92 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



land, in the latitude of nearly 57° north. Between 1740 and 

 1750, James, Duke of Athol, planted more than twelve hundred 

 larch trees in various situations and elevations, for the purpose 

 of trying a species of tree then new in Scotland. In 1759, he 

 "planted seven hundred larches over a space of twenty-nine 

 Scotch acres, intermixed with other kinds of forest trees, with 

 the view of trying the value of the larch as a timber tree. This 

 plantation extended up the face of a hill from two hundred to 

 four hundred feet above the level of the sea. The rocky ground 

 of which it was composed, was covered with loose and crumb- 

 ling masses of mica slate, and was not worth above £3 a year 

 altogether." Before he died, in 1764, he was satisfied of the 

 superiority of the larch as timber, over the other firs, even in 

 trees of only eighteen or nineteen years old. His successor, 

 John, Duke of Athol, "first conceived the idea of planting larch 

 by itself as a forest tree, and of planting the sides of the hills 

 about Dunkeld." He planted three acres with larches alone, 

 at an elevation of five or six hundred feet above the level of the 

 sea, on soil not worth a shilling an acre. He also planted over 

 four hundred acres on the sides of hills, before his death in 

 1774. His son, Duke John, continuing the execution of his 

 father's plans, had planted, in 1783, two hundred and seventy- 

 nine thousand trees. Observing the rapid growth and hardy 

 nature of the larch, he determined to cover with it the steep 

 acclivities of mountains of greater altitude than any that had yet 

 been tried. He therefore enclosed a space of twenty-nine acres, 

 " on the rugged summit of Craig-y-barns, and planted a strip 

 entirely with larches, among the crevices and hollows of the 

 rocks, where the least soil could be found. At this elevation, 

 none of the larger kinds of natural plants grew, so that the 

 grounds required no previous preparation of clearing." This 

 plantation was formed in 1785 and 1786. Between that year 

 and 1791, he planted six hundred and eighty acres with five 

 hundred thousand larches, the greater part only sprinkled over 

 the surface, on account of the difficulty of procuring a sufficient 

 number of plants. Besides a plantation of seventy acres for 

 the purpose of embellishment, he had, in 1799, extended his 

 plantations of larches over an additional space of eight hundred 



