254 THE PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



case of the tap-roots in young Scots Pine plantations. And 

 even when the land is not wet, if the natural drainage be not 

 good the butt becomes spongy and dosed, and pumped or 

 hollow, as is often found in 60- to 80-year-old Larch that have 

 grown well and rapidly up to about 50 or 60 years of age. 

 Such red-rot and dosed condition is common in most middle- 

 aged or old Conifer crops where a thin gravelly soil rests on 

 a clayey or impervious subsoil. On a wet soil there is also great 

 danger from frost, and from windfall if the roots cannot pene- 

 trate into the subsoil. The only remedy is to drain the land 

 before planting, or to plant only trees that do best on a moist 

 soil (Alder, Willow, Poplar, and Spruce on mounds); but 

 stagnating moisture is always injurious. 



Other unhealthy conditions induced by unsuitable soil or 

 situation are premature seeding and bark-binding. Premature 

 seeding is a sure sign that the individual tree is not in a 

 healthy condition, yet nothing can be done to prevent this 

 natural effort of reproduction ; but bark-bound stems can often 

 be relieved by making a cut through the hard, dry, leathery-like 

 bark lengthways down the stem in early summer, unless the 

 disease is of long standing and the bark has lost its natural 

 elasticity. 



Injurious atmospheric influences may cause damage in nur- 

 series, young plantations, and older woods by wind, frost, heat 

 and drought, heavy rainfall, snow, hail, ice and hoar-frost, and 

 poisonous gases. 



Winds and gales are always most destructive when coming 

 after heavy rainfall, which loosens the soil and weights the 

 tree-crowns. Gales from S.W. are frequent about the equinoxes 

 (March and September), but the most destructive storms usually 

 come from the W., N.W., or IsT.E., according to the local 

 situation. The damage consists in breakage of branches and 

 stems, or in single trees, or clumps, or whole woods being blown 

 down (windfall) in the track of the cyclone, while neighbouring 



