2378

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

are better suited for larch than the shallow inferior soils incumbent on theold grey and red sandstone.

“ 4. Ground having a Subsoil of dry rotten Bock, and which sounds hollow tothe Foot in Time of Drought.

“ 5. Rich Earth, or Vegetable Mould. Independently of receiving ultimatecontamination from the putrid juices or exhalations of this soil, the larchdoes not seem, even while remaining sound, to make so much comparativeprogress of growth in it as some of the hard-wooded trees, as elm, ash, andsycamore.

“ 6. Black or grey moorish Soils, with Admixture of Peat Moss. Althoughthe soils specified in this class will not afford fine large larch for naval use,yet they may be very profitably employed in growing larch for farming pur-poses, or for coal-mines, where a slight taint of rot is of minor importance.The lightness of larch, especially when newly cut (about one third lessweight than the evergreen Conifer*), gives a facility to the loading andcarriage, which enhances its value, independently of its greater strength anddurability. Those larches in which rot has commenced are fully as suitablefor paling as the sound : they have fewer circles of sap wood, and more ofred or matured wood. When the rot has commenced, the maturing or red-dening of the circles does not proceed regularly, reaching nearest the bark onthe side where the rot has advanced farthest.” {Ibid., p.88.)

Gathering the Cones and extracting the Seeds. The cones may be gatheredany time during the winter season, and kept in a dry place till a week or twobefore the time of sowing, which generally takes place in April. Boutcherfound that, though the cones of the larch are at their full size in autumn, yetthe greatest part of the seeds they contain are not then arrived near theirmaturity, and that they ripen hanging on the trees, during even the coldestwinter months. He therefore defers gathering the cones till the month ofMarch or April, when they easily part from the tree, and many of them dropfrom it. The seeds, when kept in the cones, will retain their vitality for fouror five years ; but, when taken out of them, they lose it in a few months. DeCandolle attaches no great importance to the choice of seeds; though itcannot be denied, he says, that trees growing from seeds taken from diseasedtrees must be more liable to those same diseases. He cautions such asprocure seeds from the Tyrol against a practice which he has heard prevailsthere, of placing the cones near a large fire to make them open; by whichthe seeds must be greatly injured, if not totally deprived of their vitality.The cones gathered in the Vailais, he says, are generally opened by the heatof the sun, or over a slow fire ; and the seeds from that quarter are preferredby the cultivators of France and Germany. Cones ripened in Britain maycither be dried on the kiln, without previous preparation, in the manneralready directed for the .dbietinte in general (see p. 2131.); or each conemay be split before putting it into the kiln, which is a safer method, and lesslikely to injure the seeds. The operation of splitting, Mr. Sang informs us,“ is performed by a small, flat, triangular spatula, sharpened at the point andcutting-angles, and helved like a shoemaker’s awl. The cone is held by thefore-finger and thumb of the one hand, upon a flat piece of wood; while withthe other, by the splitter, it is split up from the thick end; and afterwardseach half is. split up the middle, which parts the cone into four divisions.This affords occupation, in wet or stormy weather in the winter season, forthe workmen of a place, or for boys or girls, or old people; and is by far thebest and least destructive to the seeds of any methods we know ; because thecones so split, when exposed to the heat, are suddenly opened, and readilydischarge the seeds; which, consequently, are less injured by the fire heat thanthey would be if the cones were longer exposed to it; which, if not split,they would require to be, to cause them to open.” Besides the above methodof splitting, there are others. “ Some people,” Sang continues, “ use a conemill, which has large sharp teeth in a concave cylinder, and others fixed in acorresponding roller. The mill is worked by turning the roller with a handle