2388

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III

15 miles.” And many other passages of a similar nature. The following isabridged from the Highland Society’s Transactions : —

“ The experience acquired during a period of more than half a century, informing all kinds of plantations, suggested to the duke many improvementsin the mode of planting trees in general, and particularly that of the larch,and the treatment of that wood during the progress of its growth. The resultof that experience has introduced a simple, cheap, and efficacious mode ofinserting larch plants into the ground. It has also determined the properage of the plant at which it should be planted, so as it may acquire thegreatest state of perfection at the earliest possible period. It has indicatedthe proper number of plants to be employed in planting an acre, bothin low and high situations. It has proved, beyond dispute, the capability ofthe larch not only to vegetate, but to thrive luxuriantly, in elevations farbeyond what were previously prescribed for its locality; and it has shownthat larch timber may be judiciously employed in the construction of thelargest class of vessels. The late duke carried on all his plans in plantingsystematically, which enabled him to detect any improvement on every newtrial. Every new trial did, in fact, discover some improvement cn the former, tillthe very last plantation which he executed gave him greater satisfaction inthe work than all the preceding. Seeing the advantages of enclosing theground before planting it, as practised by his father, in preserving the woodsfrom the depredations of men and animals, he enclosed every piece of groundsubstantially with a high stone wall, dry built, for which there was abundanceof excellent materials on the spot, before it was planted. Seeing, also, thedisadvantages of allowing the wild shrubs to interfere with the growth of trees,he had them all previously removed by burning, pulling, and eradicating.These shrubs never grow to a troublesome height at an elevation exceeding700 ft. above the level of the sea. At lower levels, most of them grow from10ft. to 12ft. in height: the juniper pushes out strongly; and even theheath attains to the height of upwards of 2 ft. Feeling, too, the inconve-nience of being shut out from viewing the interior of a plantation, he causedroads to be formed in every convenient direction through the grounds whichwere to lie planted. These roads were not metaled, but they were madequite accessible to wheel-carriages, by the filling up of hollows, and thelevelling of elevations; by making a ditch on each side of them, and suffi-cient openings across the hollows, to let off the superfluous water; and byrunning them across the face of acclivities, not only to avoid currents ofwater from the high grounds, but swampy places in the low grounds. Pathsonly of four or five feet in width were left in the highest parts of the ground,where wheel-carriages could not venture, but which were necessary as foot-paths for the inspection of the woods. These roads and paths were alwaysformed before the ground was planted, as the lines of them could then be moreeasily traced on the ground. It was not found necessary to drain the accli-vities of the mountains. Open cuts were formed in low swampy grounds,which were always planted with spruce instead of larch, as being a tree moresuited to that particular state of the ground.

“ The Season of planting the Larch commences as soon as the last year sshoots are entirely stripped of their leaves. In seedlings, this does not takeplace till the end of November or the beginning of December. About the 12thof April, the buds of the larch break forth rapidly into leaf. So that 65 dayswill embrace the longest period which can be allotted to the planting of thelarch. With a planting instrument one man will plant from 800 to 1000larches in a day; and, if 2000 plants are allowed to a Scotch acre, the costper acre will be two days’ wages of a man.

Age of the Plants , and Mode of Planting. “ Finding great difficulty in col-lecting a sufficient number of 3 or 4 years transplanted larches, the age atwhich he had begun to plant, the duke resolved, previously to the planting otthe large forest of 2409 acres, begun in 1800, on trying one or two yearsseedlings, or at the oldest one-year transplanted plants. After the large