CHAP. CXIII. CONl'F£KJE. za v iux. 2361 



of larch for Scotch pine, the expense of planting was considerably increased. 

 That, with the enclosing, amounted to 21. 10s. 6c/. per acre. The pitting alone 

 cost 10s. 6d. per acre. 



" In the eight years from 1791 to 1799, the duke still continued to 

 diminish the number of Scotch pines in his plantations, and to increase that 

 of the larch. During this time, the banks of the Bruar Water, extending to 

 70 Scotch acres around the beautiful waterfall, were planted. It is not un- 

 likely that the humble petition of Bruar Water, — 



" To shade its banks wi' towering trees, 

 And bonnie spreading bushes," 



so well expressed in the words of the poet, might have had the effect of draw- 

 ing His Grace's attention the sooner to the embellishment of this delightful 

 spot. At Logierait, Inver, and Dunkeld, the space altogether planted ex- 

 tended to 800 acres, 600 of which were entirely of larch, but only planted so 

 thinly, from a paucity of plants, as to leave after merely a scanty thinning, only 

 a sufficient number of trees for naval purposes. The duke's desire to extend 

 his plantations solely with the larch, in elevated situations, had to struggle 

 very severely and painfully against the scarcity of plants that prevailed in the 

 country, even at this period, when the value of the larch tree was begun to be 

 appreciated. The expense of planting this piece of ground was the same as 

 the last, and though the number of larch plants consumed in it only amounted 

 to 800,000, even this number was obtained with great difficulty. 



" Observing with satisfaction and admiration the luxuriant growth of the 

 larch in all situations, and its hardihood even in the most exposed regions, 

 the duke resolved on pushing entire larch plantations still farther to the sum- 

 mits of the highest hills. The Scotch pine, that was planted at 900 ft. above 

 the sea, had the vacancies occasioned by deaths or accidents filled up, ten years 

 afterwards, by the late duke, with larch, as an experiment. In 1800, when the 

 duke was anxious again to extend his larch plantations, the effect of this 

 experiment confirmed him in an opinion which he had previously conceived 

 of the very hardy nature of the larch. These Scotch pines, in a period of 

 nearly forty years, had only attained a height of five or six feet ; while the 

 larches, which had been planted among them ten years after, were from 40 ft. 

 to 50 ft. high. Nine hundred feet was an elevation at which it was before 

 supposed that the larch was incapable of vegetating. A favourable circum- 

 stance, too, happened in 1800, which concurred with the result of the above 

 experiment to give an impulse to the commencement of a great undertaking 

 in planting. In that year, several of the farms at Dunkeld fell out of lease; 

 and, as they were all in miserable condition, His Grace took them into his 

 own hands, to improve them, and to build suitable farm-houses and offices 

 on them. This circumstance gave the duke the command of a range of moun- 

 tains, extending from the edge of Craig-y-barns, over a space of ground of 1600 

 Scotch acres. This space included a common, the rights of which the duke 

 bought up. It formed the background to the farms which the duke had 

 taken into his own hands. It was situated from 900 ft. to 1200 ft. above the 

 level of the sea. Its soil, presenting the most barren aspect, was strewed 

 over thickly with fragments of rocks, and vegetation of any kind scarcely 

 existed upon it. ' To endeavour to grow ship-timber,* remarks His Grace, 

 * among rocks and shivered fragments of schist, such as I have described, 

 would have appeared to a stranger extreme folly, and money thrown away ; 

 but, in the year 1800, I had for more than twenty-five years so watched and 

 admired the hardihood and the strong vegetative powers of the larch, in many 

 situations as barren and as rugged as any part of this range, though not so 

 elevated, as quite satisfied me that I ought, having so fair an opportunity, to 

 seize it.' 



" During the same period in which the duke planted this mountain range, 

 he also planted 400 acres in other situations ; making a total of 2409 Scotch 

 acres, 1800 of which consisted solely of larch, and 300 acres of this occupied 

 a region far above the growth of the Scotch pine. These plantations, in enclos- 



