On Naval Timber and Arboriculture / With Critical Notes on Authors who have Recently Treated the Subject of Planting

by Patrick Matthew

PART II. BRITISH FOREST TREES USED AS NAVAL TIMBER.

OAK—Quercus.

Oak appears to be the most prevalent tree about the middle of the north temperate zone, growing, naturally, upon almost every soil, excepting some of the sterile sandy hats. With the exception of the pines, it is by far the most useful kind of tree, almost balancing the accommodating figure of stem, and manageable quality of the pine timber, by its greater strength and durability, and excelling the pines in value of bark. It is not easy to determine whether there be distinct British species in the genus Quercus; but, at least, there are several breeds, or families, or grouped resemblances, which, though the individuals may slightly vary, and though a gradation, or connection, may be traced among these families themselves, yet possess general character sufficiently marked to support names. Botanists, who are so prompt and so well prepared with their classes, {32} orders, genera, species, varieties, long before they acquire much knowledge of what they are so ready to classify, or be able to distinguish between species and variety, or know if species and variety be really distinct, divide the oak of this country into two species, Quercus Robur and Q. sessiliflora, the former with long fruit-stalks, and hard, strong, durable timber, the late leafing old kind once so prevalent in the island: the latter an earlier leafing, faster growing kind, timber inferior, leaves petiolate, fruit sessile, not common, but supposed native. We consider there is no foundation for this specific distinction; we have met with oaks with various lengths of fruit-stalks: Besides, short and long fruit-stalks is a very common difference among seedling varieties. The families or breeds which we have observed in the indigenous oak resemble what are found among almost every kind of vegetable, and graduate into each other,—those farthest removed in appearance, no doubt having power to commix by the pollen. The most remarkable distinction we have observed is in the colour of the bark, whether inclining to white or black. The variety or breed with grey white bark, often very smooth and shining, and sometimes beautifully clouded with green, has also a different form of leaf and figure of top from those with {33} blackish bark, and we have no doubt will also afford a different quality of timber. Those with blackish dingy bark vary considerably from each other, some being of very luxuriant growth and heavy foliage, with thick fleshy bark, affording much tannin; others, though in favourable situation, of stunted growth, thin dry bark, and delicate constitution, often being nipped in the twigs by the frost: some having a round easy figure of top, even with pendulous branching, others extremely stiff and angular in the branching; some with the most elegant foliage, deeply sinuated and finely waved, others with the clumsiest, most misshapen foliage, almost as if opposite principles had presided at their forming. We have observed the earlier kinds, with the dark bark, to have generally the easiest figure of top; the angular branching and stiffness of figure of top being greatest in those sooty-barked late kinds, most disposed to take two growths in the season, the spring and autumnal, which, from the proneness of these kinds to be affected in the terminal bud by monstrosities, and sometimes also to be nipped in the point of the unripened autumn shoot by the frost, are generally thrown out in different directions, the tree, from these causes, growing awkwardly and irregularly, and by fits and starts.

Besides the indigenous Quercus Robur, we have {34} a number of kinds, termed distinct species, growing in Britain, of foreign derivation—the Turkish oak, Quercus Cerris; the Lucombe oak, Q. sempervirens; the scarlet-leaved American, Q. coccinea; the evergreen, Q. Ilex, and several others. The Turkish and Lucombe resemble each other, but the latter generally continues green till the spring, when the old leaves wither, a little before the young appear: Botanists make them varieties. We consider the Turkish oak the most valuable and elegant of these foreign kinds. The leaves are generally very long and slender, deeply and widely sinuated, and the teeth or salient angles sometimes undulated, having a curled appearance; yet there are some individuals with broad, short, flat leaves, not differing in figure from those of the common oak, but the tree in other respects not different from the Turkish, being easily distinguished from the common oak by the reddish hairy appearance of the developing shoot, the scales of the bud having a hair-like extension, visible in each leaf axilla. The acorns are also bristled like echini, with this scaly prolongation. The timber is tough and clean, resembling the white American, and suitable for staves. The stem and branches are generally very straight, as the terminal bud seldom fails, and the growing proceeds steadily, without much autumnal shoot. {35}

As oaks run more hazard in transplanting than most other kinds of trees, the greater care is necessary in procuring well-rooted, short, vigorous plants; in having the soil free of stagnating water, in timing and executing the work in a proper manner, and in hoeing around the plant, keeping the ground clean and friable on the surface during the first two or three seasons. As young oaks grow much more vigorously under considerable closeness and shelter, and as the plants are expensive, it is proper to plant, along with them, a mixture of cheaper plants, larches or other pines, which also sooner come to be of a little value, to be removed gradually as the young wood thickens up. In bleak exposed situations, it is well to plant the ground first with pines, and when these attain a height of 6 or 8 feet, to cut out a number, not in lines, but irregularly, and plant the oaks in their stead, gradually pruning and thinning away the remaining firs as the oaks rise. In general, pitting is preferable to slitting; but when the plants are very small, and the ground wet-bottomed (with close subsoil), liable to become honeycomby with frost, slitting secures the plant better from being thrown out.

