136 TSUGA, OR HEMLOCK SPRUCE FIRS 



pests that visit them and the cankers that would 

 destroy them. 



Interwoven with these questions, the collective 

 wisdom of scientific and practical man has been 

 brought to bear on the various systems of planting 

 that have been devised for their successful propagation. 

 Questions have been asked, raised, and considered, as 

 to whether Larch should be planted pure. Collective 

 experience seems strongly against this, unless with 

 the exception of only upon the very best of forest 

 soils. Whether they should be planted with Spruce, 

 with the knowledge before us that Spruce is the host 

 plant of their mutual enemy, the Chermes ; whether 

 they should be planted with Douglas Beech, or other 

 hard-woods (N.B. — Larch with Pine — two light-de- 

 manding trees — is the latest Swedish recipe for a 

 mixture) ; whether Larch should succeed Larch, and 

 how to deal with it in oak coppice ; or how long a 

 time should elapse before replanting after felling ; 

 what visitations of sun, air, and wind, it best bears ; 

 the respective merits of the Scottish and Silesian seeds, 

 and the comparative demerits of seed from the Tyrol, 

 - — all these are long questions, and burning questions, 

 and they have been treated capably by those most 

 capable of treating them, in many books and writings, 

 in arboricultural journals, and in Board of Agriculture 

 leaflets. Upon one point are all agreed, that Larch 

 should not be planted in low-lying damp situations. 



Whether the last word has been said on the subject, 

 whether any of the systems advised will become 

 subject to variation, are questions for the experience 

 of another generation to decide upon. It has always 

 been held as a golden rule among musicians that 

 composers should know all the rules of harmony, 

 modulations, and progressions, before they presume 

 to break them. In like manner, let all planters of 

 trees study the rules of the game of their cult before 



