98 



THE IMIACTICAL GARDENER. 



fifteen or sixteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, have 

 attained the astonishing size, as to produce three hundred feet 

 of measurable timber. As to soil, the larch will flourish in 

 every soil, on hill, on dale or mountain, in loam, in clay, 

 in gravel ; in peat-earth, in moor-earth, amongst rocks and 

 stone : in short, every where, excepting in standing water.'' 

 There are, however, soils, in which it attains a greater size and 

 a better quality than in others. Rich soils, in general, are 

 unfit for the larch, but none are too poor for it; although it 

 will i^row lor the first few years luxuriantly, and even attain a 

 laroc size in rich soils, nevertheless, in such it is apt to decay 

 at the heart, and conse(iuently be rendered useless in point of 

 timber. It is not, therefore, the soils in which this tree 

 appears to make the most rapid progress while young that are 

 most congenial to it, but actually the reverse ; and it also 

 appears that a certain degree of altitude of situation is neces- 

 sary to produce it in perfection. The larch is not only valu- 

 able in itself when fully grown, but is the best of all trees for 

 nursing others in bleak and exposed situations. " Indeed," 

 says Sang, no tree is so eminently qualified for this office. 

 In most situations, even in the most exposed places, and thin 

 soi-ls, it outgrows all other timber-trees for the first ten or 

 twenty years after jilanting ; and if j^lanted in sufficient 

 numbers, in proportion to the principal trees to be nursed, it 

 af!<)rds them good shelter ; while, by its towering, it tends to 

 draw them up for timber. It will arrive at a timber size in 

 almost any situation or soil, (as already noticed,) and of course 

 it may with propriety be planted on a broad and extensive 

 scale, and may be expected to make the most durable timber 

 on the more elevated and exposed situations, where the soil is 

 not of a very rich quality. Certainly, had the vast forest 

 tracts, which have been planted with Scotch fir in many parts 

 of the country, being planted with larches, at least in those 

 soils and situations adapted for them, the estates would have 

 been enhanced in value ; the larch bearing the ascendancy 

 over the Scotch fir in the following important circumstances: — 

 that it brings double the price at least, per measurable foot ; 

 that it will arrive at a useful timber size in one half or a third 

 part of the time in general which the fir requires : and, above 



