE NOVAR SYSTEM OF COMBATING LARCH DISEASE. 39 
9. Note on “The Novar System of Combating 
Larch Disease.” 
By JOHN NISBET, D.Cic. 
As the article which appeared in the Journal of the Board of 
Agriculture for March 1906, dealing with the Novar system of 
treating larch plantations, has been reproduced in the Zrans- 
actions of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society for July 1906, 
it must be assumed that it has thus been brought before the 
notice of a great many landowners and land-agents not specially 
trained in forestry, as well as of foresters whose training has 
been more technical in this direction and whose daily work also 
enables them to make a closer and more detailed study of the 
practical prevalence and effects of the now ubiquitous, dreaded 
larch disease, and of the conditions most likely to favour its 
propagation. The appearance of that unsigned article in an 
official journal has undoubtedly stamped it with official approval ; 
and its whole tone is equally undoubtedly one of warm approval, 
and of conviction that the “system” therein described is really 
a practical advance in the direction ‘‘ of combating larch disease.” 
Speaking as a forester, however, I question very much if such 
will ultimately prove to be the case. On the contrary, it seems 
to me that the continuation of this method, which has already 
been “for some years practised,” is far more likely to perpetuate 
the larch disease, and to form nurseries or hot-beds of the fungus 
under circumstances extremely favourable to its growth and 
development, and to the dissemination of its disease-producing 
spores. The experience of ten to fifteen years should, however, 
afford a practical solution of the question ; but apparently that 
has not yet been acquired. 
Hence, if I may be permitted to deal with the matter in a 
manner as little controversial as the subject allows, I shall be 
glad to be allowed to show here that there is a possibility—and, 
in my opinion, a very great probability—that the measure will 
ultimately prove to have exactly the opposite effect of what is 
intended. 
Certainly, if one finds oneself face to face with a 16- to 20-year- 
old pure larch plantation in which canker has ravaged most or 
all of the smaller and less vigorous poles, then the best one can 
do is to thin out all of these, and allow only the healthier and 
