SILVER FIR-TREE. 243 



was eighty-one feet high, and thirteen feet 

 in circumference below ; the length, so far as 

 it is timber, that is, to six inches square, 

 seventy-three feet ; in the middle, seventeen 

 inches square, and containing 146 feet of 

 good timber, which it acquired in about sixty- 

 three years. 



It has been observed in Ireland, that no 

 tree grows speedily to so large a size as the 

 silver fir ; some of forty years growth, in a 

 wet clay, on a rock, measuring twelve feet 

 in circumference, at the ground, and seven 

 feet and a half at five feet high. It is known 

 to be excellent timber for boat-building and 

 Mr. Young tells us of a gentleman in Hamp- 

 shire, who floored his library with silver fir, 

 fresh cut down, and the boards did not con- 

 tract in the least. 



In forming plantations, our first care should 

 be to attend to the nature of the soil, and 

 then select those trees which thrive best on 

 the kind of food we are about to offer them ; 

 for they are all, says Delille, 



" In secret channels fed, 



From root to trunk the wandering sap is led ; 

 Thence through the boughs its liquid virtue sends, 

 Till in the leaves its rising effort ends." 



" I have seen," says Martyn, " some fine 

 trees of this sort of fir, which grew upon natural 



r 2 



