TIME OF MATUEITY. 



123 



ripe and mature varies so greatly that little reliable 

 information can be gleaned from them. Mr. Eait, in 

 his table of weights of wood, quotes the larch at sixty 

 years, but does not say it is ripe at that age. Mr. 

 Gregor gives the following interesting statement re- 

 garding the growth of the larch: — At Ballindalloch 

 Castle, on the banks of the Spey, there lately stood 

 some large specimens of the tree, which were planted 

 in 1767. The following table shows the girth of these 

 trees at the age of seventy, and their progress up to 

 1 85 I, after having been planted eighty- three years : — 



At Monymusk, in Aberdeenshire, there are some 

 splendid specimens of the larch, twelve of which indi- 

 cate a great growth after having attained over a hun- 

 dred years of age. 



Mr. Smith, in his marvellous little book, states that 

 an acre of larch at less than forty years' growth is 

 ready to cut, and worth ^125. This, it need scarcely 

 be said, is a purely theoretical calculation, both as 

 respects age and money value. 



The Duke of Athole gives the age at which larch 

 should be cut at seventy-two years, and says at that 

 age the trees should contain sixty cubic feet. 



