LARCH FIR PLANTATIONS. 191 



best, an enormous loss to the proprietor, as well as 

 to the country in general. 



SECTION II. CAUSE OF DISEASE AMONG LARCH FIR 



PLANTATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 



It is my opinion, that there is no tree cultivated 

 in Britain more worthy the attention of landed 

 proprietors than the larch. I am not aware of any 

 purpose for which oak is now used, for which larch 

 would not answer as well. It is a rapid-growing 

 tree, and attains maturity long before the oak. I 

 have seen larch trees, little more than thirty years 

 old, sold for 60s. each, while oaks of the same age, 

 and growing upon the same sort of soil in the 

 same neighbourhood, were not worth 10s. each ; 

 and this at once points out the advantage of plant- 

 ing larch where immediate profit is the object. The 

 larch has been held in high estimation in former 

 times, as we learn from several old authors. The 

 first mention made of the cultivation of this tree in 

 England is by Parkinson, in his " Paradisus," in 

 1629 ; and Evelyn, in 1664, mentions a larch tree 

 of good stature at Chelmsford, in Essex. It appears 

 to have been introduced into Scotland by Lord 

 Kames, in 1734. But the merit of pointing out to 

 the proprietors of Scotland the valuable properties 

 of the larch as a timber-tree for our climate, ap- 

 pears to be due to the Duke of Athol, who planted 



