155 THE LARCH. 



The greater part of the Athole larch forest is de- 

 pastured with blackfaced wethers, kept over winter 

 and the succeeding summer, and sold next autumn,* 

 having been kept twelve months. This mode of con- 

 suming the plantation grass is profitable, and adds 

 very considerably to the revenue from the woods and 

 forests. In conversation with the shepherds' wives, 

 they informed me that though their cows do very well 

 in the forests, yet they produce more butter, by at least 

 one pound per week, when grazing on open pasture. 

 The butter, however, is admitted to be sweeter and of 

 richer quality produced under the larch. It is to be re- 

 gretted that considerable portions of larch forests are in 

 too wet a state to be judiciously grazed with cattle, their 

 footprints forming basins for the water to stand in, to 

 the injury of the roots of the trees; and therefore it 

 is much better to depasture with sheep wherever the 

 ground is soft and wet. 



