chap, cxiii.

coni'feh,®. /.a'iux.

2369

this important information; the larch may be perfectly seasoned in threemonths, with a very moderate heat, and probably much sooner, as the nextcircumstance to be noted seems to show. When wood can lose no moreweight, we take it for granted it is perfectly seasoned; and, as this is sosoon attained by the larch, there can remain no just apprehensions of itsshrinking.

“ 4. Larch will not crack, with any degree of heat that can be called tole-rable, when in plank or boards, or when the poles are split as rails. Whenin bulk (that is not sawn up), the case is not different, provided the barkremains upon it; but if that be taken off while the wood is green, it cracksconsiderably, as will be noticed under the seventh head.

“ 5. Larch is much more tough than foreign deal. It splits with greatdifficulty, and never in any length with the grain. Foreign deal being soexceedingly apt to split, can seldom be used very thin; but the larch maybe used as thin as the sawyers can cut it, without any danger on that head.

“ 6. it has two properties, the first of which the foreign deal does not pos-sess, and the second but in a very inferior degree ; namely, its beautiful colour,and its capability of receiving a degree of polish equal to any wood yetknown, and much superior to the finest mahogany.

“ 7. It may be used in situations where the best foreign deal proves ofvery short duration; namely, as posts for every description of fencing.”

The knotty tops of some larch trees were sawn, in 1800, into scantlings ofabout 1 i in. square, for the purpose of staking and tying up plants in Mr.I’ontey’s nursery. On examining their condition four years afterwards, thewhole of them were perfectly sound above ground, the only symptoms ofdecay appearing on the sappy parts of the wood, that had been in the ground.A larch post, which, in 1800, had been in the ground upwards of 20 years,was perfectly sound above ground, and not decayed under it deeper than thesap wood ; and, where the bark was not removed under ground, even the sapwood was uninjured. (For. Prun., ed. 4., p. 83.)

Matthew is the next British author who writes on the uses of the larchfrom his own experience; and his work On Naval Timber is dated 1831.The larch, compared with pines and firs, he says, has the timber muchstronger when young, and even when the trunk is under a foot in diameter,than when old and large. Near the top of the tree, the timber is veryinferior, and deficient in toughness, to what it is at the root. The wood isfiner grained, and has fewer large knots, than that of the Scotch pine. A thinlarch board, when dried, is at once strong, tough, durable, and extremely light.It is difficult to split larch even by wedges; which is owing to the nettedstructure of the fibres of the wood: whereas the wood of the Scotch pine,as of other pines, is easily split, owing to its reedy structure, the longitudinalfibres running parallel to each other, with comparatively very few transverseones. Some experiments conducted at Woolwich, which will be hereaftergiven, show the strength of Highland larch to be to that of the Riga pineas 1000 to 804; and to that of white American pine (P. Strabus),- as 1000 to824. In Scotland, it is universally allowed to be stronger than the Scotchpine ; as a proof of which, the sawyers employed to cut it up have one fourthmore pay when cutting larch, than when cutting pine. The larch, comparedwith any other of the Coniferas, Matthew justly observes, “has comparativelysmaller and more numerous branches ; and, consequently, the timber is freerfrom large knots, and has more equable strength, as well in small spars, aswhen large and cut into joists and beams; provided the timber be not too far upthe tree.” (On Naval Timber, p. 105.) The larch, says Mr. Sang, will arrive ata useful timber size in one half or a third part of the time, in general, which theScotch fir requires; and the timber of the larch, at 30 or 40 years old, whenplaced in soil and climate adapted to the production of perfect timber, is inevery respect superior in quality to that of the fir at 100 years old. (Plant.Kal.) The price of the wood of the larch, in Scotland, at the present time(1837), varies from 2d. to 4 d. per cubic foot more than that of the Scotch pine.

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