Oak is by far the best adapted tree for hedge-row, or for being grown by the sides of arable fields, both {36} with respect to its own qualities, and to the growth of the adjacent crops or hedge. The bark is much thicker, and more valuable in proportion to its bulk here, than in close forest, and the timber more crooked, which is desiderated in oak, but which unfits most other trees for much else than firewood. The oak is, besides, as generally suited for the variety of soils which lines crossing a country in all directions must embrace: this is matter of consideration, as few planters have skill to locate a number of kinds properly. It will also be thought, by reason of British feeling, the most interesting and ornamental; nor is it to be overlooked, that, by the roots taking a more downward direction than other trees, the plough has greater liberty to proceed around, and the moisture and pabulum necessary to evaporation and growth are not drawn from the ground so superficially; thence the minor plants adjacent do not suffer so much. We have observed, too, that, when all cause of injury by root suction was cut off by a deep ditch, the undergrowth seemed less injured by shade of oak than of some other trees. The apple and the pear only, appear to be as little detrimental to the surrounding crop as the oak. The ash, the elm, the beech, in Scotland the most general hedge-row trees, are the most improperly located; the ash and the {37} elm as being the most pernicious to the crops, and the beech as being of little or no value grown in hedge-row. In clays, most kinds of trees, particularly those whose roots spread superficially, are more detrimental to the crop around than in the more friable earths, owing to the roots in clays foraging at less depth, and to the clay being a worse conductor of moisture than other earths. The disadvantages attending the planting of hedge-row with oaks are, that their removal is not in general so successful as that of other trees, especially to this exposed dry situation, and that the progress of the plant, for a number of years, is but slow; and thus for a longer time liable to injury from cattle. Fair success may, however, be commanded, by previously preparing the roots, should the plants be of good size; transplanting them when the ground is neither too moist nor too dry, and in autumn, as soon as the leaves have dropped or become brown, particularly in dry ground; performing the operation with the utmost care not to fracture the roots, and to retain a considerable ball; opening pits of considerable size for their reception, much deeper than the roots, and should a little water lurk in the bottom of the pit, it will be highly beneficial, provided none stagnate so high as the roots; firming the earth well around the roots {38} after it is carefully shaken in among the fibres; and, especially, keeping the surface of the ground, within four feet of the plant, friable and free from weeds, by repeated hoeings during the first two or three summers. Of course, if you suffer the plant to waver with the wind, or to be rubbed and bruised by cattle, or by the appendages of the plough, it is folly to expect success. On this account, stout plants, from 8 to 12 feet high, the branches more out of the way of injury, may, in sheltered situations, under careful management, be the most proper size. Much also depends on procuring sturdy plants from exposed situations. We have experienced better success with hardy plants from the exposed side of a hill, having unfibred carrot roots much injured by removal, than with others from a sheltered morass, having the most numerously fibred, well extricated roots. In cases, where, from the moistness and coldness of the ground in early summer, there was a torpor of root suction, and, in consequence, the developing leaves withering up under an arid atmosphere, we have attempted to stimulate the root action by application of warm water, covering up the surface of the ground with dry litter to confine the heat; we have also endeavoured to encourage the root action by increasing the temperature of cold light-coloured soils, by strewing soot {39} on the surface for a yard or two around the plant, and by nearly covering a like distance by pieces of black trap rock, from three to six inches in diameter. The success from the pieces of trap appeared greatest; they diminished the evaporation from the ground, thence less loss of heat and of necessary moisture; and being at once very receptive of radiant caloric, and a good conductor, they quickly raised the temperature of the soil in the first half of the summer, when bodies, from the increasing power of the sun, are receiving much more heat by radiation than they are giving out by radiation.

The oak should never be pruned severely, and this rule should be particularly observed when the tree is young. We have known several of the most intelligent gardener-foresters in Scotland err greatly in this; and, by exclusively pruning the oak plants, from misdirected care, throw them far behind the other kinds of timber with which they were mixed in planting. There is no other broad-leaved tree which we have seen suffer so much injury in its growth, by severe pruning, as the oak. The cause of this may be something of nervous susceptibility, or connected life, all the parts participating when one is injured; it may be owing to the tendency to putrescency of the sap-wood, or rather of the sap, the part around the section often decaying, especially {40} when the plant is not vigorous; or it may arise from some torpor or restricted connection of the roots, which, when robbed of their affiliated branch, do not readily forage or give their foraging to the support of the nearest remaining branch, or to the general top of the tree, but throw out a brush of twigs near the section.

Although the oak often lingers in the growth while young, yet, after it attains to six inches or a foot in diameter, its progress is generally faster than most other kinds of hard wood, not appearing to suffer so much as others from excessive fruit-bearing. The value of the timber, and also of the bark, and the slight comparative injury occasioned to the under crop, whether of copse, grass, corn, or roots, independently of any patriotic motives, or religious reverence lingering in our sensorium from the time of the Druids, should give a preference to this tree for planting, wherever the soil and climate are suitable, over every other kind, with the exception of larch and willow, which, in particular soils, will pay better.

The planter of oak should throw in a considerable proportion of Turkish oak into the more favourable soils and situations. The beautiful clustered, fretted foliage of this species gives a richness, and, in winter, when it retains the withered leaf, a warmth of colouring to our young plantations beyond any other {41} of our hardy trees and shrubs. We have had this kind, eighteen years old, equal in size to larches of the same age in the same ground. We cut down several of these oaks of about 8 inches in diameter, and compared the timber and bark with those of common oak of the same age. The timber was clean, very tough and flexible, with much flash, and we should suppose might suit for plank when matured; at any rate, from the splendid shew of the laminæ (flash), it would form beautiful pannelling and furniture. It shrunk, however, extremely while drying, which must have been partly owing to the quick growing and youngness, it thence consisting almost entirely of sap-wood, and this sap-wood almost entirely of sap; and, when left in the sun in the round state, after peeling, rent nearly to splinters,—much more than the common oak under the same exposure. The bark was about double the thickness and weight of that of the common oak of equal size, and, in proportion to its weight, consisted much more of that cellular or granular substance most productive of tannin. The varieties of common oak with thick bark are generally of inferior quality of timber; but they are by far the finest, most luxuriant growing trees, with rich heavy foliage, and appear as giants standing in the same row with {42} the thin barked varieties, though planted at the same time.

To the naturalist the oak is an object of peculiar interest, from the curious phenomena connected with the economy of numerous insects who depend upon it for existence. It would be tedious to describe the different apples, galls, excrescences, tufts, and other monstrosities which appear upon the oak. It is something like enchantment! These insects, merely by a puncture and the deposition of an egg, or drop of fluid, turning Nature from her law, and compelling the Genius of the Oak to construct of living organized oak matter, instead of leaves and twigs, fairy domes and temples, in which their embryo young may lie for a time enshrined.

SPANISH CHESTNUT—Castanea vulgaris, (Fagus Castanea, L.)

Spanish or sweet Chestnut, sometimes named Chestnut Oak, sometimes included in the genus Fagus, seems at least a connecting link between Quercus and Fagus. This valuable timber tree, the largest growing, and, in many places, also the most common in the south of Europe, and which was once so {43} abundant in England that many of the largest of our ancient piles are wooded of it, has been for several ages much on the decrease in this country; owing, probably, to a slight refrigeration of climate, which, during this period, appears to have taken place, preventing the ripening of the seed, or, in more rigorous winters, following damp, cold summers, destroying all the young plants (at least the part above ground), whose succulent unripened shoots and more delicate general constitution, from immatured annual round of life, or imperfect concoction of juices, have not power to withstand the severe cold sometimes occurring near the surface of the earth. A very general destruction of the young plants of this kind of tree has occurred more than once within our memory from severe frost; but as the climate, a few years back, rather improved, and the spirit of planting became more general, a considerable number of plants of this tree have attained height and hardihood to withstand the cold, excepting in the points of the annual shoot, which we notice are again nipped (year 1830). This may give encouragement to more extended planting, as the tree is handsome, and, in most places, where water does not abound nor stagnate, acquires great size in comparatively short time. It is said to prefer a gravelly or stone {44} rubble subsoil, but we have seen it in rich clay, in row with large beeches, even exceed them in size. We should prefer for it any deep friable dry soil.

