EXTRACT. 
922 
new Editions of standard works, the persons being unknown by 
whom they are conducted, and on whose judgment the public are 
called upon to depend, is not good. 
The printing and engravings in this Edition, as it regards work¬ 
manship, are very well executed, and with a few alterations the work 
is likely to become useful. Each number contains forty-eight pages 
of letter-press, and four copper-plate engravings, for one shilling, 
which is cheap enough. 
The first two plates in the first number consist of cones of the dif¬ 
ferent species of firs; the third contains figures of a larch, a silver 
fir, a cedar, and a Norway spruce, intended to illustrate four divisions 
in an article on the Genus Abies: the fourth contains twenty-four 
species of Acacia neatly engraved. But there is evidently a very 
great deficiency in the references to these plates; and to any person 
unacquainted with the plants, this is very important. We always 
prefer, if possible, having the names of the various plants affixed im¬ 
mediately under the subjects, as well as to give references to them in 
the matter; this plan we see is parti) 7 followed in the succeeding 
numbers. The matter upon the whole is very good, although the 
first number has clearly been got up in a hurry. In future numbers, 
if some little alterations be attended to, we are persuaded the work 
will be found well deserving the patronage of the public. 
Larch. —‘‘The thinnings of a plantation of larch may be applied to 
a variety of useful purposes, whilst they are yet of a small size. In six, 
eight, or ten years, according to the soil and circumstances, the trees will 
have attained a size sufficient to be made into bavrakes. They grow 
so straight, and the wood is so light strong and durable, as to be 
particularly calculated for this purpose; and, from its shrinking less 
than any other wood, these rakes will remain longer firm than those 
made from any other. About two feet, cut off from the root end, 
will form the rake head, and five feet above that, with a very little 
taken off from the thickness of the under part will form the handle. 
No wood is more proper for the teeth of the rake than the red wood 
of the older trees, because it is not only tough, but little liable either 
to split or to shrink. Nothing is so fit for shafts to hoes, for it is 
nearly as strong, and much more durable than ash. Handles for 
brushes, brooms, scythes, &c. would occasion a vast consumption of 
these small spars. Light neat, and yet strong chairs, for rush bot¬ 
toms, might be made of larch wood at this age. Nothing will an¬ 
swer better for hop-poles, for one set of these would outlast two or 
three sets of ash. Hurdles, spars, and gates, may be made of it, 
both lighter and more durable than of any other wood; and, when 
