102 ' THE NEW FORESTRY. 



on a large scale. The Douglas fir flag-staff at Kew is one 

 hundred and fifty-nine feet in length, twenty-two inches in 

 diameter at the base, and eight inches at the top — a run off 

 in the taper of fourteen inches only in fifty-three yards. This 

 pole shows every sign of having grown up in an excessively 

 crowded forest where it probably never had more than a few 

 feet of branches at its top. It is free from large knots for its 

 whole length, and in general shape and appearance it is so 

 unlike British-grown samples that the two would hardly be 

 recognised as belonging to the same species. The largest 

 examples of Scotch-grown trees are in shape like an elongated 

 candle extinguisher, with a lumpy exterior, while the Kew pole 

 is almost cylindrical and smooth from end to end. 



THE Noble Fir. Abies noblis. — This is not only a 

 beautiful tree, but promises also to be a useful timber-tree. It 

 is perfectly hardy, a quick grower, is not a very wide brancher, 

 and forms a fine, clean pole of cylindrical shape. We have 

 noticed in many places that it is not so fastidious as to soil and 

 climate as the other spruces, and that it thrives, if it does. not 

 grow so fast, in dry, thin soils, and stands exposure fairly well. 

 We have seen it in mixed plantations in Argyleshire doing 

 remarkably well, and would advise its use as a timber-tree. 

 Taking up little room laterally, it may be planted from 

 two-and-a-half to three feet apart. 



Nordman's Fir. A hies Nordmaninana. — This promises 

 to be another useful tree, being a good grower and hardy. 

 Its rigid, horizontal branches are, however, wide-spreading, 

 and, like the Douglas fir, it should be planted by itself and but 

 sparingly thinned. 



GRAND Fir A hies grandis. — This species has the fault 

 of the more tender spruces — a dislike to dry soils and keen 

 windy exposures. In the sheltered dens about Murthy Castle 

 in Scotland it makes a grand tree, and in a plantation would no 

 doubt soon provide a trunk of large size. 



LARCH. Larix Europce. — This tree needs no description. 

 But for the disease to which it is extremely liable everywhere 

 and which renders it useless, it would be the most valuable 

 species among all the firs. Under ordinarily favourable 

 conditions a crop of larch is sure to pay. Its timber, is 

 useful and enduring at an early age, and large trees fetch from 

 one shilling to one shilling and sixpence per foot in the wood. 

 As pure forest, a large number can be grown to the acre, 

 and although it has been said to succeed best mixed with other 

 species, it is well known that many of the pure crops of larch 



