79 



While on the subject of Firs, it would 

 be highly inexcusable not to pay parti- 

 cular attention to the Larch; an arti- 

 cle which grows rapidly upon some of the 

 Worst Lands in the Empire ; and is, at 

 least, equal to Foreign Deal, for all the 

 purposes to which that article is usually 



accounts for it by sayinj^, that <* Trees prohablv de- 

 *' rivo much less nourishment from the ground, than 

 ** they do from putiid vapours, air, rain, and snn- 

 ** shine;" which circumstance, he savs, suggests what 

 experience proves, that "Trees ought seldom or ne- 

 " ver to be pruned, except the brancfres that decay, 

 *' or wither." On all which we mav brieflv observe, 

 that it does not appear he has made himself acquaint- 

 ed with the different circumstances, that influetice 

 the quality of Fir Timber; — nor do the other re- 

 marks exhibit him, either as a person of wiz^cA observa- 

 tion or experience ; for a little of i\\Q former would 

 have shown him, that both the form and strength of 

 Fruit Trees are astonishingly improved by pruning ; 

 and he might reasonably suspect Forest Trees were 

 subject to the same natural laws. — The latter would 

 have made him sure of it, by proving, that a great 

 proportion of the ctf^^?Yr5, for whose preservation he 



