2156  Plantations  and  Home  Nurseries  Competition , 1910. 
easterly,  and  easterly  winds  these  sulphurous  fumes  are  brought 
from  S.  Lancashire  and  the  West  Riding,  sufficiently  to  blur 
the  landscape.  It  has  been  shown  by  Mr.  Wilson’s  observations 
to  the  east  of  Leeds  that  the  effects  on  vegetation  can  be  plainly 
traced  for  at  least  fifteen  miles.  A few  years  ago  one  thick 
dirty  fog  in  December  killed  most  of  the  fine  leaved  mossy 
saxifrages  and  even  much  grass  on  poor  soil  for  miles  around 
Leeds  and  Bradford  and  injured  laurels,  &c. 
Deciduous  trees,  by  casting  their  leaves  each  year,  escape 
much  more  easily  from  the  results  of  these  chemical  deposits, 
so  that  it  is  a well-known  principle  to  select  them  for  planting 
in  such  areas  in  order  that  the  principal  crop  shall  be  of  non- 
conifers. Austrian  pine,  and  in  a less  degree  Scots  pine, 
stand  the  smoke  best  of  the  conifers.  As  we  get  further  north 
in  Lancashire,  e.g.  on  Bleasdale  Fell  (at  750  to  1,100  feet),  and 
in  Foxdale  (at  600  to  800  feet),  there  are  fine  and  fairly  old 
plantations  of  Scots  pine.  On  exposed  hill-sides  they  are 
sometimes  destroyed  by  severe  west  or  north-west  winds  after 
forty  or  fifty  years’  growth.  It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  a 
10-acre  plantation  of  old  Scots  pine  in  Upper  Claughton,  which 
was  completely  levelled  by  wind,  has  been  succeeded  by  a 
luxuriant  natural  growth  of  birch.  Still,  the  planted  birch  at 
Abbeystead  has  not  done  well.  As  a rule  birch  is  plentifully 
self  sown  on  the  grits,  the  light  seeds  being  wind-borne. 
Taking  the  range  of  the  whole  district  visited,  it  was  found 
that  larch,  Scots  pine,  and  Corsican  pine  were  the  most 
frequently  planted  of  the  conifers.  Next  came  Norway  spruce, 
Austrian  pine,  and  Douglas  fir.  Wherever  the  Weymouth  pine 
was  seen,  it  was  looking  unhealthy,  probably  because  of  the 
attacks  of  the  fungus  Peridermium  Strobi. 
Among  deciduous  trees  very  little  beech  was  seen,  which  is 
rather  surprising,  because  where  it  did  occur  on  the  millstone 
grit  it  was  doing  well,  and  there  is  a good  market  for  it  in 
South  Lancashire  and  the  West  Riding.  A mixture  of  larch 
and  beech,  where  soils  and  atmosphere  are  suitable,  is  likely  to 
be  profitable.  If  the  larch  be  attacked  by  canker  there  is  a 
sufficient  remaining  crop  of ' the  hardwood,  and  the  larch 
thinnings  find  a ready  market.  No  example  of  this  mixture 
was  met  with.  Where  Japanese  larch  was  mixed  with  Euro- 
pean, it  had  outgrown  the  latter  and  the  tops  were  mounting 
tortuously,  exposed  to  the  wind.  Several  instances  were  seen 
where  quick  growing  species  of  conifers  in  the  older  plantations 
had  got  up  above  the  general  canopy  and  were  both  suppressing 
the  growth  of  their  companions,  and  themselves  suffering  in 
the  tops  from  exposure. 
For  planting  as  shelter  belts  ai’ound  the  hill-side  farm 
houses,  long  experience  has  shown  that  sycamore  is  the  ideal 
