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In the memoirs of the royal fociety of 

 agriculture at Paris for the year 1787, there 

 is an eflay by M. le Prefident de la Tour 

 d'Aigues, on the culture of the larch; in 

 which it is celebrated as one of the moft ufeful 

 of all timber-trees. He tells us, that in his 

 own garden he has rails, which were put up in 

 the year 1743, partly of oak, and partly of 

 larch. The former, he fays, have yielded to 

 time ; but the latter are ftill found. And in 

 his caftle of Tour d'Aigues, he has larchen 

 beams of twenty inches fquare, which are 

 found, though above two hundred years old. 

 The finefl trees he knows of this kind, grow in 

 fome parts of Dauphiny, and in the foreft of 

 Baye in Provence, where there are larches, he 

 tells us, which two men cannot fathom. I 

 have heard, that old, dry larch will take fuch a 

 polifh as to become almoft tranfparent; and 

 that, in this ftate it may be wrought into the 

 moft beautiful wainfcot. In my encomium of 

 the larch, I muft not omit, that the old painters 

 ufed it, more than any other wood, to paint on, 

 before the ufe of canvas became general. 

 Many of Raphael's pictures are painted on 

 boards of larch. 



The 



