250 THE LARCH. 



better than here. But what I attach more importance 

 to is, that I think your plantations of larches are too 

 close. You seem to plant them generally at the dis- 

 tance of 3 or 4 feet from each other. It is much 

 closer than with us, and I think you would do well, at 

 least, to double, or even to triple, that distance. Air 

 and light would penetrate better into the forests, and 

 would correct the defects which I attribute to the want 

 of evaporation and the decomposition of the carbonic 

 acid. You should not certainly place the young and 

 yet small larches at the distance of 10 feet, but you 

 should follow the method employed in the forests of 

 pitch pines, to keep them close in their youth, then to 

 thin them gradually, so as to bring them to the dis- 

 tance of 10 feet when twenty years old. One might 

 easily make a trial of this method on the young forests 

 which have not yet reached the age when the disease 

 of the heart of the tree begins to show itself. This 

 thinning of the trees appears to me the most important 

 point I dare recommend to you. Considering your 

 atmospherical circumstances, your trees should be at 

 greater distance than ours, and they are at consider- 

 ably less. Try this on a small space, and experience 

 will show if the theory be just or no. I give it with 

 the greater confidence, as it is supported by the judg- 

 ment of the most expert and most judicious observers, 

 namely, M. de Charpentier and Emmanuel Thomas. 

 They even propose the distance of i 5 feet, considering 

 what takes place in the Alps, where the larches gene- 

 rally make forests very far from close. As to the 



