236 THE LAECH. 



deep enough, and ascribes to that circumstance the 

 cause of failure, recommending a two -and -a- half or 

 three-feet open drain instead. 



On looking at a drained plantation, it must be obvious 

 to the least observant how well the trees grow along 

 the margins of the drains, being often, at ten years 

 old, I 5 feet high, while the general plantation is only 

 7 or 8 feet high. The superiority of growth is at once 

 attributed to the drainage, which leads to erroneous 

 conclusions throughout of its being almost entirely 

 due to another cause, explained thus : The earth ex- 

 cavated from the drains is sometimes thrown equally 

 upon both sides — sometimes one side, and sometimes 

 the other, as it happens to answer the hand of the 

 workman — and it is upon the excavated earth that the 

 plants so well flourish. It is to the loose open soil, 

 and not to the drainage proper, that superior growth 

 is to be ascribed. Drainage, unless upon moss, can 

 benefit the growth of larch very little, because wet 

 clays and such soils as truly require draining are not, 

 even though dry, suitable for larch, hence they should 

 be planted with other trees. Some maintain that dry 

 soils are as injurious to larch as wet ones. This is 

 not borne out in my experience. It is true larches die 

 on dry soils, but it is not simply on account of the 

 soils being dry that they die, but because of some 

 deleterious or obstructive substance being in the way 

 of the roots. Either the subsoil is pan, or the soil 

 may have been exhausted by preceding crops of simi- 

 lar or different kinds, or poisoned by manure. 



