supplement. AGRICULTURE AS PRACTISED IN BRITAIN. 1341 



been completed, and the trees left for naval purposes, at the rate of about 400 to the acre, and twelve 

 feet apart. Nay, so impressed was the Duke of the value of larch as an improver of natural pasturage, 

 that he makes a statement to show that the pasture alone, independent of the ship-timber on it, would 

 increase the value of land, by increasing its annual rental, so that it itself would repay the whole outlay 

 of fencing and planting, at five per cent, compound interest, thus : 



3000 acres of land in its natural state, not worth above Is. per acre, at 25 years' purchase, 

 will give --. ..... 



Plants and planting, at 6s. per acre ..... 



2400)roods of fencing, at 5s. per acre ..... 



Sundry expenses, at 3d. per acre ..... 



5287/. 10s., at five per cent, compound interest, for twenty-nine years, the period at which the land is fit 

 to be begun to be depastured, gives 21,150/. ; but 3000 acres, at an improved rent only of 6s. per acre per 

 annum, at twenty-five years' purchase, yield 22,500/. (Highland Soc. Trans., vol. xi. p. 189.) 



K287. The value of larch wood, exclusive of the value of the pasture under it, may be estimated in 

 this manner : — Suppose the plantations are thinned out by thirty years to what they are to stand for ship- 

 timber ; that is, to 400 trees per Scotch acre ; — suppose, after that period, the whole were cut down at 

 the following respective ages ; the value of the whole, per acre, at the different periods, would be as 

 follows : — 

 400 trees at 30 years old, at 2| cubic feet each tree, = 1000 cubic feet, or 20 loads at £ 



Is. 6rf. per foot profit, = ... . 75 per acre, 



400 trees at 43 J years old, at 15 cubic feet each tree, = 6000 cubic feet, or 120 loads, 



at Is. 6d. per foot profit, = ... . . 450 — 



400 trees at 59 years old, at 40 cubic feet each tree, = 16,000 cubic feet, or 320 loads, 



at 2s. 6<Z. per foot profit, = - - - - - 2000 — 



400 trees at 72 years old, at 60 cubic feet each tree, = 24,000 cubic feet, or 480 loads, 



at 2s. lid. per "foot profit, = - 3000 — 



The average of these prices would be 1381/. 5s. per acre ; so that 1000/. per acre is not too high a calcu. 

 lation of the value of the Duke's larch plantations. 



8288. On felling large trees of larch, care must be taken to use plenty of rope, and to take advantage 

 of the direction of the wind : but a very windy day should be avoided. It was found, in digging the 

 Scotch fir out by the roots from among the larch, that the ground was so much shaken about the 

 roots of the larch, as to endanger their stability ; ever after, the fir was cut over by the ground. 



8289. The seasoning of larch timber is accelerated by stripping off the bark before felling. In .May, 



1815, the Duke experimented on fifty trees of larch at Dunkeld, that were growing in a situation, among 

 other wood, that was nearly inaccessible for want of a road or path to it. In 1816 they were cut down 

 and used for several purposes, and they appeared to be completely seasoned. They contained twenty- 

 five cubic feet of wood each. Larch trees that had been only ten months cut down were built into a 

 steam- boat in the river Thames, but they had not been seasoned enough, as the planks above water, 

 near the deck, shrunk a little. In this case, however, the scantlings were made the same as of oak, 

 which were of too slight dimensions for larch. 



8290. Uses of the larch. These are very various. Larches have been grown by the Duke as nurses 

 to spruce firs. The thinnings of larch plantations, " which take place from twenty to thirty years of 

 their age, supply useful materials for various purposes, Posts and rails for fencing may be made either 

 out of the tops or the trunks of young trees. While fir-posts and rails last only about five years, and 

 are worm-eaten after that period, the larch-posts stand for twenty years, and never get worm-eaten. 

