CONCLUSION. 279 



sometimes termed dry-rot, pumping, &c., from the 

 resemblance the tree so affected bears to a wooden 

 pump. This disease is doubtless entirely due to the 

 condition of the soil, and it is found most inveterate 

 where the active soil is good — that is to say, such as 

 promotes early, rapid growth — and the subsoil poor, 

 cold, and wet, or the other extreme — poor sand or 

 gravel. Soils of these descriptions can be rendered 

 comparatively safe for planting larch by adopting the 

 ridge or mound practice referred to in paragraph six- 

 teenth, or a modification of it, by throwing two furrows 

 together with the plough, clearing out and deepening 

 the space between with the spade, and planting small 

 plants in rows along the top of the ridge. Thorough 

 draining, removal of the surface turf, abundance of 

 room, and free circulation of air, are all beneficial and 

 preventive means. 



Nineteeiitli. The surface -feeding of trees is of no 

 small importance, for it often happens that some bare, 

 worthless spot is desired to be covered with trees, 

 and they absolutely refuse to grow for want of nourish- 

 ment. A few turfy excavations of drains chopped 

 small — or indeed any earth, even the poorest, spread 

 over the surface to the depth of an inch or so — 

 will produce a wonderful growth in larch, and secure 

 the object of planting some arid, hard, poor, worthless 

 hillock, where trees would not succeed without either 

 it or some other, and perhaps more expensive, means 

 being employed. 



Twentieth. As already said, and not too often repeated. 



