5 7 4 Causes of Disease in the Larch. 



this same page, we are told that 680 acres of planting were 

 finished, the pitting of which alone cost 105. 6d. an acre. It 

 hence appears that 1774 was the period at which the planting 

 of larches of a smaller size, and of two and three, instead of 

 three and four, years transplanted, was commenced; with which 

 latter size the first plantations about Dunkeld were filled up ; 

 and I have not the slightest doubt that it is some of those of His 

 Grace's plantations, which were planted subsequently to 1791, that 

 are alluded to in the paper of G. I. T., in the Quarterh/ Journal 

 of Agi'icultiire for Sept. 1833, p. 550. In that communication, 

 a letter from Dunkeld is quoted, the writer of which says, — 

 *' I am sorry to have to inform you that, in many situations, the 

 larch is decaying here before it arrives at a large size ; and more 

 especially in moist situations." Now, this is an admission that 

 in no situation is the larch exempt from decay ; although it is 

 more especially subject to it in moist ones. Indeed, it is plain, 

 from the statement in this letter, that it is the younger plant- 

 ations on these estates which are suffering ; for it is mentioned 

 distinctly that the larch is decaying before it arrives at a large 

 size. Why is it thus with these plantations, while the previously 

 planted ones are in a prosperous condition ? and while, let it be 

 particularly kept in view, the distance between, and the variation 

 of climate, are so trifling as hardly to deserve consideration. 

 The disease does not seem confined to any particular locality ; 

 for it is stated that it has commenced " in many situations." 

 Can any man, open to conviction, maintain that the disease is 

 altogether caused by the soil, when he finds that the same acre, 

 nay, the same square yard, produces, in some instances, both a 

 sound and an unsound tree ? 



At p. 175. of the account of these plantations, it is seen that, 

 in 1800, His Grace took a still bolder step aside from his accus^ 

 tomed mode of treatment : it is here stated that (alluding to 

 sundry new plantations), " from a different mode of planting 

 being adopted, and the selection being of plants of an earlier 

 age (an account of both of which will afterwards be given), the 

 cost of fencing and planting this extensive range of ground did 

 not exceed 105. 6d. an acre." Now, let the plantations here 

 alluded to undergo a close examination, and it will be found that 

 disease increasingly prevails with the adoption of " plants of an 

 earlier age." In the account which is afterwards given of this 

 new mode of cheap planting which His Grace adopted (see 

 p. 182.), the writer enters upon a brief defence of the new sys- 

 tem, apparently on account of its comparative cheapness, and 

 the comforting reflection that a seedling, or a one year trans- 

 planted tree, when inserted into a slit in the ground, takes 

 immediate hold of the mould below, and grows onward, without 

 molestation from the weather. He denounces pitting, as pro- 

 ducing the reverse effect. Planting by the pit mode requires 