There is one circumstance connected with this timber in this country, at least in Scotland, which must prevent its general use in ship plank, and be of material injury to it for ship timbers; this is, that few trees of it of size are found without the timber being shaky or split, some to such a degree that the annual rings or concentric growths have separated from each other. This appears to be owing to our climate being colder than what is suitable to the nature of the plant; the sap in the stem possibly freezing in severe weather and splitting, or severing the growths of the timber, but more probably occasioned by the season being too short, and too moist and cold, to ripen or fill up with dense matter, sufficiently, the frame of the annual growths; thence, as each ring of sap-wood, prematurely hastened by the torpor of moisture and cold, turns to red or matured wood, and, in so doing, dries considerably within the other rings of moist sap-wood, the contractile force may be sufficient to separate this growth from the next external sap growth, the cohesion existing between the tissue or fabric of the growth being much stronger than the cohesion between one {45} growth and another. The uncommon dryness of the matured wood, and moistness of the sap-wood of this tree, and smallness of the number of sap-wood rings, commonly only from 2 to 6 in this country, incline us to believe that this is the cause of the insufficiency or defect; and that, in a milder, drier climate, the sap-wood rings will be found to be more numerous, and thus, independent of a better first ripening, affording a longer time for their cells to be more filled up with an unctuous matter (which prevents the shrinking) gradually deposited while they convey the sap, the sap-wood rings being the part of the timber through which the sap circulates. As proof of this unctuous deposit or filling up, we observe that dry sap-wood imbibes moisture much quicker, and in greater quantity, than dry mature. We think this premature maturity (if we may so term it) of timber in cold countries, a general law. Our larch, originally from the Apennine, has not more than one-third of the number of sap-rings of our Scots fir, indigenous in Mar and Rannoch mountains; and our narrow-leafed, or English elm, said to have been introduced from the Holy Land in time of the Crusades, has not more than one-half of the number of our indigenous broad-leafed, or Scots elm. From the sap-growths of Laburnum, {46} scarcely exceeding in number those of the Spanish chestnut, we should suppose that it has been moved northward, or that the proper climate has left it. We have observed that moist, or water-soaked ground, has influence, as well as climate, to deprive the alburnum vessels sooner of their living functions, inducing that torpor of tubes, or semi-vital condition, in which they only serve to support the more active parts, and constitute what is called Mature Timber.

It is a general opinion that Spanish chestnut soon takes rot in situations where the roots come in contact with water. This appears to result from moist soil inducing the too early maturing of the timber already alluded to, and occasioning shaky insufficient fabric, which soon corrupts. We have observed oaks which had fewer layers of sap-wood, from growing in damp situations, have the timber of inferior quality, and sometimes of a shaky, brownish description, when cut across, throwing out a dirty brownish liquid or stain.

From the use of the Spanish chestnut in the Spanish navy, both in planking and timbering, and from the roofing beams and ornamental work of Westminster Hall being also of this wood, we should suppose it was not so liable to this defect of rents in {47} the timber in milder climates. Chestnut timber is a good deal similar to oak, though not quite so reedy and elastic, but is destitute of the large laminæ or plates (flash), which, radiating from the pith to the outside, become so prominent to view in the oak when the longitudinal section is perpendicular to the outside, in the plane of the laminæ. It is, we should think, as capable of supporting weight, when stretching as a beam, as the oak, and is equally, if not more durable, many beams of it existing in very old buildings undecayed: it is said even to have been taken out fresh where it had stood 600 years as lintels. Earth stakes of it are also very durable. It possesses one advantage over oak, which must recommend it for ship-building, that is, having much less proportion of sap-wood; and, from the matured wood containing much less sap or moisture, we should suppose it not so liable to dry rot, or that more simple means, or shorter period, would suffice for seasoning it, so as to be proof against this evil. Spanish chestnut is as yet little known among British shipwrights; but were a quantity of it in the market free of the unsoundness we have alluded to, its merits would soon become known. The bark is used by tanners, but is said not to equal that of oak.

BEECH-TREE—Fagus sylvatica.

This hardy tree occupies fully as wide a range, both of soil and climate, as the oak, and is generally the fastest growing, most vigorous of all our hard-wood kinds, prospering on all soils, on the dry and moist, the aluminous, the calcareous, the siliceous, provided water does not stagnate. It combines magnificence with beauty, being at once the Hercules and Adonis of our Sylva. The timber of our beech, while green, is by far the hardest of our large growing trees, and, in the American forest, the members of the beechen family match better than those of any other, with the perseverance of the ruthless Yankee; the roots retaining the hardness deeper in the earth than those of any other tree, and being so plaited and netted throughout the ground for a considerable space around the bulb, that it is next to impossible to trench or dig over the soil till they have decayed.

As we have before stated, the timber of the beech-tree soon corrupts if it is not speedily dried, or kept in water after being cut down, and is equally liable to corruption in the tree when deprived of life by wounds or other injury. Beech has a matured and sap wood, although they are not very distinguishable, being nearly of one colour. The former has {49} considerable durability when kept dry, the latter is speedily consumed by worming.

The planter of beech should procure the kind[10] with yellow-coloured wood, termed by joiners Yellow Beech, in opposition to the kind with white wood, called White Beech. The yellow grows faster and straighter, and is cleaner and freer of black knots, and also more pleasantly worked than the white, but it corrupts much sooner in the bark when cut down. This variety of beech, when properly trained, is probably the most profitable hard-wood that we can raise; when planked, it bends pleasantly under the shipwright to the curvature of the vessel’s side. The tree is also much superior in size and grace of outline to the white. There are few planters who need be put in mind that beech of small size, or of short or crooked stem, is the least valuable of all timber. Whoever plants with a view to profit will, therefore, throw in only as many beech plants as may ultimately be required for standards, and these in the bosom of plantations; as it is seldom that beech attains to much value in hedge-row or on the outskirts of woods, {50} from its proneness when so situated to ramify and grow crooked. It is, however, quite possible, with a little early attention, to rear beech as straight and clean as to be valuable, on the outskirts, where it forms a beautiful fringe to the plantation, and affords excellent shelter.

ELM—Ulmus.—BROAD-LEAVED, OR SCOTCH, or WYCH ELM—Ulmus montana.

