FOREST TREES. 191 
in a greater degree than any other timber tree of 
northern latitudes. Instances can be cited where the 
Larch, in this country, has reached the height of 
thirty feet, with a diameter of ten inches, in ten or 
twelve years from planting. Loudon says: “The 
rate of growth of the Larch, in the climate of Lon- 
don, is from twenty to twenty-five feet in ten years, 
from the seed, and nearly as great on the declivities 
of hills and mountains in the Highlands of Scot- 
land.” In Perthshire, Larches of forty-seven years’ 
growth measured thirty inches in diameter, or seven 
feet ten inches in circumference, at five feet from the 
ground, “A Larch cut down near Dunkeld, after it 
had been sixty years planted, was one hundred and 
ten feet high, and contained one hundred and sixty 
cubic feet of timber. In a suitable situation, the 
timber is said to come to perfection in forty years, 
while that of the Pinaster requires sixty years, and 
that of the Scotch Pine eighty years.” As far as my 
own observation and experience enable me to judge, 
the Larch, planted four feet apart each way, may in 
ten years be grown large enough for fence posts. At 
that distance, about twenty-seven hundred would 
grow upon an acre. 
The Larch inclines to grow tall, even in open 
ground. The branches are numerous, but not often 
large; and when thickly grown, the trunk is straight, 
clean, and free from knots, and tapers very gradually 
from the base. 
The writers of Europe upon forest trees produce 
ample evidence of the great durability of the Larch. 
