LARCH. 



89 



holders of skill aud spirit, did they carry off the 

 noxious nioistiu'e, by sufficient use of open drainage, 

 from their extensive wastes of mossy moors and wet 

 tills, which are only productive of the black heath, 

 the most dismal robe * of the earth, or rather the fune- 

 ral pall with which Natm^e has shrouded her imde- 

 cayed remains. This miserable portion of our coun- 

 try, so dreary when spread out in vn.de continuous 

 flats, and so offensive to the eye of the traveller, un- 

 less his mind is attuned to gloom and desolation, lies 

 a disgrace to the possessor. Were a proper system 

 of superficial draining executed on these districts, 

 and kept in repair, most of our coniferas, particu- 

 larly spruce and Scots fir, ^nth oak, beech, bu'ch, 

 alder, and, in the sounder situations, larch, woidd 

 thrive and come to maturity, idtimately enhancing 

 the value of the district an hundi*ed fold. This 

 coidd be done by fluting the ground, opening large 

 ditches every 30, 50, or 100 yards, according to the 

 wetness or closeness of the subsoil — the deeper, the 

 more serviceable both in efficacy and distance of 

 drainage. These flutes should stretch across the 

 slope vdth just sufficient declivity to allow the wa- 



* Oh ! the bonny blooming heather." — Man has spoken 

 evW things of the sun, of love, and of life." 



