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LETTERS ON TREES. 



be the most important) — to recover itself. And this 

 we know very well has happened. Some years ago, 

 in many parts of the kingdom, in Scotland particularly, 

 the larch plantations " went wrong." Several were 

 almost destroyed by the disease that affected them ; 

 others, however, recovered, and ^re now to all ap- 

 pearance in as sound a state as ever. Still, I think 

 my theory affords a better ground of hope in that 

 respect than the old, — and that just to the extent 

 and in the way that we may in general reasonably 

 expect, that a child will escape a disease — incurable it 

 may be — -under which one or other, or even both of 

 his parents labour, — or, if himself inheriting and 

 participating in it, will not impart it to his own off- 

 spring ; in other words, that a morbid taint attaching 

 to one or two in the immediate succession will not 

 in all probability be transmitted from generation to 



away from it superfluous water, as well as to cleanse it from bad 

 qualities wiiich were natural to it, and formerly prevented the 

 healthy development of the larch tree. These young larch planta- 

 tions were under fifteen years of age when I drained them; but I 

 cannot say if draining would recover plantations of older standing. 

 In all cases where it is desirable to cultivate sound larch timber, 

 the land should be drained with, open cuts at from thu'ty to fifty 

 feet distance, according to the nature of the soil, and not shallower 

 at first than eighteen inches deep ; and as the plantation advances 

 in age, the di-ains should be gradually deepened, and kept properly 

 clean; for however well land may be drained at first, if those drains 

 are not kept in a clean running state, they will ultimately be of very 

 little benefit to the rearing of healthy larch."—" The Forester,'" <SfC. 

 by James Brown, forester, Arniston, 2d Ed. pp. 412-13. 



