CONIFERS FOR ECONOMIC PLANTING. 



43 



Unfortunately, of late years in particular, this valuable tree 

 has, in certain situations and under peculiar circumstances, 

 suffered much from canker and blight, but now the tide of de- 

 struction seems to be on the wane, and less and less is heard of 

 this fell disease. 



By far too little attention has been paid to a careful selection 

 of seeds from sound and healthy trees, the result being that 

 weakness and tenderness have got into the constitution of the 

 tree, and it is thus unable to withstand even a few degrees of 

 frost. So weakened, blight, fungus, and ulceration find a footing, 

 and thus the fell disease is generated about which so much has 

 been said and written of late years. My own opinion, strengthened 

 by careful investigation and research, is that induced tender- 

 ness in the constitution of the Larch is the primary cause ot 

 disease, cold winds and frost the destroying agent, and ulceration 

 the direct consequence. If we followed more closely Nature's 

 method of dealing with the cones and seeds of this, as well, in- 

 deed, as of other trees, we should have less sickly and degenerating 

 forest occupants, and far less cause for the constant wail regard- 

 ing the decline of this noble and valuable timber-producing tree. 



In its native country, the Tyrol, the seeds of the Larch are 

 never scattered from the cones until March and April, after 

 having been fully exposed and their contents thoroughly matured 

 by a winter's frost. A comparison of such seeds with those 

 annually procured in this country, from which our stock of 

 plants is mainly raised from year to year, reveals marked differ- 

 ences, for not only are our home supplies of cones collected in 

 November before maturity is nearly attained, and when only 

 partially if at all wintered, but these are kiln-dried, so that the 

 immature cones may part with their seeds — in my opinion a 

 most pernicious practice. 



With such treatment there can be little wonder why our once 

 healthy Larch is fast becoming unhealthy and gradually but 

 surely degenerating, as the reports from almost every part of 

 Great Britain too truly confirm. To further add to the evil, the 

 large demand for Larch seed creates rather a keen competition 

 for it to be supplied in time for early spring sowing, and so it 

 is that instead of the cones being allowed to winter on the trees, 

 they are collected in the greatest quantity in the autumn or early 

 winter so as to be forwarded in time to meet the demand. 



