CHAP. CXIII.

CONl'PERffi. Aa'rIX.

2383

taking good heed that no cart-wheel, in passing, or feet of large quadruped,wound the bared roots. In exposed situations, the earth may be graduallyremoved from the roots.

“ The rot in larch taking place in the part appropriate to knees, the forestercannot be too wary in selecting the situations where there is no risk of itsattack, for planting those destined for this purpose. It is also desirable, ifpossible, to have the knee timber in ground free of stones or gravel, as thegrubbing in stony ground is expensive, and the roots often embrace stoneswhich, by the future swelling of the huib, are completely embedded and shutup in the wood, particularly in those places between the spurs where the sawsection has to divide them for knees. Were the roots carefully bared at anearly period, it would tend to prevent the gravel from becoming embeddedin the bulb. Nothing can be more, annoying to the shipwright, when he hasbestowed his money, ingenuity, and labour, upon an unwieldy root, andbrought his knees into figure at the cost of the destruction of his tools bythe enveloped gravel, to discover stains of incipient rot, which render theintended knee mere lumber.

“ As the larch, unlike the oak, affords few or no crooks naturally, exceptingknees, the artificial formation of larch crooks is of the utmost consequence tothe interest of the holders of larch plantations now growing. In order toobtain a good market for their straight timber, it is absolutely necessary tohave a supply of crooks ready as soon as possible to work the straightup. This would increase the demand, and then enhance the price of thestraight more than any one not belonging to the craft could believe. In goodsoil many of the crooks would be of sufficient size in 20 years to begin thesupply, if properly thinned out. In a forest of larch, containing many thou-sand loads, and which had been untouched by any builder, we have seen thegreatest difficulty in procuring crooks for one small brig. It is only on verysteep ground, and where the tree lias been a little upset after planting, thatany good crooks are found. From the rather greater diameter required oflarch timbers, and also from the nature of the fibre of the wood, we shouldsuppose that steam-bending of larch timbers would scarcely be followed, evenas a dernier restart?

Felling. The larch is a remarkably easy tree to fell, from having no largeboughs to interfere with the adjoining trees. The best season for performingthe operation is winter, and the trunk may either be severed from the root,or otherwise, according to the object in view. If the ground among the re-maining trees is to be kept as grass, root-felling is obviously to be preferred ;as will generally be the case when the roots are of any value as fuel. Inorder to season the wood of the larch, as we have already seen, p. 2365., Mr.Monteath recommends barking the trees standing, and leaving them in thatstate for one, or even two, summers, before they are cut down. A numberof larch trees on Dunnipace estate, in Stirlingshire, were barked by Mr.Monteath, and stood in the peeled state two summers, before they were cutup, and the wood made into paneled doors; which stood perfectly withoutwarping or twisting. He has since frequently himself used, and seen usedb'y others, the timber of larch trees, after having stood twelve months withthe bark taken off) then cut down, and immediately cut up into battens forflooring; and also made into paneled doors and window frames, for the bettersort of houses, with equal success. ( Forest . Guide , ed. 2., p. 240.) It has beenremarked, that the roots of the larch, when left in the ground, decay muchsooner than those of the Scotch pine; the former being liable to the attacksof an insect which does not prey upon the latter.

Accidents, <^c. From the larch having only small branches, and from itsleaves being deciduous, it is liable to few accidents, either from wind orsnow. A fall of snow, the Duke of Athol observes, “ will destroy in onenight, and break and tear down, sometimes more than one third of a Scotch pineplantation, at all ages. High winds also destroy pines in numbers; but the

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