This beautiful and most graceful tree, whose favourite locality is the damp, deep, accumulated soil, free of stagnant water, at the bottom of declivities, is, together with its sister, the small-leaved kind, the English elm, when so situated, the fastest growing of our hard-wood trees. Both delight in easy or gravelly soils, though the small-leaved will also prosper in the more adhesive, the alluvial and diluvial clays.

There are a number of kinds of elm growing in this country, differing rather more from the common run of U. montana and U. campestris, than what occurs among seedling varieties of untamed plants; but as these have very probably a power of mingling by the pollen, thence not specifically different, we leave to {51} botanists to explain their nice peculiarities, and think it sufficient to rank the whole under montana and campestris, especially as the timber seems to range into two kinds—Montana, with large leaves, heavy annual shoots, somewhat zig-zag, thick towards the point, thence drooping a little from gravity; having much sap-wood, and timber of great longitudinal toughness, but, from the great quantity of sap-wood, and want of lateral adhesion, it splits considerably in drying;—Campestris, with smaller leaves, more numerous straight annual shoots, which are small towards the point, thence more erect, has but little sap-wood, and the timber also possessing greater lateral adhesion, and less longitudinal, it does not crack much in drying. We have noticed one broad leaved kind or variety, whose annual twigs often spring out in tufts or knots from one point; this seems to arise from the shoot of the preceding year sometimes dying, probably nipped by frost, and the tuft of shoots springing out from the knot at the lower extremity of the dead twig. From this cause, it has not the graceful easy spread of branches of the U. montana, but assumes a more angular, stiff, upright figure. We have heard this named Dutch Elm, but it does not quite correspond with the elm in the parks at London said to be Dutch. We consider it a kind {52} not very nearly allied to U. montana, yet the above peculiarity of appearance may only arise from individual tenderness, and may not be accompanied by other difference of character.

The elm, more especially the broad-leaved Scotch elm, has a peculiar fan-like sloping-to-one-side spread of branches, most perceptible while young; hence the tree when grown up, has generally a slight bending in the stem, which renders it very fitting for floor-timbers of vessels, the only part of a ship, excepting bottom plank, to which it is applicable, as it soon decays above water. Its great toughness and strength, however, render it good floors.

There are some kinds of foreign elm which deserve attention. Some time ago we planted several of these, and lately cut down one of about six inches diameter, which we found a great deal harder and stronger timber than our U. montana. We had this kind under the name of the Broad-leaved American. The bark was rather lighter in colour, and smoother, than U. montana; the leaves were rough and large, and the annual shoots extremely luxuriant; but, probably owing to climate, or difference of circumstance, the exposed situation where we had it growing being very unlike the close American forest, it did not carry up its vigour of growing into {53} the top, although the top was healthy, but continued throwing out numerous annual shoots, five or six feet long, from the bulb and side of stem, which disposition we did not succeed in correcting by pruning. This did not seem to arise from grafting, as some of the shoots broke out higher up than the graft must have been, and there was no difference between the lower and upper shoots.

U. montana, when come to some size, on the primary branches being lopped off, like the oak, often throws out a brush of twigs from the stem, and these twigs impeding the transit of the sap, the brush increases, and the stem thickens considerably, in consequence of a warty-like deposit of wood forming at the root of the twigs. This excrescence, when of size, after being carefully seasoned in some cool moist place, such as the north re-entering angle of a building, exposed to the chipping from the roof, forms a richer veneer for cabinet-work than any other timber. This disposition to form brush and excrescence might be given by art to almost any kind of tree, excepting the coniferæ and beech, and might be made a source of considerable profit. This could easily be effected by slitting, pricking, and bruising the bark at certain periods of the season. A very beautiful waved timber might also be formed by {54} twisting the stems of trees tight up with round ropes, the screw circles of the rope not being quite close to each other; the ropes to remain several seasons, then to be kept off for a season or two, and again applied. The practice of forming warty excrescences might be combined with that of forming wavy fibres, with the finest effect. Of course, those trees with timber of rich colour, and susceptible of high polish, would be the most suitable for undergoing this process. U. campestris also throws out a brush, but from the great inferiority of the timber in beauty, and from its unfitness for cabinet-work, it would be useless to encourage it by art. Some plants of montana, not covered with brush, have a curious unevenness (laced appearance) of the timber in the stem, which renders it a beautiful cabinet plank.

NARROW-LEAVED OR ENGLISH ELM—Ulmus campestris.

There are few Scotchmen, as they migrate southward, who have failed to remark the tame subdued appearance of the landscape of the middle and south of England, where a number of straggling tufted-headed poles, along with windmill towers, occupy {55} the horizon. These straggling, tall, tufted poles, stuck in, perpendicular to the flat surface, are composed of living narrow-leaved elm-trees, which the perseverance of the peasantry in quest of billets, has reduced to this condition. Some varieties of this elm, however, when uncurtailed in lateral expansion, attain the grandest development, stretching forth a hundred giant arms aloft, supporting masses of foliage, fantastically magnificent.

In the neighbourhood of London, this tree is attacked by an insect, which, running along the outside of the timber, within the bark, in a few seasons deprives the individual of life, the bark peeling off in large girdles, threatening to bereave this capital of the finest ornaments of its parks. We have observed, in different kinds of growing trees, such as the apple and oak, the roads of insects traversing between the rhind and wood, although the individual thus affected appeared to suffer little or no injury; and we consider the agency of the insect in the destruction of the English elm around London to be merely sequent to disease—perhaps a taint of corruption, or slight putrescency of the sap, occasioned by the impurities of the London air, assisted by the hard beaten state of the ground[11] above the roots. Should {56} any one examine the inside of the bark of a cut tree, when corruption has just begun with the bark, and see how thoroughly it is undermined by insects, he will, we think, admit the strong probability, that the insect is only subordinate in the destruction of those fine old elms around London. We do not wonder at the condition of the trees—it would not surprise us if the human race in London were swept off by some similar secondary cause.

The small-leaved elm has great disposition to spread by suckers from the roots, and thus extended has become very prevalent throughout most parts of England, in the broad wastes (termed fences), which, from the indolent husbandry, consequent to tithes and the want of leases, generally surround the pasture and corn fields, but which are so necessary to these unvaried plains, as some prominent object, or characteristic land-mark, on which the amor patriæ of the population may perch; the finest remembrances and associations of youth being mixed up with these bushy flower-covered enclosures.

It is with country as with society, strong lasting {57} attachment occurs only where there is individuality of character to give distinctness of image.

“Oh! how should I my true love know,

From many other one?”

