148 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



Small scattered plots of ground in mild open situations are 

 on the whole more suitable for plantations of this species 

 than patches in the interior of dense forests. 



For the small forest-proprietor the growth of larch has 

 certain recommendations. It shoots up rapidly, and if 

 underplanted at about its twenty to thirtieth years, and har- 

 vested about forty years of age, it yields good returns 

 where the smaller assortments of timber find a fair market. 

 Or if the rotation be extended to the fiftieth or sixtieth year, 

 so as to permit of the thickening of the stems into remuner- 

 ative classes of timber, spruce or silver fir can still easily 

 maintain themselves under the shade and shelter of the 

 lightly foliaged larch standards. It is well suited for reten- 

 tion as standards in copse after it has once been able to 

 maintain itself well throughout the first period of rotation 

 of the underwood, and can often remain as a standard in 

 healthy good development till 120 years of age, although 

 So to 100 years give large timber. The admixture of larch 

 in woods of other species should take place in single in- 

 dividuals, or in small knots or patches, and not in larger 

 groups, so that whenever its removal seems advisable the 

 operation can be carried out without forming blanks or 

 materially interrupting the canopy in an inconvenient 

 manner. It increases the timber production in beech forests, 

 and finds a very suitable home in woods of spruce and 

 silver fir, but should not, except on very favourable soils, 

 be largely interspersed in Scots pine forests, on account of 

 the risk which the soil runs of becoming deteriorated. 



The cultivation of the larch is generally effected artifi- 

 cially, the preference being in most localities given to planting. 

 Without being intrusive like the birch, the light seed of the 

 larch flies far into the forest, and natural reproduction not 

 infrequently takes place to a slight extent in neighbouring 

 areas where some soil preparation has been made for recep- 



