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14 
A. R. Whitney, of Franklin Grove, Lee Co., 111 ., planted Larch 
seventeen years ago, which have attained the height of 6o feet, and 
have a diameter of i8 inches. 
Suel Foster, of Mustcatine, Iowa, planted Larch trees nine years 
ago which now average i8 feet in height, and an average diameter of 
5 inches three feet from the ground. Soil, clay. Mr. Foster says that 
in his plantation “the trees were too closely planted ” to attain the 
most rapid growth. 
Laurie Tatum, of Springdale, Iowa, reports the growth of his Larch, 
six years planted, average height 19 feet, average diameter three feet 
from the ground, 3^ inches. 
S. Edwards, of La Moile, Illinois, reports the growth of Larch 
20 years planted, average height, 50 feet ; average diameter three 
feet from the ground, 10 inches. 
The statistics of the growth of European Larch in Europe and 
Massachusetts, where the plantings have been made in lands so broken, 
rugged and rocky, or in sterile, sandy soils, as to be entirely unfit for 
ordinary agricultural purposes, show the average annual growth to he 
^ inch in diameter, and an upward growth averaging from 18 to 24 
inches per annum for a series of 20 to 40 years. According to Lou- 
den the rate of growth in the climate of London is 20 to 25 feet in 
ten years. In medium to rich soil, in the Western States, the average 
annual rate of growth in diameter is from inch to 1 inch, and an 
upright growth of 21 to 36 inches per annum, for a series of 9 to 20 
years. 
The experiments of Forest Tree planting made by the Messrs. Fay 
of Massachusetts, showing the rapid growth of the Larch planted in 
sterile soil, as stated by Prof. Sargent in his Suggestions on Tree 
Planting, is worthy of attention. Prof. Sargent says: 
“But few experiments in arborioculture except on the most limited scale, have 
been attempted in Massachusetts, but I will describe the two most important which 
are of special interest, as sliowing what our unimproved lands are capable of, if 
judiciously managed. 
Mr. Richard S. Fay commenced, in 1846, planting on his estate near Lynn, in 
Essex County, and in that and the two succeeding years planted two hundred thou- 
sand imported trees, to which were afterwards added nearly as many more directly 
from seed, nearly two hundred acres being covered in all. The sites of these plan- 
tations were stony hillsides, fully exposed to the wiad, destitute of loam, their only 
covering a few struggling berberry bushes and jumpers, with an abundant under- 
growth of wood-wax (Genista tinctoria L), always a certain indication in Essex 
County of sterile soil. He employed in his plantations. Oaks, Ashes, Maples, Nor- 
way Spruce, Scotch and Austrian Pines ; but the principal tree planted was Euro- 
pean Larch. No labor was expended on the land previous to planting the trees, 
about one foot high, being simply insertod with a spade, and no protection has at 
any time been given them, save against fire, and browsing animals. I recently 
visited these plantations, twenty-nine years after their formation, and took occasion 
to measure several of the trees, but more especially the Larches. Some of these 
are now over fifty feet in height, and fifteen inches in diameter three feet from the 
ground, and the average of many of the trees examined is over forty feet in height 
and twelve inches in diameter. The broad-leaved trees have also made a most 
satisfactory growth, and many of them, on the margins of the plantation, are fully 
forty feet high. During the past ten years about seven hundred cords of fire-wood 
have been cut from the plantations, besides all the fencing for a large estate. Fire- 
