144 THE LARCH. 



No. 7 is a wire-and-wood fence erected in 1 8 5 6 to 

 divide two fields on the home-farm at Cullen House, 

 and, by way of testing the advantages of two ways of 

 securing the posts, the following plan was adopted : — 

 Each alternate post was secured by digging a pit and 

 placing stones all round it, and beating them down 

 firmly by means of a rammer or bishop ; and the other 

 half were driven into the ground by means of the 

 fencing mell or mallet. On making a careful examina- 

 tion of the fence the other day, it was found that those 

 posts secured with the stones were in best preservation, 

 and are calculated to stand much longer than those in the 

 common soil. Stones or strong clay are good to place 

 around posts in sandy or light peaty soils, but in clay 

 or wet moss there is no need of stones to preserve 

 them, the soil itself being equally effective in pre- 

 serving them. 



No. 8 is an example of the durability of larch in 

 the form of rustic plantation gates. The gates, to the 

 date to which this account applies, had hung about 

 twenty years, and had not received any repairs. At 

 the mortises they were somewhat decayed, but most of 

 the wood had acquired a remarkable hardness, almost 

 like bone. The gates were upon an old plantation, 

 and seldom opened. The wood from which they were 

 made grew on the top of a hill 500 feet altitude, and 

 when cut the trees were about fifty years old. They 

 were the smallest class of trees in the plantation, and 

 might be regarded as the weeds or gleanings. 



No. 9. On the farm of Teinside, in Teviotdale, 