 But the trunks of young trees are preferable for this purpose to the tops, as they have less sap-wood. In 

 1807 the Duke fenced a nursery-ground with young larch trees cut up the middle, made into a railing 

 seven feet high. In three years after, the sawn side assumed a leaden grey colour, and in 1817 the whole 

 railing was quite sound. Larch tops which had lain cut for four years, and were, of course, well worn, 

 were found useful in filling drains where stones were at a distance, and they continued sound in them 

 formany years. The larch was used for axles to different kinds of mills from 1793 to 1802, and up to 

 1817 they continued quite sound, though constantly in water. 



8291. " For buildings, too, the larch is found equally desirable. In 1779. the Duke built the shooting-box 

 in Glentill, called Forest Lodge, the floors and joints of which were made of larch. The wood was under 

 forty years old, and, as an experiment, some of the deals were cut up narrow, and others as broad as they 

 could be wrought. In 1817 the narrow boards continued quite close together. After the bridge was 

 thrown over the Tay at Dunkeld, the Duke altered the course of the great northern road to Inverness, 

 which caused him to build a new porter's lodge, stables, and offices to Dunkeld House, near the new lino 

 of road. The whole wood-work of these buildings was executed with larch. They were finished in 1812. 

 In 1813, part of Athol House was burnt down, and the repairs of wood, consisting of joists, floors, doors, 

 and windows, were all made of larch. This wood was so red in colour that it looked like cedar. Severn 1 

 houses were also repaired in the town of Dunkeld with larch. At Dunkeld 271, and at Blair 170, larch 

 trees had been used by 1817 for building purposes. 



8292. " The first attempt to use the larch for the purposes of navigation was inthe construction of fishing- 

 cobles on the Tay in 1777. In 1809,8491 cubic feet of larch timber were sent to Woolwich dockyard. 

 The greatest quantity which was employed was in the repair of the Serapis store-ship, and the state of its 

 soundness was favourably reported on in 1817. One beam of it was put into the large frigate Sibylle, in 



1816, after it had lain six years in the dockyard. The next trial of larch in shipbuilding was in the Sir 

 Simon Clerk, merchant vessel, of 375 tons register, built by Messrs. Symes and Co. of Leith, in 1810. 

 They got eleven trees, containing 1066 cubic feet, and they were formed into the first four or five planks, 

 of three inches and a half in thickness, on the bottom of the vessel from the keel upwards. This vessel 

 was soon afterwards taken by the Americans, and no account could therefore be got regarding the 

 durability of the timber." 



8293. the elasticity, durability, strength, and resilience of larch limber, relatively to oak and Baltic fir, 

 has been determined by experiment. The details, in a tabular form, will be found in the article quoted ; 

 and the following are the general results :— The Riga timber and American white pine are about one lilt li 

 part less strong than the larch. The larch is superior to the oak in stiffness, in strength, and in resilience, 

 or the power of resisting a body in motion ; and it is inferior to Memel or Riga timber in stiffness only. 

 The larch tree, while growing, may be uprooted by wind, but it seldom breaks over by the stem, either by 

 wind, or a weight of snow lodging on its upper branches. The durability of the timber, in every stage ol 

 its growth, is superior to every other, even to oak itself. When speaking of all the above properties as 

 belonging to the larch, it is always to be understood to be grown in an alpine region, on dry soil. In low 

 rich soils the wood is of a very inferior character. 



8294. The large roots of larch trees Jit fur ship timber may be used as knees ; and this was first done at 

 Leith in 1811. These roots have been used for the same purpose on various occasions since that time. 



8295. The larch has been tried for masts ; but, the vessels which were fitted up with them having left 

 the Tav, it is uncertain how far 'larch timber will answer for that purpose. It was the Duke's practice 

 " to plant spruce in all the wet parts of the ground, which he planted to the amount of about one tenth, 

 expressly for the purpose of raising masts and spars, for which he conceived the spruce peculiarly well 

 adapted." 



