Thuya 187 



early autumn and late spring with great readiness. It has, therefore, every good 

 quality a forest tree can have, except the as yet unproved one of cleaning its trunk 

 from branches without pruning. 



And as this has not yet been properly tested by thick planting, I venture to say 

 that there is no conifer better worthy of an extensive trial as a timber tree for such 

 purposes as the larch is now used, and especially for fencing posts, for which its 

 remarkable durability in the ground seems to make it most valuable.' 



I should therefore recommend that this tree should be planted at distances of 6 

 to 8 feet apart in situations where larch will not thrive, and not thinned as long as 

 the trees keep healthy. 



In the New England states it is not hardy enough to live in many places, but 

 Professor Sargent tells me that a variety raised from seed from the Coeur d'Alene 

 mountains in northern Idaho is hardy at Boston, where the form from the Pacific 

 coast is tender, just as in the case of the Douglas fir. 



No reliable tests, so far as I know, have yet been made in England or America 

 as to the breaking strain and strength of this wood, but Sheldon states that it is used 

 for telegraph posts in Oregon, and though its branches die off so slowly that the 

 home-grown timber may probably be knotty, it is certainly not worse in this respect 

 than spruce, to which I should consider it in every respect a superior forest tree. 



The seed usually ripens about the end of October, and is very freely produced 

 in most seasons. It soon sheds when ripe, and should be sown in boxes or in the 

 open ground in early spring. I have tried both plans with great success, and find 

 it best to plant the seedlings at two years old in nursery lines, and plant out 

 the trees finally either in the early autumn or spring, when the deaths will be very 

 small if the roots are not allowed to dry before planting. 



There is very little variation among the seedlings, which grow rapidly in moist 

 soil, and are less liable to suffer from spring frost than most trees, though if planted 

 in mid-winter the tops are liable to die back. 



There is no reason why this tree should not be sold in nurseries at the price of 

 spruce except the absence of a regular demand, as it can be got up to a proper size 

 for planting in two years less time. 



The tree seeds itself very rapidly on sandy soil in many parts of the west and 

 south of England, though liable to be thrown out of the ground by frost during 

 the first year, and often destroyed by rabbits. On the lower greensand at Blackmoor, 

 Hants, self-sown seedlings were quite numerous, both of this tree and of many other 

 conifers, but rabbits are not allowed here, and both Lord and Lady Selborne take 

 great interest in self-sown seedlings. 



Remarkable Trees 

 The giant Thuya has not been long enough in cultivation to show whether it 



' I have recently been shown by Mr. Molyneux a plantation of Thuya gigantea and larch called Mays hill, made by him 

 in 1888 on poor, heavy wheat land overlying chalk at Swanmore Park, Hants, the seat of W. H. Myers, Esq., M.P. Here 

 the Thuyas have completely outgrown the larch, and in many cases suppressed them, and are 15 to 20 feet high, and quite 

 healthy ; whereas where the larch were planted alone in the same place they are diseased and sickly. 



