prevalejit m Larch Plantations. 555 



one, "it is no wonder to see these trees pumped: it is 

 rather surprising that they grow at all on that cold wet 

 bottom." " Too dry a situation," says another ; while a 

 third makes a fault of the soil being too rich. I suppose, 

 these general causes are assigned because they either will not, 

 or cannot, be at the trouble of enquiry. Be that as it 

 may, with such instructors, it need not be wondered at, if, 

 when first I betook myself to forestry, I was a firm be- 

 liever in the soil doctrine ; but one or two years' practice 

 convinced me that the creed of the soil being the sole cause 

 was untenable. It unfortunately happens for this doctrine, 

 that, in every plantation of fifty to seventy years' standing, 

 the greater proportion of the trees are not pumped : and I 

 myself have cut down larches where one was pumped, and, 

 at not four feet distant, another was cut down quite sound. 

 Now, I would ask, what difference could exist here in the 

 soil, where the roots of the one must have been interwoven 

 with those of the other ? I am far from doubting; that soil 

 not congenial to the habits of the larch may constitute one of 

 the destructive causes, when circumstances may have connected 

 it with the others ; but that it is the sole, or even the chief, 

 cause, does not appear: for, either on a bad soil they must be 

 all pumped, or, on good soil, they must be all sound, which 

 is not the case. 



Is there no ground, then, for supposing that an extensive 

 annual deposit of alburnum has some hand in the matter? 

 If we examine a larch tree that is pumped, when cut 

 down, we find that it is the growth of the first ten or fif- 

 teen years that has given way : and, generally, the decay 

 extends to that side of the tree upon which the rings are 

 broadest; while the outer rings, that have been formed of less 

 extensive deposits, are quite sound. This circumstance comes 

 with considerable force against the opinion that the sole cause 

 is the soil ; for, if this were the fact, how is it that the attack 

 is not all over the tree at once? But, no : it is generally con- 

 fined to the growth of the first ten or fifteen years, and to 

 nearly about as many feet up from the root ; leaving the outer 



sandstone, shingle, or gravel, the outward decay of the tree is visible at 

 from fifteen to twenty-five years of age. The internal decay commences 

 sooner, according to the depth of the upper soil, in the centre of the trunk, 

 at the root, in the wood being of a darker colour, extending by degrees in 

 circumference and up the stem, until the lower part of it becomes entirely 

 deprived of vegetation, and assumes a tough and corky appearance. This 

 extends to the whole plant, which gradually decays and dies. On the same 

 soil the oak grows and thrives well." (Sir William Jardine, in his notes 

 to White's Natural History of Selborne.) — J. D. 



