CHAPTEE XIX. 



AS AN IMPROVER OF PASTURE LANDS. 



Theee are great differences of trees for shading and 

 otherwise injuring crops, grass, and other vegetation 

 OTOwincf underneath them. " The larch beinsj a deci- 

 duous tree," remarks Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, "sheds 

 upon the earth so great a shower of decayed spines 

 every succeeding autumn, that the annual addition 

 which is made to the soil cannot be less than from a 

 third of an inch to half an inch, according to the 

 magnitude of the trees. This we had frequent oppor- 

 tunities of proving by our remarks made on the sur- 

 faces of newly cleaned pleasure walks." The Duke of 

 Athole says : " The Holcus molus and the Holcus lanatus 

 are the plants which begin to spread a sward over the 

 ground, and this first pasture goes on continually im- 

 proving." He also said that he "found the value 

 of the pasture in oak copses was about 5 s. or 6s. 

 per acre in every twenty-four years, when the copse 

 is again cut down. Under a Scotch fir plantation 

 the grass is not worth sixpence more than it was 

 before it was planted. Under beech and spruce it is 

 worth less than it was before. Under ash the value 



