248 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
ing autumn, that the annual addition which is made to the 
soil, cannot he less, than from a third of an inch to half an 
inch, according to the magnitude of the trees. This we 
have often had opportunities of proving, by our remarks 
made on the surfaces of newly cleaned pleasure walks. 
The result of planting a moor with Larches then, is, that 
when the trees have grown so much as to exclude the air 
and moisture on the surface, the heath is soon exterminated ; 
and the soil gradually increasing by the decomposition of 
the leaflets annually thrown down by the Larches, grass 
begins to grow as the trees rise in elevation, so as to allow 
greater freedom for the circulation of the air below, — and 
thus, land which was not worth one shilling an acre, be- 
comes most valuable pasture ; and we can say that our own 
experience amply bears out the fact. The Duke of Athol 
found that the value of the pasture in oak copses, was worth 
five or six shillings (sterling) per acre, for eight years only, 
in twenty-four, when the copse is cut down again. Under 
a Scotch fir plantation it is not worth sixpence more per 
acre, than it was before it was planted ; under Beech and 
Spruce, it is worth less than it was before. But under 
Larch, where the ground was not worth one shilling per 
acre, before it was planted, the pasture becomes worth from 
eight to ten shillings an acre, after the first thirty years, 
when all the thinnings have been completed, and the trees 
left for naval purposes, at the rate of four hundred to the 
acre, and twelve feet apart. 
The Larch is a very quick grower. Between 1740, and 
1744, eleven trees were planted at Blair, the girths of which, 
at growths from seventy-three to seventy-six years, ranged 
from eight feet two inches, to ten feet. This lot was calcula- 
ted to average one hundred feet each, in the whole, one 
