LAND AT HIGH ALTITUDES 



103 



The author has elsewhere l dealt at considerable 

 length concerning the deleterious effects upon crops 

 of trees of a soil-covering of grass, whereby the danger 

 from late spring and early autumn frosts is so much 

 increased, and also of the beneficial effects produced 

 by dead leaves and humus, and he has laid much 

 stress on the advisability of always having, if possible, 

 a clean soil. But, in further reference to this matter, 

 it should be noted that young plantations, made upon 

 perfectly dean, finely tilled, arable land, especially if 

 of a clayey nature, will sometimes suffer even more 

 than plantations made upon grass-land, and the 

 reason appears to be that the arable land " sets hard," 

 and consequently the young roots become ruptured 

 and dessicated in the hard, dry, surface soil. This, 

 of course, would be avoided if the surface soil were 

 kept cultivated, but, generally speaking, the cost of so 

 doing is prohibitive. However, whenever grass-land 

 is planted, at any rate at low altitudes, it will always 

 be advisable to plough the sod under, for by this means 

 the dangers due to a soil-covering of grass are largely 

 avoided, and the decaying turf will prevent the soil 

 from "running together" and "setting hard." 



1 Vide The Practice of Forestry, pp. 67, 68, 69, 142, 150, 170, 171. 



Land at High Altitudes. An apparent soil- 

 covering of "grass" at high altitudes is usually not 

 particularly detrimental, for, generally speaking, such a 

 soil-covering consists mostly of moss, which, at any rate 

 on sloping land, is beneficial rather than otherwise. Of 

 course, if the soil-covering is really a thick sod of good 

 turf, then its presence cannot be too strongly deprecated. 



As regards the desirability of growing broad- 

 leaved trees along with conifers at high altitudes, 

 in order to obtain a better soil-covering of leaves and 

 humus, there is, perhaps, not the same necessity for 

 so doing as there is at low altitudes, nor are the 

 benefits resulting therefrom so pronounced. 



The reason why such is the case is that at high 

 altitudes, when once the crops have " opened out," a 

 soil-covering consisting largely of heather, whortleberry, 

 and moss will exist, which will transpire but little 

 moisture and make only small demands upon the 

 fertility of the soil, and at the same time they will 

 form a "loose" soil-covering, thus effecting conditions 

 which are so different in every way from those produced 

 by a dense soil-covering of grass. 



And then, again, at high altitudes the chief factor 

 determining the growth of timber is usually one of 

 exposure, and, as often as not, any betterment of the 



