ECONOMIC PLANTING 227 



readily under the tools of the carpenter, but is a 

 little liable to twist or warp. Substitutes for the 

 Larch as a timber-producing tree have often been 

 recommended ; but, in the true sense of the word, 

 none can be accurately termed substitutes. Doubt- 

 less some of those timbers whose claims have been 

 set forth might reflect one or more of the valuable 

 qualities of the Larch, but this is the most that 

 can be said. 



The uses to which Larch timber is applied are 

 many and varied, but the supply by no means 

 equals the demand. For fencing posts and rails, 

 railway sleepers, telegraph poles and in shipbuild- 

 ing, it is largely employed. It is of a yellowish 

 white colour, clean - grained, tough, strong, and 

 possesses exceptional lasting qualities, even in a 

 young and immature state. 



The Larch is not less valuable from an orna- 

 mental point of view than as a timber producer, 

 though it is esteemed more for its utility and 

 profit than for its beauty in the landscape. The 

 soft pea-green foliage with its sweet fragrance in 

 early summer, the graceful form of the tree, which 

 seems never out of position, and the sweep of the 

 branches, sometimes erect, sometimes pendulous, 

 are special traits for which the Larch is valued. 



Though the Larch is a tree that is peculiarly 

 suitable for planting alone, yet the premature, 

 high death-rate of the tree, owing to disease and 

 insect attacks, forbids such a course of cultivation. 

 Of late years, the Larch has suffered much from 

 an insidious canker disease, which has spread over 

 the country at such an alarming rate, resulting 

 in the spoliation of so many plantations, that it 



