NURSERY AND PLANTING^ 



99 



all, that the timber of the larch at thirty or forty years old, 

 when placed in soil and climate adapted to the production of 

 perfect timber, is in every respect superior in quality to that 

 of the fir at a hundred years old. The general usefulness 

 of the larch-timber is now pretty well known in most parts 

 of this country ; it is therefore hardly necessary to enumerate 

 the purposes to which it is applicable. It may be sufficient, 

 perhaps, to state, that it is useful in ship-building, house-build- 

 ing, in husbandry, and in cabinet-making." The larch is 

 possessed of the properties of durability to an extraordinary 

 extent, and is therefore well adapted for piles for the foun- 

 dation of bridges, embankments by the sides of rivers, gate- 

 posts, and indeed for every purpose where strength and dura- 

 bility are required. 



The larch, like most of the resinous trees, is better when 

 propagated from seeds than by other means. Indeed, with 

 this division of plants, it is a difficult matter to increase them 

 otherwise, although some of the rarer species of P'uiks are 

 occasionally increased by layers, and some few by grafting. 

 The larch produces seeds abundantly with us, not only on 

 old trees but upon young ones also. The cones are ripe in 

 November, December, and January, and should be collected 

 from the healthiest and best trees. There are often cones of 

 two years' growth upon this tree; but, in gathering, care should 

 be taken to select those of the last year's growth. As they 

 are gathered, they ought to be dried, so as to prevent a dis- 

 position to turn mouldy, which would injure the seeds, if 

 allowed to go too far. When sufficiently dry, they should be 

 laid up in a dry loft till the spring, when they will require to 

 be taken out of the cones previously to sowing. Some, how- 

 ever, take out the seed during winter, but it is much better to 

 keep them in the cones till spring. 



As the process is the same in regard to taking out the seeds 

 from the cones of all the pine or fir tribe of trees, we will, 

 for greater brevity, detail that process under a separate head, 

 and where it is applicable to the others, we will occasionally 

 refer to it. 



