i6 
In answer to an inquiry as to the nature of the soil on which his plantations are 
made, Mr. Fay writes me: “ My land is made up mainly of abrupt hills and deep 
hollows, sprinkled over with bowlders of granite. The soil is dry and worn out, 
and what there is of it is a gravelly loam. The larger part consisted ot old pastures, 
and on the one hundred and twenty-five acres, not a tree of any kind, unless an oak 
that sprang out of the huckelberry bushes here and there, barely lifting its head above 
them for the wind, and when attempting to grow, browsed down by the cattle rang- 
ing in the winter, could be called a tree.” 
Thirty-five thousand trees were imported and set out, besides a large number of 
native trees procured in this country ; but fully three fourths of the whole plantation 
was made by sowing the seed.directly onuthe ground where the trees were to stand. 
A large variety of trees, both native ancWoreign, and while few have failed entirely, 
the foreign species, as was to be expected from the situation, have been the most 
successful. The Scotch Pine has made the most rapid growth, and then European 
Larch.” * * * * 
The statement of Emerson in his ” Forest Trees of Massachusetts,” 
as to the experiments of the Dukes of Athol, in planting European 
Larch, is so curious and interesting that we note it in his own words, 
and at some length. 
“ The estates of the Dukes of Athol are in the north of Scotland, and in the lat- 
itude of nearly 57 degrees north. Between 1740 and I750» James, Duke of Athol, 
planted more than twelve hundred Larch trees, in various situations, for the purpose 
of trying a species of tree then new in Scotland. In 1759 planted seven hun- 
dred Larches over a space of twenty-nine Scotch acres, intermixed with other kinds 
of forest trees, with the view of trying the value of the Larch as a forest tree. 
This plantation extended up the face of a hill from two hundred to four hundred 
feet above the level of the sea. The rocky ground of which it was composed was 
covered with loose and crumbling masses of mica slate, and was not worth over 
a year all together. Before he died, in 1764, he was satisfied of the superiority of 
the Larches as timber, over the other Firs, even in trees of only eighteen or nineteen 
years old. His successor, John, Duke of Athol, first conceived the idea of planting 
the Larch by itself as a forest tree, and of planting the sides of the hills about 
Dunkeld. He planted three acres with Larch alone, at an elevation of five or six 
hundred feet above the level of the sea, on soil not worth a shilling an acre. He 
also planted four hundred acres on the sides of the hills before his death, in i774- 
His son John, continuing the extension of his father’s plans, had planted in 1783, 
two hundred and seventy-nine thousand trees. 
Observing the rapid growth and hardy nature of the Larch, he determined to 
cover with it the steep acclivities of mountains of greater altitude than any that had 
yet been tried. He therefore enclosed a space of twenty*^nine acres, ‘on the rugged 
summit of Craig-ybarns, and planted a strip entirely with Larches, among the 
crevices and hollows of the rocks, where the least soil could be found. At this 
elevation none of the larger kinds of plants grew, so that the grounds required no 
previous preparation of clearing.’ This plantation wap formed in 17^5 1786. 
Between that year and 1791, he planted six hundred and eighty acres with five 
hundred thousand Larches, the greater part only sprinkled over the surface, on 
account of the difficulty of procuring a sufficient number of plants. Besides a planta- 
tion of seventy acres for the purpose of embellishment, he had, in 1799, extend- 
ed his plantations of Larches over an additional space of eight hundred acres, six 
hundred of which were planted entirely, though thinly, with Larch. These took 
eight hundred thousand plants. 
“Observing with satisfaction and admiration the luxuriant growth of the Larch in 
all situations, and its hardihood even in the most exposed regions, theA^ake resolved 
on pushing entire Larch plantations still further to the summit of the highest hills. 
He therefore determined tos cover with Larch, sixteen hundred Scotch acres, 
‘ situated from nine to twelve hundred feet above the level of the sea. Its soil, 
presenting the most barren aspect, was strewn over thickly with fragments of rock, 
