DURABILITY. 1 45 



several gates were hung upon larch posts, taken from 

 plantations in the neighbourhood. They were erected 

 in I 85 I, and are at this date (1880) still in fair con- 

 dition. The soil in the district is clayey, and inclined 

 to wetness, altitude about 400 feet, and climate damp 

 and cold. 



No. 10. On a farm about five miles from Hawick 

 some gate posts were put in, which, at the end of 

 twenty-six years, were still serviceable and good. They 

 were taken out of adjoining plantations, of about sixty 

 years' growth, where the soil is cold and clayey, alti- 

 tude 400 to 500 feet, and soil into which the posts 

 were put also wet and clayey. 



The purposes for which larch timber seems preferable 

 to every other kind are chiefly these : gates, palings, 

 posts of all kinds that are inserted either in the earth 

 or in water, wooden buildings, agricultural implements, 

 cottage furniture, bridges and gangways, carriages for 

 transporting stones and all hard and rough materials, 

 barrows for builders and roadmakers, embanking piles, 

 lock and dock gates for canals and harbours, coal and 

 lime waggons, vessels for carrying lime, pit props, and 

 hop-poles of the smaller thinnings. For all these 

 purposes, and many minor ones, larch would come 

 considerably cheaper than any timber now in use, and 

 would, in the average of them, last at least thrice as 

 long : the saving to the public would thus be immense ; 

 and the lands upon which an abundant supply might 

 be raised in every county are at present lying waste. 



On the farm of Ardoch, about three miles from 



E 



