35 8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



advocated for shade-bearing species ; but it is equally dangerous to over-thin, and 

 thus bring about starvation, and consequently weakness, by cold winds." 



Cultivation 



Whether the system of notching or pitting is adopted must depend on the local 

 conditions and the size of the trees to be planted. If not more than i8 inches to 2 

 feet in height, notching, when carefully done, is sometimes as successful as pitting, 

 but in very dry summers a large proportion of the trees will die whichever way the 

 planting is done. In my own experience allowance must be made, in calculating 

 the cost of planting, for a loss of about 20 per cent on an average, though this 

 is often much exceeded when the trees are planted after Christmas, or when their 

 roots have become dry, or when careless workmen have been employed without very 

 close and constant supervision. This is allowing nothing for damage done by hares 

 and rabbits, which, unless thoroughly killed down before planting and kept out by 

 a really effectual wire fence, will soon destroy a great many of the young trees. 



Having once planted the trees, the success of the plantation will depend more 

 on soil and climate than on the skill of the planter. For though larch will, owing to 

 their extraordinary vigour, grow almost anywhere up to fifteen to twenty years old, 

 they will not attain a large size unless the soil is moderately fertile and well drained 

 and the situation open and airy. If large trees are desired, I should always advise 

 a mixture of beech or birch being planted with them or three to four years later ; but 

 where the crop can be profitably realised as small poles, or where the soil and 

 climate are really favourable for larch, they may be planted at four feet apart 

 without mixture. The distance apart and the mixture of other trees can only be 

 decided by local experience, the object in view being to keep the trees thick enough 

 to suppress the grass without depriving them of enough light and air to keep 

 their lateral branches alive until they are fifteen to twenty years old. All 

 thinnings should be based on these considerations, and the poorer the soil the 

 more distance is required between the trees to keep them growing. On my 

 own soil I have repeatedly noticed that if grass already exists when the trees 

 are planted, it is impossible to keep the larch thick enough to smother the grass, 

 without crowding each other to the point of starvation and disease, and in such 

 land a mixture of beech, at the rate of one beech to two or three larch, is essential. 

 The result of this mixture is that the larch, instead of beginning to decay at 

 forty to sixty years old, as it often does when on soil deficient in natural fertility, at 

 which period it may be worth 5s. to 1 5s. per tree, will live and increase in girth till 

 at least 100 years, when they may be worth from 1 to ^^3 or 4 each. After 

 they have been cut the beech may remain, or if not thick enough to stand with 

 advantage, the land will be left in a very much better condition for replanting than 

 after a crop of pure larch. ' 



' Prof. H. M. Ward gave in Naturt, xxxvii. 207 (1887), the following account of an experiment conducted by 

 Prof. Hartig: "There is a plantation of larches at Freising, near Munich, with young beeches growing under the 

 shade of the larches. The latter are seventy years old, and are excellent trees in every way. About twenty years 