There is design and utility in this fascination of peculiarity. If individual distinction be but strongly marked, it signifies little of what character. Love of country often hangs upon features of the harshest and most fearful description, with which the associations and feelings become entwisted, as attachment to individual is often rivetted by fierce, austere, or even morose qualities.

The narrow-leaved elm is valuable for forming the blocks and dead-eyes[12], and other wooden furniture of rigging, being particularly suitable for these purposes, from its hard and adhesive nature, and indisposition to crack or split, when exposed to sun and weather.

We have observed many minor distinctions, perhaps individual, in the above kinds of elm, in figure, size and smoothness of leaf, in colour and roughness {58} of bark, &c. Some varieties or individuals of the English elm have the bark of the young twigs and branches covered with corky ridges: others want this excrescence.

REDWOOD WILLOW, or STAG’S HEAD OZIER,—Salix fragilis[13].

This kind of willow, once very common in the alluvial parts of Scotland, before the introduction of Salix alba, S. Russelliana, &c., is probably the most profitable timber that can be planted in such soils. It was our district’s maxim, that “the willow will purchase the horse before any other timber purchase the saddle,” on account of its very quick growth, and the value of its timber. It delights in {59} the rich easy clay by the sides of our pows (the old Scottish term for those sluggish natural drains of our alluvial districts), throwing out its fibril roots in matted-like abundance under the water: it also flourishes in the more sandy and gravelly alluvion, by the sides of rivers and streams, which does not become too dry in summer.

This tree, similar to some others which, like it, are continued by cuttings or layers, is, in certain seasons, especially when of considerable size, subject to a derangement in the sap-concoction, which leads to the death of some of its more recent parts, particularly the uppermost branches; whence its withered top sometimes assumes the appearance of a stag’s head of horns, which, from the indestructibility of these dead branches, it retains for many years; new branches springing out from the sides, of much luxuriance. This disease, similar to canker in the genus Pyrus, is generally concentrated to certain places of the bark and alburnum, the portion of branch above these places thence withering, the connection with the root being cut off; though sometimes the points of the twigs appear to be nipped, without any previous disease. From these affections, and also on account of the branches and stem being often rifted by the winds, the tree is frequently found with rot {60} in the stem, when it has stood long. It agrees in this with the larch, that, though its timber, when cut down, or withered and dried, as on the top of the tree, is little liable to corruption, yet it is very subject to it, as part of the stem of the living tree, perhaps under certain circumstances of semi-vitality. To determine whether this tree, raised from seed, would be liable to these disorders, the same as when continued by slips, would be an interesting, though tedious, experiment. We never have seen any young seed-plants rise around old trees.

The use of the red wood willow, as timbers of vessels, has been of long standing in this part of Scotland, and has proved its long endurance, and excellent adaptation. By reason of its lightness, pliancy, elasticity, and toughness, it is, we think, the best, without exception, for the formation of small fast-sailing war-vessels. We are pretty certain that our Navy Board would not have cause to regret trial of it in a long, low, sharp schooner, of sufficient breadth to stand up under great press of sail, moulded as much as possible to combine great stability with small resistance from the water, and when in quick motion to be buoyant—especially not to dip forward,—provided it could be procured not too old, and free from rot, large knots, and cross-grain; a very {61} little attention in the cultivation would afford it of the finest bends, and clean and fresh. Our Navy Board have received some slight teaching from our transatlantic brethren, of the superior sailing of fir-constructed vessels, to those of oak, the result of their superior lightness, pliancy, and elasticity.

The writer of this has also had experience of two vessels, one of oak, and the other of larch, on the same voyages, at the same time, and has found the latter superior in sailing to the former, in a degree greater than the difference of build could account for. From the superior elasticity and lightness of the willow, even to larch, the lightest and most elastic of the fir-tribe, we should expect that vessels of it would outstrip those of fir, at least of Scots or red pine, as much as the latter do those of oak; and that, from this greater elasticity and lightness, they would move through the water, yielding to the resistance and percussions of the waves, compared to those of oak, as a thing of life to a dead block. For vessel-timbers, this wood requires to be used alone; as, when mixed with other kinds less pliant or elastic, the latter have to withstand nearly all the impetus or strain, and are thence liable to be broken, or from the vessel yielding more at one place than another, she is apt to strain and become leaky. {62}

Some years ago, when demolishing an old building which had stood fully a century, the writer found the large frames of the building, or ground couples, which, from their situation, could not have been renewed, to consist of this timber; and, with the exception of the outside, which was so much decayed, for about half an inch in depth, as the finger could pick it away, the body of the wood was as fresh as at first, still fit for any purpose, and of a beautiful pink or salmon colour. When we observed the mouldering exterior of these pieces, we laid one of the smallest hollow over a log, and struck it with a large wooden mallet, not doubting that it would go to fragments; such, however, was the resilience, that the mallet rebounded so greatly as almost to leap from our hands.

For country purposes, red-wood willow is employed in the construction of mill water-wheels, of the body or hoarding of carts, especially of lining of carts employed in the carriage of stones, or of any utensil requiring strong, tough, light, durable boarding. Formerly, before the introduction of iron-hoops for cart-wheels, the external rim or felloe was made of willow; when new, the cart or wain was driven along a road covered with hard small gravel (in preference, gravel somewhat angular), by which means {63} the felloe shod itself with stone, and thus became capable of enduring the friction of the road for a long time, the toughness and elasticity of the willow retaining the gravel till the stone was worn away. Under much exposure to blows and friction, this willow outlasts every other home timber. When recently cut, the matured wood is slightly reddish, and the sap-wood white. When exposed to the air and gradually dried, both are of salmon colour, and scarcely distinguishable from each other. Willow-bark is used in tanning; it also contains a bitter, said to be febrifuge.

RED-WOOD PINE—Pinus.

This tribe of the order Coniferæ, at once the most useful, and the most plentifully and widely extended over the North temperate zone—that portion of the earth more congenial to man, and which contains about four-fifths of his numbers, has a similitude of character and qualities more distinguishable by one glance of the eye than by laboured description. It consists of a number of kinds, which again divide into families and individuals perceptibly different from each other. The following are those whose timber is best known to us: {64}

Scots fir, or Norway pine,	Pinus sylvestris.
Pinaster,	Pinus Pinaster.
Canadian red Pine[14] (foreign),	* * * *
Pitch pine (foreign),	* * * *

And, though a little more distinct,

Yellow American, or Weymouth Pine,

Pinus Strobus.

