244 CONIFEROUS TREES 



while that from the gravel was hard, firm, and of 

 a bright yellow colour. So pronounced was the 

 difference in the quality of the two timbers that 

 the woodmen, in carrying the poles to the hard 

 road adjoining the plantation, had not the slightest 

 difficulty in stating from which wood the particular 

 poles had been brought, that from the gravelly 

 soil having a sharp ring like metal when thrown 

 from the shoulder, whilst that grown on peat had 

 a soft, dull thud. Larch timber grown on gravelly 

 soil is usually pumped or rotten at the heart, and 

 in a remarkable instance with which I had to deal, 

 every Larch had to be removed from a large mixed 

 plantation of twenty-six years' growth, growing 

 on soil of this description. Such facts as these 

 are very significant, and show how careful we must 

 be in condemning any coniferous tree when judged 

 from the quality of the wood as produced on any 

 particular class of soil, and that, with certain 

 species at least, the observations must be extended 

 over a fairly wide field of investigation. In the 

 following notes I have been careful not only to give 

 the age of the tree from which the timber has been 

 cut, but also the nature of soil on which it was 

 grown ; and it may be well to add that in the case 

 of experiments, none of less than seven years' 

 standing have been recorded. Greater attention, 

 too, has been bestowed on such species as produce 

 timber of sufficient size and of the best quality 

 for economic purposes. The arrangement is 

 alphabetical : 



Abies cephalonica. — Age, 33 years; cubic 

 contents, 27 feet ; soil, gravelly loam. Timber of 

 good quality, and where it has been used in out- 



