VALUE AS A CROP. 1/7 



forcibly confirmed by what is to be seen throughout 

 the forests in which he took such delight and deep 

 interest, and from which he won unprecedented fame, 

 thereby endearing himself to all true lovers of sylvan 

 grandeur and magnificence. 



Under all circumstances, the Athole larch forests 

 have succeeded admirably ; and considering that the 

 planting was in a manner experimental, the result 

 may justly be regarded as a success. 



Mr. Brown, a modern writer of considerable emi- 

 nence, and whose authority in general arboriculture is 

 of no small weight, gives as the result of his expe- 

 rience of a plantation in Midlothian, at six:ty years 

 old, a clear 'profit of £^og, 17s. 4d. per acre. Another 

 author, still more modern, gives also as his experience 

 a statement of a larch plantation, at forty years old, 

 yielding a clear profit of ;^548, 15s. per acre. 



In the light of the preceding statements, persons 

 finding their larch plantations falling far short of 

 them are led to think and speak of their own as a 

 failure. The writer may here state his own experience 

 on the subject. He has not found any considerable 

 crop of larch come within fifty per cent, of the preced- 

 ing statements ; although, at the same time, he believes 

 that he has seen as good larch plantations as are to 

 be found in Scotland, and which may be justly con- 

 sidered quite successful productions, and pay at least 

 equal to any other crop the soil produces. Very few 

 writers who make a prospective statement of the value 

 of a crop of larch take into account all the impeding 



