PART VIII. PICTURESQUE PLANTING. 499 



with the greatest ease, by giving it two or three blows with the 

 back of the hatchet. Their tops and side branches, were also 

 remarkably brittle, and light *♦ 



These are facts which deserve a very serious attention, and 

 lead to very important conclusions, respecting the cultivation 

 of this tree in Great Britain. They are not solitary ; for though, 

 as yet, sufficient time has not elapsed for a fair trial of this wood 

 in different soils and situations, yet some have found it much 

 less durable than others ; and an attentive observer will per- 

 ceive larch trees in some rich warm situations in a decaying 

 state (as at Barnbarrow, Croome, &c.) ; and others growing so 

 rapidly, or so much pruned (as at Woburn), as to suggest 

 doubts, whether their duration will be much longer than those 

 of Kinnaird Castle. 



4. In Scotland, the difference of durability between common 

 fir wood, which has been of slow growth, and that which has 

 been forced (as they call it) either by shelter, advantageous soil, 

 situation, or climate, or by lopping off the side branches, is 

 known to every carpenter in the northern parts of it, particu- 



* These facts are known to many gentlemen in the neighbourhood of "Montrose. 

 In London they are perfectly known to A. B. Lambert, Esq. Vice-President of the 

 Linnsean Society. Mr. George Jackson, his librarian, indeed, was eye-witness ta 

 them in 1739. 



