WHERE TIMBER HAS BEEN FELLED. 75 
tation as would confine or suppress the strongest descrip- 
tion of one-year transplanted plants of pines, larches, etc., 
stronger plants must be employed, and pit planting should be 
adopted; and in the inserting of larch plants, in all cases 
where trees have formerly stood, it is to be recommended that 
no root-pruning should be practised. The plants should be 
full of fibrous roots, and carefully removed from the nursery 
grounds ; and in all cases this is most easily accomplished by 
employing plants that have stood one year only, after having 
been previously transplanted. 
The pits should be formed large in proportion to the size 
of the plants, and their roots should be well spread. I have 
observed plantations of larch that had been inserted quite 
young into such situations more exempt from the disease 
known as heart-rot, or pumping, than plantations formed 
with older and stronger plants. The cut or mutilated root 
fibre of a larch, or any other plant-root, will imbibe any 
watery substance whatever that it comes in contact with; 
whereas a sound root has its fibres terminated by healthy 
spongioles, having the power of selecting, at least to a great 
extent, those elements congenial to the vigorous development 
of the tree. Every precaution, therefore, should be taken in 
replanting land liable to produce fungi, particularly where the 
larch, deodar, and such other plants as have an affinity for, 
and are readily destroyed by mycelia, are employed. 
Ground that has yielded a heavy crop of timber is con-. 
sidered by many planters unfit for yielding another of the 
same species. Its density and cover of matted roots is much 
against the growth of any kind until the roots are decomposed, 
or the soil broken up and prepared ; after which, Scotch pine 
is found to grow after the same as well, and often much 
better, than most other trees. 
The soil that is congenial to the growth of a tree continues 
so, provided the influences of the atmosphere are not excluded. 
In the case of other species naturally springing after pine 
forests, that arises in consequence of a new formation from the 
exuviz which the pines deposit. 