Very little observation will distinguish these from the next useful great tribe of the Coniferæ with white wood, the Spruces and Silver Firs—Abies.

There are a number of foreign kinds of pine, some of great promise, recently introduced into Britain, but of whose adaptation for ship-building we cannot speak. Samples of the timber of P. laricio, P. tæda, P. cembra, P. maritima, P. rigida, &c. of British growth, may, however, soon be had of sufficient size for experiment. The common Scots fir is the only pine of British growth which has been employed as a naval timber; for which purpose, however, since the last peace, and the introduction of our larch, it is in very little demand.

An acute botanist, Mr G. Don of Forfar, a number of years ago, gave a description of the varieties of cultivated Scots fir which had come under his notice. The following is an abstract of his observations: {65}

“Varieties of Pinus sylvestris.

“Var. 1st. The common variety, well known by its branches forming a pyramidal head, the leaves marginated, of dark-green colour, but little glaucous underneath, the cones being considerably elongated and tapering to the point, and the bark of the trunk very rugged. This variety seems short-lived, becoming soon stunted in appearance.

“Var. 2d, Distinguishable from the former by disposition of branches, which are remarkable for horizontal disposition and tendency to bend downwards close to the trunk. The leaves are broader than var. 1st, and serrulated, not marginated; leaves are distinguishable at a distance by their much lighter and beautiful glaucous colour, the bark not so rugged as var. 1st, and the cones thicker and not so much pointed, and also smoother. This tree seems a hardy plant, growing freely in many soils: this variety may be named Pinus horizontalis. Var. 1st, much more general than var. 2d, and also sooner comes to seed, which is also easier gathered from the position of the branches.

“Var. 3d, Is of a still lighter colour than var. 2d, being of a light glaucous hue, approaching to a silvery tint; its branches form, like var. 1st, a pyramidal head, but it differs remarkably in its cones from {66} both the former varieties; the cones of this seem beset with blunt prickles bent backwards, the leaves serrulated. This variety is rather more common than var. 2d; like it, it is a good tree.

“Var. 4th, The leaves somewhat curled or rather twisted, and much shorter than the others: this variety is very rare.”

Our observation does not go to confirm these subdivisions. We think they are little more distinct than the fair, the red[15], the black haired, the fair, the sallow, the brown complexioned, the tall, the short, of the same community or even family of men. There is variation and individuality more or less strongly marked in all kinds of organized beings: at least those vegetables which have exposed fructification possess it; many whose fructification is secluded also possess it; and the others of more constant character, such as some of the Gramineæ, with a little art (removing their anthers before the pollen bursts forth, and applying the pollen of others as near to them in the chain of life as can be found to be different, or changing the circumstances by culture), can also be rendered equally {67} variable. These minor distinctions or individualities of vegetables become more perceptible as our observation closes in upon the object. We have never yet found one individual apple plant, raised from seed, to be the counterpart of another; but differing even in every part and habit, in bud, leaf, flower, fruit, seed, bark, wood, root; in luxuriance of growth; in hardihood; in being suited for different soils and climates, some thriving in the very moist, others only in the dry; in the disposition of the branches, erect, pendulous, horizontal; in earliness and comparative earliness of leaf, of flower, of fruit.

We hope the above remarks will not be lost on those who have the management of the sowing, planting, and thinning of woods, and that they will always have selection in view. Although numerous varieties are derived from the seed of one tree, yet if that tree be of a good breed, the chances are greatly in favour of this progeny being also good. Scots fir of good variety will thrive and reach considerable size and age, in almost any soil which is not very moist, or very arid and barren (such as our sand and gravel flats much impregnated with iron or other deleterious mineral), provided the plants from their earliest years have room to throw out and retain a sufficiency of side branches. This is especially necessary to their health where the soil is {68} ungenial, the resulting vigour often overcoming the disadvantages. From the pine being found chiefly in the light sandy districts on the continent of Europe, and in the sandy pine barrens of America, an idea has gone abroad that these barren districts are more congenial to it than the more clayey, the more rocky, or the richer vegetable mould; but its natural location in the barren sandy districts results from its being more powerful in this soil than any other plant of the country, not from preference of this soil. Should any one doubt of this, let him take a summer excursion to Mar Forest, where no other tree having been in competition with Pinus sylvestris, and where it is spread over the hill and the dale, he will observe that it prospers best in good timber soil, and though comparatively preferring an easy soil, and having superior adaptation to thin or rocky ground, that its taste does not differ very materially from that of the plane or the elm, the oak or the ash.

In Mar Forest he will also observe (if they be not now all cut down) several well marked individuals of the splatch pine, esteemed a very valuable and hardy kind; and with the right which a botanist has in a plant sown by nature, he may bear off some of the seeds, and endeavour to spread this rare indigenous kind throughout the island. Should he be unsuccessful in finding these at Mar, he may return {69} by Kenmore, where, on the side of the hill on the right bank of the Tay, near the confluence of the Lyon, he will find several trees, we think five, of this kind of pine, of considerable size, growing at one place, apparently planted: we were told the plants had been brought down from the natural forest farther up on the mountains. These are sufficiently distinct in character from the common Scots fir growing around, having a horizontal, straggling disposition of branches, the leaves being of a much lighter, different shade of green, and more tufted, and the bark of a yellower red, so as to merit a distinct name; and we should consider Pinus horizontalis as descriptive as any other, if it shall not appear to be only a sub-species of P. sylvestris. The descriptive name splatch fir, is from the prominences of the rugged bark not being in longitudinal ridges or flutes, but in detached flat oblong lumps, such as soft clay or mud takes when cast with force upon a wall. We, however, do not think this the same as Mr DON’s var. 2d, at least we have noticed in our lowland woods raised by planting, such as Mr DON examined, individuals here and there having less or more resemblance to his described varieties, but none of them approaching the distinctness of this alpine Scots fir. The proprietors of this kind of pine will confer a benefit on the public by causing the timber {70} be examined and compared with that of trees of equal size of the common Scots fir growing near, and making a public report of the number and size of annual growths, the number of these of matured and of sap wood, the comparative strength, density, quantity of resinous deposit, hardness, &c.

The Pinaster is a valuable kind of red-wood pine, with strong resinous timber, and from not having one-half the number of sap-wood layers of the common Scots fir, we should consider it deserving attention as a naval timber; but perhaps the small number of sap-layers is from want of climate: owing to the branches being larger, and, in proportion to their size, being joined to the stem with a larger swell than those of P. sylvestris, the timber is rougher with larger knots. In the very barren sand and gravel district near Christchurch, scarcely affording sustenance to lichens, and where even heaths will not grow, we have observed this tree make considerable progress, and outstrip the Scots fir in growth.

