AS AX IMPROVER OF PASTURE LANDS. 1 8/ 



may be 2s. or 3 s. per acre more than it was before 

 planting. But under larch, when the ground was not 

 worth IS. an acre before planting, the pasture becomes 

 worth from 8s. to los. an acre after the first thirty 

 years, when all the thinnings have been completed, 

 and the trees left for naval purposes at the rate of 

 about 400 to the Scotch acre, and twelve feet apart." 

 So impressed was the Duke with the value of larch as 

 an improver of natural pasturage, that he makes a 

 statement to show that the improvement of the 

 pasture alone, without the timber at all, is sufficient 

 to encourage and warrant all the outlay. The Duke 

 has also left behind him some very interesting docu- 

 ments as to the great fattening properties of the pasture 

 of larch woods. 



Much has also been said as to the milk-producing 

 properties of the larch, and in order to make sure of 

 the subject, I have made special inquiry at persons 

 having cows depastured in larch forests, and they 

 invariably state that the milk is of excellent quality, 

 but not so much in quantity as when the cows are in 

 the open field, or pastured where there are no trees. 

 Sir Thomas Dick Lauder makes also a mistake as to 

 the fertilising and enriching properties of the leaves, 

 for while they do cover the ground to some extent when 

 newly shed, yet when fairly decomposed and rotten, 

 the enriching and manuring properties are scarcely 

 perceptible. The larch also certainly tends to kill and 

 eradicate heather, but not more so than the Scotch fir, 

 and certainly much less than the iN'orway spruce. 



