158 • Forest-Culture. 



FOREST-CULTURE. — No. I. 

 Scotch Larch {Larix Europcea). 



Of all the deciduous trees, either in Europe or America, the larch is the 

 most valuable ; for, while it combines extraordinary strength and durability, 

 it possesses extraordinary beauty, and a tendency to rapid growth. It is 

 perfectly hardy too ; for it endures the coldest winters in the United States 

 and Canada, and will flourish as well on dry and sterile as on rich and 

 fertile soils. 



To sustain these several assertions respecting this extraordinary tree, I 

 will speak particularly of its rapid gro7vth, strength, and durability, and 

 something of its beauty, and of its adaptation to poor as well as good soils. 



1. // is a rapid Grower. — In the year 1857, 1 imported several thousand 

 plants of this tree from Scotland, from six to twelve inches in length, and 

 planted them in my grounds. In 1859, I transplanted a large portion into 

 timber-belts, four feet apart in the row. Many of these trees measured, in 

 1867 (ten years after they were imported), from eight to nine inches in diam- 

 eter near the collar, and had attained a height of more than twenty feet, 

 and were straight as an arrow, with an exact taper from the base to the top. 

 Many of these trees will now make three good fence-posts each. The 

 tree continues thus rapidly to grow, seventy or eighty or even a hundred 

 years, when it attains a height of a hundred feet or more, and three feet in 

 diameter. (See writings of Lauder, Loudon, and others.) 



2. Its Strength. — It is reported to possess unequalled elastic strength. 

 Sir T. D. Lauder says, " It is the most useful timber-tree of Europe, where 

 strength and durability are wanted." This is confirmed by every intelli- 

 gent European who has had experience with it. It is largely used for the 

 shafts and axles of carriages and carts, and for masts and spars of vessels. 



3. Its Durability is asserted to be equal to, if not to exceed, that of any 

 other known timber. One of the oldest and most experienced nursery- 

 men in Scotland (Peter Lawson, Esq.), in answer to my inquiry respecting 

 its durability as a post set in the ground, replied, that " it had no equal 

 except in the red cedar, and the preference was in favor of the larch." 



To corroborate this statement, I quote further from the written works of 



