I00 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
spruce and larch should succeed, giving the larch a start of two 
years, the leader of the spruce being very persevering. Larch is 
certainly too quick for mixing with Zhuya gigantea and Lawson 
cypress, while of all simultaneous coniferous mixtures with larch, 
probably Zsuga Mertensiana will give least trouble, for even if it 
gets away first, the unassuming leader of the hemlock does not 
interfere with the larch, and its side branches are less persevering 
than those of the Douglas fir, while Zswga Mertensiana is liable 
to be kept back by frost-bite at the earliest stages of its growth, 
which gives the larch a start, and, like the Lawson cypress, 
ZL. Mertensiana is greatly appreciated by a hare or rabbit. The 
general disadvantage of filling in blanks with shade-bearers 
is that, if these tend to make larch strong and healthy, their 
shade hampers subsequent effort to replace fresh blanks or to 
underplant. As in the case of any mixture, the shade-bearers do 
not clean themselves properly, and the plantation, especially in 
the absence of trained foresters, is hard to thin. To produce the 
minimum of disadvantage is naturally the object of these experi- 
ments. Among the acre plots formed three years ago are larch 
mixed with cypress and hemlock, and plots have been planted 
with half a crop of larch, to be filled in with Menzies spruce and 
other species. There are half acres also of Japanese larch, pitted 
and notched; it grows extremely well, but as the Tyrolese larch is 
sufficiently prosperous, and the value of its timber is better known, 
very few of this species are being used in the woods except 
for appearance’ sake and to fill up blanks in Tyrolese larch, 
since the Japanese spring away somewhat quicker after planting. 
Other plots are being formed, such as of oak and larch; oak, 
beech, and larch; Spanish chestnut and larch. It may be noted, 
as regards the more ordinary assortments, that in mixing larch 
with Scots pine the former is apt to be blown crooked as it 
rises above the pine, when it also damages many neighbours. 
Blanks in spruce filled with larch a few years after planting 
promise well. Larch with spruce and Scots pine is a mixture 
which needs the bill-hook fairly early, and is difficult to manage. 
It is best to clump the larch on suitable soil, surrounding them 
with screens or clumps of other varieties. If larch clumps on 
soils of first-class larch quality are large enough, they can be 
eventually underplanted, should that system, as seems probable, 
predominate over other methods of larch culture. 
R. C. Munro FErcuson. 
