On Hedges. 245 



ject to heavier rains, which cause destructive gullies ; 

 doubtless Mr. Maine's mode of plain hedging, without 

 ditch and bank, is most eligible.* A ditch is an arti- 

 ficial gully, which, in sloping grounds, every consi- 

 derable rain must mischievously increase. 



The Larch Tree. 



The other error that I wish to correct respects larch 

 trees. It was not Dr. Anderson, in his essays on 

 Agriculture, as I stated, but Dr. Hunter, in his notes 

 on Evelyn's Silva, or Discourse on Forest Trees, who 

 mentioned the larch as growing fastest in the poorest 

 soil and bleakest exposure. After observing that the 

 larch was a native of the Alps and Appenine Moun- 

 tains, and had become common in the nurseries of 

 Great Britain, he says—" It is remarked that these 

 trees which have been planted in the worst soils and 

 most exposed situations, have thriven the best." Dr. 

 Anderson, on the contrary, after stating the rapid 

 growth of some larch trees planted when only from six 

 to nine inches high, which in twelve years had reached 

 the average height of from 34 to 36 feet, remarks that 

 " this plantation was made on a very good soil, and 

 favourably situated." At the same time he says ** the 

 larch may be made to grow upon almost any soil, even 

 from a stiff clay to a barren sand, if not drowned in 

 water." — I have two native larches growing among 

 white pines and maples, in a moist, peaty earth. They 



* This practice of Mr. Maine is not original : IMarshall mentions 

 and commends it, in his Rural Economy of Yorkshire, Avhere he 

 observed it in 1782. 



