CHAP. CXIII.

CONl'FEUAi. £a'R!X.

2361

of larch for Scotch pine, the expense of planting was considerably increased.That, with the enclosing, amounted to 21. 10«. 6 d. per acre. The pitting alonecost 10«. 6 d. per acre.

“ In the eight years from 1791 to 1799, the duke still continued todiminish the number of Scotch pines in his plantations, and to increase thatof the larch. During this time, the banks of the Bruar Water, extending to70 Scotch acres around the beautiful waterfall, were planted. It is not un-likely that the humble petition of Bruar Water, —

“ To shade its banks wi’ towering trees,

And bonnie spreading bushes,”

so well expressed in the words of the poet, might have had the effect of draw-ing His Grace’s attention the sooner to the embellishment of this delightfulspot. At Logierait, Inver, and Dunkeld, the space altogether planted ex-tended to 800 acres, 600 of which were entirely of larch, but only planted sothinly, from a paucity of plants, as to leave after merely a scanty thinning, onlya sufficient number of trees for naval purposes. The duke’s desire to extendhis plantations solely with the larch, in elevated situations, had to strugglevery severely and painfully against the scarcity of plants that prevailed in thecountry, even at this period, when the value of the larch tree was begun to beappreciated. The expense of planting this piece of ground was the same asthe last, and though the number of larch plants consumed in it only amountedto 800,000, even this number was obtained with great difficulty.

“ Observing with satisfaction and admiration the luxuriant growth of thelarch in all situations, and its hardihood even in the most exposed regions,the duke resolved on pushing entire larch plantations still farther to the sum-mits of the highest hills. The Scotch pine, that was planted at 900 ft. abovethe sea, had the vacancies occasioned by deaths or accidents filled up, ten yearsafterwards, by the late duke, with larch, as an experiment. In 1800, when theduke was anxious again to extend his larch plantations, the effect of thisexperiment confirmed him in an opinion which he had previously conceivedof the very hardy nature of the larch. These Scotch pines, in a period ofnearly forty years, had only attained a height of five or six feet; while thelarches, which had been planted among them ten years after, were from 40 ft.to 50 ft. high. Nine hundred feet was an elevation at which it was beforesupposed that the larch was incapable of vegetating. A favourable circum-stance, too, happened in 1800, which concurred with the result of the aboveexperiment to give an impulse to the commencement of a great undertakingin planting. In that year, several of the farms at Dunkeld fell out of lease;and, as they were all in miserable condition, His Grace took them into hisown hands, to improve them, and to build suitable farm-houses and officeson them. This circumstance gave the duke the command of a range of moun-tains, extending from the edge of Craig-y-barns, over a space of ground of 1600Scotch acres. This space included a common, the rights of which the dukebought, up. It formed the background to the farms which the duke hadtaken into his own hands. It was situated from 900 ft. to 1200 ft. above thelevel of the sea. Its soil, presenting the most barren aspect, was strewedover thickly with fragments of rocks, and vegetation of any kind scarcelyexisted upon it. ‘ To endeavour to grow ship-timber,’ remarks His Grace,‘ among rocks and shivered fragments of schist, such as I have described,would have appeared to a stranger extreme folly, and money thrown away;but, in the year 1800, I had for more than twenty-five years so watched andadmired the hardihood and the strong vegetative powers of the larch, in manysituations as barren and as rugged as any part of this range, though not soelevated, as quite satisfied me that I ought, having so fair an opportunity, toseize it.’

“ During the same period in which the duke planted this mountain range,he also planted 400 acres in other situations ; making a total of 2409 Scotchacres, 1800 of which consisted solely of larch, and 300 acres of this occupieda region far above the growth of the Scotch pine. These plantations, in enclos-