88 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



it cannot be said that its popularity has fallen off to any 

 appreciable extent. The reason for this is not far to seek, 

 when the requirements of English estates as regards fencing 

 timber are taken into consideration. The larch seems, by 

 some mysterious freak of nature, to have been expressly 

 moulded, both in quality of timber and habit of growth, for 

 furnishing, at all stages, poles and timber for the construction 

 of fences. Whether it be to supply the slim sapling for 

 stopping a temporary gap in a hedge, or the substantial fence 

 of sawn posts and rails, the larch is equally able to meet the 

 demand, and no timber is more durable or more easily con- 

 verted for such purposes. Apart from its use as mining 

 timber in certain districts, practically the whole of the larch 

 grown in this country is used for outdoor fencing, and it is 

 substantially correct to say that its value for any other 

 purpose is comparatively unimportant. 



The chief quality upon which its value depends for such 

 purposes is found in the fact that it forms durable hardwood 

 at an exceptionally early age. A pole of fifteen to twenty 

 years' growth will often consist of two-thirds of heart 

 wood, while in any other species, such as Scots fir or 

 pines, hardwood at such an age will hardly exist at all. 

 Another quality it possesses in a marked degree is the 

 regular distribution and moderate development of its side 

 branches. In pine and spruce the side branches are ar- 

 ranged in whorls, which in the case of young trees form 

 stout and bulging knots at each whorl, rendering the 

 pole coarse and irregular in shape. In the larch the side 

 branches are set on fairly evenly all up the main stem, 

 and their development during the first twenty or thirty 

 years is small compared with that of the latter. This gives 

 them a comparatively clean and cylindrical bole, even when 

 allowed plenty of space for crown development; and as 

 the side branches can be removed with the back of a 

 billhook or axe more easily than by cutting them in the 

 ordinary way, the preparation of a pole for fencing purposes 

 is not a difdcult matter. 



The average rate of growth in the larch is also a valuable 

 feature, especially when taken together with its early arrival 

 at maturity. An average production of 50 cubic feet of 