The Canadian Red Pine has been employed to a considerable extent in this country, both as planking and spars. It is inferior in strength and durability to the Baltic red pine, and would seldom make its appearance on this side the Atlantic while the Baltic was open to us, did not a very ill advised {71} duty obstruct the supply of the better article. This timber is sometimes supplied with a good character by the shipwright, as it is soft, pliant, and easily worked. The Canadian red pine has a greater number of layers of sap-wood than any other red pine we are acquainted with; we have repeatedly counted 100 sap-wood layers. We have never seen this kind of pine growing in Britain.

The most common American pine, with yellow timber, Pinus strobus, has been introduced for a long time back into Britain, it is said first by the Earl of Weymouth, thence sometimes named Weymouth Pine. This rather elegant tree requires a warm sheltered situation, as it is easily torn down by wind, from the weakness of the timber, which is inferior in hardness and strength to any other pine we are acquainted with; and from its slender needle leaf not having substance to withstand the evaporation of much exposure. Altogether, the kind appears rather out of climate in Britain, and, though the monarch of the pines in Canada, holds here but a very subordinate place. Although extremely tender and light, the matured timber does not soon decay when cut out thin and exposed to wind and weather, nor worm when kept dry in houses; but when employed in shipbuilding,—remaining always between the moist {72} and dry, the condition most favourable to putrefaction, and surrounded by a close, warm, putrid atmosphere,—it very soon, especially in masses, becomes corrupted. It requires more time to season or dry in the deal than any other wood, owing to the fineness of fibre, smallness of pores, and want of density. From this quality of parting with its moisture with extreme slowness, it forms convenient deck-planking for vessels on tropical stations, or when employed in carriage of unslacked lime, as the plank does not readily shrink and become leaky under the great evaporation occasioned by the heat and arid air. Yellow pine has generally about 40 growths of sap-wood.

We have had no acquaintance with American pitch pine as a growing tree. As a timber, it is superior in several respects to all the others, having a great deal more resinous matter, so much, as often to render it semitranslucent. It is strong and weighty, and is used as a naval timber for most of the purposes to which other pine timber is applied. It forms the very best bottom planking. The shipwrights of the docks at Devonport will attest its quality, as the bottom planking of the Gibraltar of 80 guns: this vessel carried home to England from the Mediterranean, a piece of coral rock of about ten tons weight sticking in her bottom, her preservation {73} in all probability resulting from the adhesive quality of this timber. Its great weight is, however, a considerable inconveniency attending its use as spars, and the abundance of resin, we should think, would unfit it for tree-nails; resinous tree-nails,—probably from some derangement of the structure or disposition to chemical change produced in the resin by the very great pressure of the hard driving,—soon corrupting and infecting the adjacent wood. In some cases we have also known very resinous Baltic plank decay soon in vessels. The pitch pine, from the quantity of resin, contracts little in drying, at least for a long time, till the resin itself begins to dry up. It forms the best house-floors we have seen, being strong and durable, continuing close at joinings, and the fibre not readily taking in moisture when washed.

Our red-wood pine, when come to some age, is in wet ground attacked by rot, which commences in the bulb and adjacent roots and stem, in a manner very similar to the rot in larch. The red-wood also approaches nearer to the outside where this rot exists, and on the side of the tree where the rot is greatest. Most of our planted red pine forest, especially in poor wet tills, and in all flat sandy moorish ground of close subsoil, fall by decay at from 30 to 60 years old. This decay is gradual, owing to the {74} difference in strength of constitution of the individuals. Closeness of rearing and consequent tall nakedness of stem, and disproportion of leaves to stem, would alone induce this in a few years longer even in good soil, excepting perhaps in protected narrow dells; but the decay commences much sooner when the soil is unfavourable, and is no doubt accelerated by the mode of extracting the seeds by kiln-drying the cones, and by using a weak variety of the plant. The approach of this decay may often be noticed, several years previous, in the saw-cross section of the stem mid-way up the tree—an irregular portion of the section appearing of a different shade, from breaking off free and irregular before the teeth of the saw, and not having so much fibrous cover as the healthy part. When Scots fir rises naturally, it is not nearly so subject to this decay even in very inferior soils: the plants having generally much more room from the first, do not rise so tall, have more branch in proportion to stem, thence are more vigorous. The cones not being injured by kiln-drying, may also account for this.

The fact that the red pine in Scotland has fewer sap-wood layers than the red pine of Memel or of North America, and also the fact that, in most situations in Scotland, the red pine soon {75} decays—soonest in the places where the trees have fewest sap-wood layers, and where the timber has been planted, that is, where the cones have been kiln-dried—is worthy of notice. Scots red pine has generally from 15 to 40 layers, Memel from 40 to 50, Canadian often 100. We consider the long moist open winter and cold ungenial spring in Scotland, and the till bottoms soaking with water, perhaps aided by the transplanting, and the kiln-drying of the cones, to be the cause of this early loss of vitality or change of sap-wood into matured. In Poland and Prussia, the earth does not remain so long cold and moist as in Scotland, but is either frozen or sufficiently warm and dry;—this occurs even to a greater degree in Canada[16], and neither the Memel nor Canadian have any chance of being planted or kiln-dried.

WHITE LARCH—Larix communis, (L. pyramidalis).

White Larch is a timber tree combining so many advantages, its properties so imperfectly known, of {76} so recent introduction, and of such general culture, (about 10,000,000 plants being sold annually from the nurseries of the valley of the Tay alone), that any accurate notice of its history, its habitudes, and uses, must possess an interest sufficient to arrest the attention of every one, from the statesman and economist down to the mere lord and the squire. We shall therefore devote to it a little more of our attention than we have bestowed on those already treated of.

Larch is scattered over a considerable part of the northern hemisphere, inhabiting nearly the same regions with the other Coniferæ. White larch, the kind[17] common in Britain, is found growing extensively on the alpine districts of the south of Europe, in Italy, Switzerland, Sardinia; this may be termed the European temperate species. Another, native to the country around Archangel, and extending from {77} Norway eastward through Russia and Siberia, of inferior size, may be styled the European Hyperborean. North America, like the old world, is said to possess a temperate and hyperborean species. The first, Black Larch (L. pendula), more generally extending along the longitudinal parallel of the United States; the other, Red Larch (L. microcarpa), along that of Lower Canada and Labrador. We have seen the American temperate attain 18 inches in diameter in Scotland, but it is much inferior in figure and growth, and also cleanness of timber, to the Appenine or European temperate, being covered with knots and protuberances. Though rough, the timber is said to be of excellent quality.

