2o6 TKANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH AkBORICULTURAI- SOCIETY. 



25. Notes of Silvicultural Interest. 



{m//i Plate.) 

 P.y A. Murray. 



My principal object in compiling these notes is to lay before 

 the members of the Society my experience in the cultivation of 

 some of the newer conifers in regard to the production of 

 commercial timber. 



The most important of these is, I believe, the Japanese 

 larch, grown from seed produced in this country. It is now 

 over 20 years since the Japanese larch was introduced, so that 

 many trees are bearing cones freely. The nursery treatment 

 of this larch need not differ in any respect from that which is 

 generally given to the European species. The only difficulty 

 experienced at present is in obtaining adequate supplies of 

 seed. This difficulty is much more pronounced when home- 

 collected seed is required, but as time goes on this should 

 become more plentiful. 



It was during the autumn of 1904 that I collected the first 

 cones produced on our Japanese larches, — and by sowing the 

 seed from these in the spring of 1905 we got a crop of about 

 300 plants. These were planted out in the spring of 1908 

 as 3-year-old plants, after having been twice transplanted. 

 The planting was done on the pitting system at 4-feet spaces. 

 At this stage the plants were exceedingly fine, fully 3 feet high, 

 and, in consequence of the transplanting, they possessed a 

 mass of fibrous roots and were richly foliaged. In choosing a 

 site for these plants, what is known as a frost hollow was selected, 

 by way of experiment, in order to test their hardiness, and also 

 to find out if they would remain free from disease in such a 

 situation. 



From the germination of the seed until now the plants have 

 been exceedingly fast growers, surpassing both the native 

 Japanese and the European larch, and they have kept free from 

 damage by frost and from diseases of all kinds. 



At the end of last growing season these 300 trees had an 

 average height of fully 14 feet, with an average circumference 

 at breast-height of 8| inches. 



By some this larch is looked upon as a hybrid, and to a 

 casual observer it does seem to resemble both the European and 



