PROPERTIES AND USES OF TIMBER. 377 



found of a very superior kind. The thinnings of 

 larch, sixteen years old and upwards, may be used 

 with excellent effect as paling, without being at the 

 trouble of taking oif the bark. 



Larch has been used with much success in making 

 carts, harrows, wheelbarrows, and other implements of 

 agriculture, for which it is eminently qualified by its 

 lightness, strength, and durability ; and it would be 

 more used for these purposes were there not a pre- 

 judice against it among country carpenters, owing 

 principally, as they say, to its being difficult to work. 

 It certainly requires the tools to have a finer edge, 

 but that is but a slight price to pay for its superior 

 qualities. A cart can be constructed of larch at 

 about two- thirds of the expense which it would cost 

 if built of ash, and it will be as strong and durable, 

 and little more than half the weight of the latter. 

 These are important savings, and agriculturists will 

 find it their interest to turn their attention to the 

 subject. 



Nor is it for country purposes alone that the con- 

 sumption of larch may be advantageously increased. 

 It is of the very first importance as a substitute for oak 

 in ship-building, as it possesses all the qualities most 

 prized in the dockyard— toughness, strength, elasti- 

 city, lightness, and closeness. At the same time, 



