2360

ARBORETUM AND 1'IUITICF.TUM.

PARI III.

planting the sides of the hills about Dunkeld . The former of these ideas wasput into execution in 1768, by the planting of three acres with larches aloneon Craigvinian, above the wood which Duke James planted on the samehill in 1759, at an altitude of from 100ft. to 200ft. above it; or 500ft.or 600 ft. above the level of the sea, on soil that was not worth Is. per acre.The latter idea of Duke John was effected by the enclosing of a considerableextent of ground for the planting of mixed wood at Dunkeld , and of near300 acres at Blair, forming a total of 665 acres. Of these he finished theplanting of 410 acres before his death in 1774.

“ The greatest obstacle to the progress of the Duke John’s planting was, thescarcity, and consequent dearness, of the larch plants. He had raised a fewplants himself from cones gathered from some trees at Blair, which began tobear fruit at the commencement of his operations; but this supply did notexceed 1000 plants in a season. At the same time, three and four years trans-planted larches were selling in the nursery grounds as high as 6d. per plant.All that could therefore be obtained for planting did not exceed fifty plantsper acre in the large plantations; and the rest of the quantity, amounting to4000 plants per Scotch acre (that being the allowance of plants to the acreat that time), were made up of the Scotch pine, and the different kinds of hardwood. The larch was planted at a height not exceeding 600 ft., and theScotch pine at 900 ft., above the level of the sea. Another difficulty whichthe Duke John had to encounter was from the broom, furze, juniper, andheath, which flourished abundantly in the region allotted to the larch, andwhich had not been entirely eradicated before the planting began. The broom,though indicative of a good soil for larch, is a troublesome plant to youngtrees ; its long switch-like elastic twigs whipping their tops violently in windyweather; and the furze, with its thick-set prickly branches, smothers, or drawsup prematurely, the young plants. These, and many other obstacles, wouldno doubt have been removed by the Duke John, had he had leisure to attendto planting only; but, having been obliged to be frequently in London regard-ing his title, and the affairs of the Isle of Man , his attention was otherwiseoccupied for the greater part of the short time which he enjoyed his property.Such were the state and extent of the larch plantations at Dunkeld and Blair,when the late duke succeeded his father in 1774.

“ The first object of this duke was to plant the 225 acres which formed apart of the plantations that were left unfinished by his father at his death in1774. This, with some larches planted about the Loch of the Lows, occu-pied him till the year 1783. This delay was owing to the difficulty of obtain-ing larch plants, all the number that could be obtained during that timeamounting only to 279,000.

“ Observing the rapid growth and hardy nature of the larch tree, the dukedetermined on extending the sphere of its occupation to the steep acclivitiesof mountains of greater altitude than any that had yet been tried. Hithertothe larch had chiefly been planted along with other trees; but the duke en-closed a space including 29 acres, on the rugged summit of Craig-y-barns,and planted a strip consisting entirely of larch, among the crevices and hol-lows of the rocks, where the least soil could be found. At this elevation, noneof the larger kinds of natural plants grew, so that the ground required noprevious preparation of clearing. After 1774, larch plants fell in price from6 d. a plant to 35 s. per thousand, two and three years transplanted, andranging from 2 ft. to 3£ ft. in height. The expense of enclosing and plantingat this time was the same as in the time of Duke John; namely, 11. 19$. l)d.per acre. This alpine plantation was formed in 1785 and 1786.

“ From 1786 to 1791, the duke planted 480 acres at Dunkeld , the greaterpart of which was only sprinkled with larch from 6 ft. to 30 ft. asunder,owing to the difficulty of procuring a sufficient number of plants ; and 200acres at Blair, which were planted wholly of larch, at 6 ft. apart. The num-ber of larch plants consumed in these plantations in the five years was500,000. Wages rising at this period, and there being a greater substitution