38 HAND-BOOK OF TREE-PLANTING. 



of natural grasses, the pasture of which is high- 

 ly reputed in dairy management." 



Prof. Sargent has endeavored, from the ex- 

 amination of Mr. Fay's plantation, to make a 

 practical estimate of the profit of tree-planting. 

 He says : " I think we can feel confident that on 

 the ordinary soil suited to their culture, larch, 

 planted when about one foot high and three 

 years old, will in twenty years average twenty- 

 two feet in height and seven inches in diameter, 

 three feet from the ground ; and that in thirty 

 years they will be from thirty-five to forty feet 

 high and twelve inches in diameter ; and if the 

 plantations are thinned to four hundred trees 

 to the acre, that at the end of twenty years 

 more, or fifty years from the time of planting, 

 the trees will reach from sixty to seventy feet in 

 height and at least twenty inches in diameter. 

 This is also the average growth of this tree in 

 the Highlands of Scotland, under nearly similar 

 conditions. 



" Let us consider what profits a plantation of 

 larch, ten acres in extent, and intended to stand 

 for fifty years, would give. The labor of cut- 

 ting the trees will be more than paid for by the 



