GETTING RTD OF BEETLES WHICH AFFECT CONIFElCt. 83 



for all the principals, which should be done in all old Scotch fir 

 ground ; this plantation, too, is doing well. 



When it is desired to plant immediately after a crop of Scots th- 

 is cut down and cleared away, it should be proved whether the 

 ground is in a foul state or not. This can be done by keeping a 

 quantity of the branches when burning up all the brush, and have 

 them spread over the ground in spring, when it will soon be seen if 

 beetles are there, and, if tbey are, gather them during spring and 

 autumn. Plant during the winter months, pit all the principals, 

 i.e., the hardwood and Scotch firs, and slit the larches, strew a 

 quantity of fresh branches over the ground in the following spring, 

 gather the beetles this year again, and there will be little fear of the 

 plants being afterwards injured. I have planted Scotch fir on 

 ground which had been under a crop of Scotch fir immediately after 

 the trees were cut down and cleared away, and none of the plants 

 were injured by beetles ; but this plantation was under the manage- 

 ment of an able forester, who always kept his woods in first-class 

 order, and never allowed Scotch fir branches to lie and rot on the 

 ground. As a proof that the decaying branches of Scotch fir trees 

 are not only a harbour for, but the origin of beetles, I will give an 

 instance. Six years ago I lifted as many Scotch firs and spruces, out of 

 a plantation which required thinning for the first time, as was suf- 

 ficient to plant an acre of ground for a screen ; after these were lifted, 

 I thinned the plantation, and in consequence of other estate improve- 

 ments going on, there was not time to burn the branches, and they 

 were left to rot on the ground. I never detected the slightest ap- 

 pearance of beetles in this plantation previous to the thinning, nor 

 after it till this spring, when I found many of the side branches 

 had been attacked by the large beetle — Hylobius abietis. If 

 the beetles had been on the trees previous to this thinning, those 

 that were lifted would likely have had them too, but upon those 

 there was not a beetle nor the trace of a beetle to be found. There- 

 fore I advise all Scotch fir rubbish to be gathered and burned up as 

 a great means of fretting rid of beetles. 



