AGE OF PLANTS. 



13S 



youngest ; let them be as nearly as possible equal 

 in healthiness ; put them into any piece of waste 

 land ^vhere the soil is adapted for the particular spe- 

 cies on which the experiment is tried, and give 

 them equal justice in planting. The result, at the 

 end of two or three seasons, will be such as to con- 

 vince the most sceptical of the truth of what has 

 been just advanced. Such an experiment may, at a 

 very moderate expense, be made to comprehend 

 every variety of the fir tribe. 



Both economy, at the first outset, therefore, and 

 the success of the plantation afterwards, determine 

 that the proper time for transporting firs from the 

 nursery is, when they are in their second year. At 

 this period, larches may be obtained transplanted, 

 as it is customary to put considerable numbers of 

 them out into nursery lines, when they are one year 

 old. Such plants have generally better roots than 

 those that have remained in the seed-bed till they 

 are of the same age ; but as their price is consider- 

 ably higher than that of the latter, it is somewhat 

 doubtful whether they are so much superior in qua- 

 lity as to compensate for the greater expense which 

 attends the use of them. At all events, healthy 

 larches from the seed-bed have never failed to give 

 satisfaction when put into soil suitable for them, re- 



