I 84 THE LARCH. 



where this is an object with the cultivator, it is requisite 

 that the land should be ploughed or trenched at the 

 outset, as by doing so the young trees will grow more 

 rapidly, and therefore be fit for the market several 

 years earlier than if they had been planted on unculti- 

 vated land ; and, of course, from this a great advantage 

 is gained in point of time. In preparing the same 

 piece of land for a second crop of hop-poles, it should 

 be again trenched — and all the roots taken out in 

 the operation — about i8 inches deep, so as to bring 

 up new soil and bury the old surface. This done, a 

 corn and green crop should be taken from it after 

 manuring, when it will be again in a fit state 

 to grow a second crop of poles, which, from being 

 planted on manured land, will grow rapidly and repay 

 any extra outlay. This may be done successively, one 

 crop after another, for any reasonable length of time, 

 as it is not timber that is wanted, but poles from ten 

 to twenty feet in length, and three inches diameter at 

 base. 



The culture and treatment of larch as a crop for 

 hop-poles differ in almost every respect from that of 

 timber, and therefore what is recommended in regard 

 to manure and trenching as beneficial to the former 

 is to be regarded as hurtful to the latter. Manures 

 stimulate and force a rapidity of growth up to a 

 certain limited age, after which the trees begin to fail 

 in growth, and shortly afterwards die off. Therefore, 

 although manures may, on certain soils, benefit a crop 

 of larch as hop-poles, it by no means follows that it 



