THE COMMON LARCH. 517 



cultivation of the Larch ; but experience showing that 

 its attack rarely proved fatal, it has ceased to attract 

 the notice of planters, though it still continues annually 

 to infest the Larch, to a greater or less extent, as the 

 seasons happen to be propitious or adverse to its in- 

 crease. 



The propagation and nursery culture of the Larch is 

 carried to a great extent in Scotland and the north of 

 England, many millions of young plants being annually 

 raised from British-grown seed. 



The extraction of the seeds from the cones is a matter 

 of some difficulty and trouble, and various methods to 

 accomplish it have been resorted to ; the most approved, 

 and under which the seeds suffer the least detriment, 

 is by the operation of splitting, which is effected by means 

 of a small, flat, triangular instrument, with the cutting 

 angles and point well sharpened. By this instrument the 

 cones are divided into four divisions, from which the seeds 

 are easily procured by placing them in the sun, or exposing 

 them to a very gentle heat. Kiln-drying, or subjecting 

 the entire cones to considerable fire heat is sometimes 

 used, but this, if not destructive of vitality altogether, 

 must prove injurious to the seeds and the constitution 

 of the plants they produce. Mills for crushing the cones 

 and separating the seed have also been tried, but in all 

 these a large proportion of the seed is lost and destroyed, 

 by being bruised in the operation. The seeds are generally 

 sown in April, upon land previously prepared and rendered 

 very fine, and so thick as to rise within a quarter of an 

 inch of each other ; after being pressed down by the back 

 of the spade or small roller, they should be covered with 

 fine earth, to the depth of from a quarter to half an inch 

 according to the quality of the soil. After remaining two 



