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is an alternation of wci and dry with the tide, the larch has 

 stood this most trying test far better than oak. In England 

 it is regarded as the best timber for railway ties. Monville 

 says: "In Switzerland, the larch, as the most durable of 

 woods, is preferred for shingles, fences, and vine-props. These 

 vine-props remain fixed for years, and see crop after crop of 

 vines bear their fruit and perish without showing any symp- 

 toms of decay. Props of silver fir would not last more than 

 ten years." Evelyn says: "It makes everlasting spouts and 

 pent-houses, which need neither pitch nor painting to preserve 

 them." Michie affirms that " For out-door work it is the most 

 durable of all descriptions of wood. I have known larch posts 

 that have stood for nearly fifty years." Professor Sargent 

 expresses the opinion that "For posts it will equal in dura- 

 bility our red cedar, while in the power to hold nails it is 

 greatly its superior." The chestnut railway sleeper loses its 

 power to hold iron in about seven years, though the tie itself 

 may not so soon seriously rot. The larch, while it holds iron 

 as firmly as oak, unlike the latter, does not corrode iron. 



The Boston & Albany Railway have larch ties in use for six- 

 teen years which are still sound. The president of the Illinois 

 Central Railway, having examined the vast planted forests of 

 larch in Europe and learned its remarkable fitness for railway 

 ties, ofiers to transport the young plants free of charge to any 

 point on their lines or leased lines, provided they are to be 

 planted in the vicinity of the same. It is, however, an experi- 

 ment which time alone can determine, whether the larch will 

 retain its durability when planted in the level, deep, vegetable 

 mould of the prairies, with their retentive sub-soil. That it 

 will grow there rapidly and luxuriantly is amply proved, but 

 its history for many centuries shows that elevated lands suit 

 it better than low grounds, and side-hills and mountain slopes 

 better than flats. In the rich river flats of Kew Gardens and 

 in the vicinity of London the larch does not thrive. The 

 specimens found in that remarkable collection of all known 

 trees are puny. The Kew arborist informed me that in the 

 two hundred and seventy acres appropriated to the arboretum, 

 no spot had been found suited to the larch. Mr. James Brown, 



