1 1 
readily seen that a wood so light, and at the same time so strong and 
tough, combined with its durability, must make a most valuable kind 
of timber for the uses to which it is adapted. When dry, the tenaci- 
ty of the wood to hold nails is so great it is nearly impossible to ex- 
tract them, the nails usually breaking before the wood will yield. 
The durability of the wood of the Larch for many purposes is much 
greater than that of any kind of Pine, Fir or Spruce. Instances of 
the preservation of the wood of the Larch have been recorded, in 
which it is stated that logs of wood imbedded in peat to the depth of 
twelve to fifteen feet have been found to be sound and were sawed 
into boards. It is stated that the foundations of many of the build- 
ings in Venice are upon Larch piles, and that after the lapse of cen- 
DWARF ARBORVrr.ti. 
turies the timber is found to be comparatively sound. Experiments 
to test the durability of the Larch, made at the request of the Duke 
Athol, show that Oak and Larch piles- diiven down by the side of a 
sea wall, and subjected to the alternations of wet and dry by the rise 
and fall of the tide; the Oak piles were twice replaced, and the wood of 
the Larch piles remained sound. According to Kasthoffer, as stated 
by Louden, “ the wood of the Larch lasts four times longer than that 
of Oak.” 
In speaking of the durability of wood, it may be well here to re- 
member the general fact that the durability of all kinds of wood, 
when subjected to the alternations of wet and dry, depends on the 
proportions of heart- wood to sap-wood, and that young timber, mak- 
