APPLICATION OF THE METHOD. 83 



no longer be so imperative to preserve firs that are 

 overtopped, for beech will fill up the gaps fast 

 enough. Nevertheless the reservation of such trees, 

 which are not dead in the crown, can never interfere 

 with the development of the crowns above them, and 

 the soil will only be the better covered for it. 



IX. TREATMENT OF THE SCOTCH PINE. 



HABITAT. The Scotch pine is found all over 

 Europe, in the plains, as well as on mountains, but 

 ever preferring cold climates, and yielding wood of a 

 poor quality in a temperate climate. In France it 

 ceases to grow naturally in the plain at the latitude 

 of Strasburg ; more to the south it is abundantly 

 spread over high mountains, especially in the Alps and 

 Pyrenees ; but it is by artificial means to re-stock 

 denuded ground that it has been introduced into 

 the plains and lower mountainous regions. 



PECULIARITIES OF GROWTH. The Scotch pine is 

 a most hardy tree, growing even in the most barren 

 soils, and only avoiding such as are too argillaceous 

 or peaty. It acquires its finest qualities in dry, 

 sandy soils. Strongly calcareous soils are less 

 favorable to it, and here it could apparently be 

 replaced with advantage by the Austrian pine, at 

 least when nurses are required. 



The Scotch pine has a light seed and an exceed- 

 ingly hardy constitution ; the cover of the tree while 

 young is rather dense, but it becomes very light 

 after the age of thirty or forty years. It is a tree 

 that requires a great quantity of light; in consequence 

 we never see its branches interlacing, and in rather 



