LARCH FIR PLANTATIONS. 195 



slons in any extensive level piece of country having 

 a damp retentive bottom or subsoil. Upon the other 

 hand, the larch in its native localities is found luxu- 

 riating upon a soil formed from the natural decom- 

 position of rocks ; for there the surface soil rests 

 upon a half- decomposed stony subsoil, through 

 which all moisture passes freely in its descent from 

 the higher grounds. In this state of things, the 

 roots of the trees always receive a regular supply 

 of fresh and pure moisture, and, at the same time, 

 the ground in which the trees grow is kept in a 

 cleansed and sweet state, not having any stagnated 

 particles of gas or water lodging in it; and this 

 forms, in my opinion, the perfection of soil for 

 the cultivation of the larch. 



On making some inquiries at a gentleman who 

 travelled among the mountainous districts in Ger- 

 many, where the larch is found in its native state, 

 I am informed that, upon level and dry-lying parts 

 of the region mentioned, the larch does not succeed 

 well, being upon such parts always more stunted in 

 its growth, and apparently not enduring so long, as 

 when found with moisture passing freely among its 

 roots ; and this assertion is exactly in accordance 

 with the state of our larch plantations in Scotland, 

 for, wherever disease is found to prevail, there is 

 either a want of or too much moisture in the soil. 



Now, until upon inquiry I was made aware of 

 these circumstances relative to the larch as found 



