104 THE FOREST TREE CULTURIST. 
The European Larch is a much more valuable tree, and 
should be planted in preference to the native species, as it 
thrives on dry soil and grows to a larger size, and the tim- 
ber is much better. A volume might be filled with ac- 
counts of the many plantations which have been made of 
the English or Scotch Larch. Thousands and tens of 
thousands of acres have been and are still being planted 
in Scotland and other portions of Great Britain with this 
tree. These plantations have proved to be valuable in- 
vestments, and in many cases—in fact, we might say in 
most of them—land that was of no value for ordinary . 
farming has been used for this purpose. 
Thousands of acres are now lying waste near our sea- 
board cities on which Larch would grow rapidly, and 
every tree is, and ever will be, wanted in every seaport. 
The Larch makes excellent spiles for docks, or for the 
foundations of buildings which are built in low, wet 
grounds. That it will last for ages when covered with 
water or driven in wet ground we have abundant proof. 
Larch spiles have been taken up in Europe where it is pos- 
itively known that they were driven more than a thousand 
years ago, and yet they were sound and uninjured. Who 
will be the first to make a plantation of Scotch Larch on 
the barrens of Long Island or New Jersey? ‘The seeds 
ean be obtained of any of our seedsmen, and in almost 
any quantity, if the order for them is given a few months 
in advance of the time they are wanted. 
I have noticed the Larch at length, and more particu- 
larly for the purpose of calling the attention of those who 
owr large tra¢ts of the sandy soils of our Eastern States 
