THE LARCH. 219 
of the tree, and the value of early thinnings in the district. 
By having the kinds regularly interspersed, a choice is afforded 
in thinning ‘the plantation, so that ultimately it may be con- 
tinued mixed, or made to consist either of the one species or 
of the other, as may be found desirable. For a description 
of plants adapted to various situations, and the mode of in- 
serting them, see the article on that subject. The larch, 
when young, is of quicker growth than any other coniferous 
tree, and for that reason it is best adapted for extirpating 
furze and rank herbage. For this purpose, as already stated, 
two-year transplanted plants are employed, and they should 
be planted immediately after the furze or whins are cut down. 
When closely planted, from three to four feet apart, they 
generally overtop and suffocate the furze, so that the expense 
of frequent clearings for the growth of the plants, even where 
there exists a mixture of other trees, is rendered unnecessary. 
In such cases, however, the larches require early and gradual 
thinnings, as soon as the herbage is subdued. 
One-year-old seedling larches, when produced from five to 
eight inches high, are adapted for being finally planted into 
moorland, where the soil is favourable and the heath short. 
Some of the most healthy and rapidly grown plantations in 
the north of Scotland were formed of larches of this descrip- 
tion; but two-year-old plants are most frequently employed 
in planting moorland when their average height is about 
twelve inches, and sufficient to overtop the herbage on the. 
surface of the ground. 
In favourable situations in the north of Scotland, the tree 
has been known to attain a height of upwards of forty feet in 
twenty years, but thirty feet is the ordinary height in that 
period. In Morayshire, along the banks of the Findhorn, the 
tree shoots up with great vigour. I have known larch thin- 
nings removed from a plantation composed of larch and oak 
of the age of forty years, on the estate of Relugas, average 
twenty cubical feet each tree, and sold on the spot, eleven 
miles from the shore, at ls. per foot. About forty trees per 
acre have been removed at a time from some parts, and twice 
that number left interspersed with oak. This growth of 
