ARBORICULTURE IN HAMPSHIRE. 41 



any that show symptoms of disease. At each successive thinning he 

 leaves as many trees as possible, but is careful that the best speci- 

 mens are not injured by those of an inferior description. If tLe 

 plantation consists principally of silver or spruce firs, more space is 

 required at each stage of growth than for Scotch fir of the same age. 

 When the trees have arrived at timber size, and can be used for 

 estate purposes, they command a ready sale at from 9d. to Is. per 

 cubic foot. Then it is, that plantations previously well managed 

 are often irretrievably ruined. Up to this stage the thinnings were 

 of little value, and now that the trees can be sold at remunerative 

 prices, the temptation to have a large sale is sometimes irresistible. 

 Even when the trees have not been unduly confined, the most 

 disastrous results often follow an injudicious thinning. Good 

 management suggests the propriety of giving the trees space for 

 full development, but cautiously and gradually, so as to avoid 

 checking their growth, or having valuable trees uprooted by storms 

 of wind. When a plantation of this description is judiciously 

 managed it will clear an annual rent of from £2 to £3 per acre 

 for the time the crop has occupied the land. 



In many parts of Hampshire, larch is planted as a nurse for oak 

 and mixed hardwood plantations. It is admirably adapted for 

 this purpose, both on account of its light and airy nature, and 

 the value of the thinnings at all ages. No other tree requires so 

 little attention, or does so little damage to the permanent crop, and 

 no thinnings except ash exceed them in value. Ash, however, is 

 inadmissible as a nurse for hardwoods, but is occasionally inter- 

 spersed in plantations of oak and larch. I have seen an oak 

 plantation with ash nurses, but the ash soon overtopped the oaks, 

 and in stormy weather lashed them severely. The demand for 

 larch poles and larch timber of all dimensions is good, and the 

 crop in favourable soils highly remunerative. In the northern 

 parts of the county, however, larch is uncertain, unless where the 

 chalk is a considerable distance from the surface. Throughout the 

 county larch is sparingly cultivated, and even in suitable localities 

 it is seldom planted for timber. This, I believe, is greatly owing to 

 the increasing demand for all sorts of underwood. Timber planta- 

 tions are invariably at a discount in districts where coppice shoots 

 realise a net annual profit of £2 per acre. Still, in the majority 

 of cases, the returns from a larch plantation will more than 

 double those from our best alder gullies. Why, then, it may be 

 asked, are alder gullies preferred 1 One reason is that the planter 



