54 



GROWING GOLD. 



have been planted, even under the most skilful 

 management. 



The question as to the quality of the 

 timber of larch appears not to be sufficiently 

 attended to. " Larch is valuable only for the 

 grosser parts of buildings, as beams, &c. for 

 the finer parts, it is so much disposed to warp 

 and so difficult to be worked, as generally to 

 preclude its use." (Matthews, p. 103.) This 

 is a well known fact, — ladders made of it have 

 become so twisted as to be unfit for use. He 

 also states, **it yields to the depredation of 

 the insects as soon as any pine timber, and 

 that the sea worm devours it in preference to 

 almost any wood;" and that "some experi- 

 ments were made at Woolwich, in trial of the 

 comparative strength of it and other pine 

 timber, when it was stated to be inferior to 

 Riga and Dantzic fir, pitch pine, and eveii 

 yellow pine." 



Surely these important facts ought to be 

 urged against its general introduction into 



