576 Causes of Disease in the Larch. 



Now, if we are to come to conclusions condemnatory of the 

 soil, how are we to extricate ourselves from the labyrinth of 

 anomalies which present themselves ? In the note quoted, in IX. 

 55^. of this Magazine, from Sir William Jardine, we are told 

 that " the larch is very soon lost, when planted above a subsoil 

 of red sandstone : in the Vale of Annan, where even the sloping 

 banks have a substratum of this rock, or one composed of a sort 

 of red sandstone, shingle, or gravel, the outward decay of the tree 

 is visible at from fifteen to twenty-five years of age." In the 

 Qiiarterly Journal of Agriculture for Sept. 1333, in a correspond- 

 ence on the decay of larch, between His Grace the Duke of 

 Portland and G. I. T., there is, in p. 551., this observation from 

 His Grace: — " I see larches grow luxuriantly where all the good 

 soil has been taken away ; and I also see that they are very much 

 benefited by the good preparation and improvement of the soil 

 previously to their being planted." In the same paper, we have, 

 in p. 150., a statement, from an eyewitness at Dunkeld, admitting 

 that the larch is decaying in many situations, especially in a 

 moist one. Again, the Duke of Portland, in p. 148., says, in 

 his letter to G. I. T., that " it [the decay] has been found in 

 many soils, both wet and dry ; to the latter I speak most par- 

 ticularly." In p. 552., Mr. Gorrie is quoted thus : — " The 

 larch has been found to decay, and also to remain unaffected by 

 disease, in almost every species of soil : this being the case, we 

 are led to suppose that the rot in larch takes its rise from some- 

 thing accidental, rather than from any natural property in the 

 soil." And Mr. Gorrie is, in my opinion, quite correct in his 

 conclusion. A sound and an unsound larch may be found on 

 the same square yard, in any species of soil in which larch trees 

 have been planted, since plants of an earlier age were adopted. 

 The superficial observer may ask, if I attribute the origin of the 

 disease to the mode of treatment more than to the nature of the 

 soil, how it is that, if two seeds be taken from the same cone ; 

 sown, and grown in the same square inch of ground ; trans- 

 planted therefrom into the same nursery line; lifted and planted 

 on the same day, on the same square yard ; I say, I may be 

 questioned as to where the difference lies in the treatment of 

 these tw'o trees, and how it is that the one is sound, and the other 

 not; since, according to my former view of the matter, both 

 ought to be sound, or both unsound. My answer to such en- 

 quiries is, that, with regard to the sound tree, the cause is 

 some accidental circumstance ; while, in the case of the other, it 

 is a natural consequence. The accident may accrue through 

 various agents, such as the manner in which the plant was 

 inserted in the earth; a large stone, or other hard substance, 

 under the surface, may have prevented the roots from taking a 

 downward direction ; or the root may h?ive found a horizontal 