It is now upwards of 80 years since the larch, so common in Britain, was brought from the Appenines to Strath-Tay. The rapidity of its growth and striking novelty of appearance, assisted by the influence of the family of Athole (to a female of which some say we owe its first introduction), soon attracted general attention: it quickly spread over the neighbouring country, and was planted in every variety of soil and situation, from the unfitness of which, in most places of the low country, it is already fast decaying. About 40 years ago it began to be planted in many parts of Britain. It is now introduced into almost every new plantation in the two islands, and {78} the space of country covered by its shade is extending with a rapidity unparalleled in the history of any other ligneous plant.

Larch is generally conceived to be an alpine[18] plant, and its decay in the low country attributed to situation or climate. This idea seems to have arisen from its locality in Italy, and from observing it succeed so well in our alpine districts, not taking into account that the soil is different,—that it may be the soil of these districts which conduces to the prosperity of the larch, and not the altitude. Throughout Scotland, wherever we have observed the decay, it appeared to have resulted almost solely from unsuitableness of soil. We have witnessed it as much diseased on our highest trap hills, 1000 feet in altitude, as on a similar soil at the base. Yet the freeness from putrescency or miasma of the pure air of the mountain, {79} and deficiency of putrescent matter in the ground, or other more obscure agencies connected with primitive ranges, may have some influence to counterbalance unsuitableness of soil. It is not probable that the coolness and moisture of altitude would be necessary in Scotland to the healthy growth of a vegetable which flourishes under Italian suns, on the general level of the Appenine and on the Sardinian hills.

The rot, so general in growing larch, though sometimes originating in the bulb or lower part of the stem, seems to have its commencement most frequently in the roots. Thence the corruption proceeds upwards along the connecting tubes or fibres into the bulb, and gradually mounts the stem, which, when much diseased, swells considerably for a few feet above the ground, evidently from the new layers of sap-wood forming thicker to afford necessary space for the fluids to pass upward and downward—the matured wood through which there is no circulation approaching at this place within one or two annual layers of the outside. In a majority of cases, the rot commences in the roots which have struck down deepest into the earth, especially those under the stool; these having been thrown to a considerable depth by the young plant, as the tree enlarges, are shut out from aëration, &c. by the {80} superior increasing stool and hard-pressed earth underneath it; this earth at the same time becoming exhausted of the particular pabulum of the plant. It is, therefore, quite probable, from these parts of the roots being the weakest, that they will be most susceptible of injury from being soaked in stagnant water in the flat tills[19], starved during droughts in light sand, tainted by the putrid vapours of rich vegetable mould, or poisoned by the corrosive action of pernicious minerals. It may also be supposed that these smothered sickly roots, not possessing sufficient power or means of suction (endosmose), will be left out in the general economy of vegetation of the plant, thence lose vitality, and become corrupt. But this affords no explanation why the larch roots, under these circumstances, are more liable to corruption than those of other trees, or how the bulb itself should become contaminated. {81}

We have cut off the top, where the diameter of the section was about three inches, from sound young larch trees, and found a similar rot proceed downwards in a few months from the section, as rises from the diseased roots in improper soil. There is something favourable to the quick progress of this rot in the motion of the sap, or vitality of the tree; as, under no common circumstances, would the wood of a cut larch tree become tainted in so short a time.

The rot, though most general in trees which are chilled in wet cold tills, or starved in dry sand, or sickly from any other cause, is also often found to take place in the most luxuriant growing plants in open situations, branched to the ground, and growing in deep soil free from stagnating water. There must, therefore, be some constitutional tendency to corruption in the larch, which is excited by a combination of circumstances; and we must limit our knowledge for the present to the fact, that certain soils, perhaps slightly modified by other circumstances, produce sound, and others unsound larch, without admitting any general influence from altitude, excepting in so far as its antiseptic influence may go.

The fitness of soil for larch seems to depend more especially upon the ability the soil possesses of affording an equable supply of moisture; that is, upon its {82} mechanical division, or its powers of absorption or retention of moisture; and its chemical composition would seem only efficacious as conducive to this.

Soils and subsoils[20] may be divided into two classes. The first, where larch will acquire a size of from 30 to 300 solid feet, and is generally free of rot; the second, where it reaches only from 6 to 20 feet solid, and in most cases becomes tainted with rot before 30 years of age.

CLASS I. SOILS AND SUBSOILS FOR LARCH.

Sound rock, with a covering of firm loam, particularly when the rock is jagged or cloven, or much dirupted and mixed with the earth.—In such cases, a very slight covering or admixture of earth will suffice. We would give the preference to primitive rock, especially micaceous schist and mountain limestone. Larch seldom succeeds well on sandstone or on trap, except on steep slopes, where the rock is quite sound and the soil firm. {83}

Fully the one half of Scotland, comprehending nearly all the alpine part, consists of primary rock, chiefly micaceous schist and gneiss. These rocks are generally less decayed at the surface, better drained, and fuller of clefts and fissures containing excellent earth (especially on slopes), into which the roots of trees penetrate and receive healthy nourishment, than the other primitive and transition rocks, granite, porphyry, trap, or the secondary and tertiary formations of nearly horizontal strata, red and white sandstone, &c. Primary strata are generally well adapted for larch, except where the surface has acquired a covering of peat-moss, or received a flat diluvial bed of close wet till or soft moorish sand, or occupies a too elevated or exposed situation—the two latter exceptions only preventing the growth, not inducing rot.

Gravel, not too ferruginous, and in which water does not stagnate in winter, even though nearly bare of vegetable mould, especially on steep slopes, and where the air is not too arid, is favourable to the growth of larch. It seems to prefer the coarser gravel, though many of the stones exceed a yard solid.

The straths or valleys of our larger rivers, in their passage through the alpine country, are generally {84} occupied, for several hundred feet of perpendicular altitude up the slope, by gravel, which covers the primitive strata to considerable depth, especially in the eddies of the salient angles of the hill. Every description of tree grows more luxuriantly here than in any other situation of the country; the causes of this are, 1st, The open bottom allowing the roots to penetrate deep, without being injured by stagnant moisture; 2d, The percolation of water down through the gravel from the superior hill; 3d, The dryness of the surface not producing cold by evaporation, thence the ground soon heating in the spring; 4th, The moist air of the hill refreshing and nourishing the plant during the summer heats, and compensating for the dryness of the soil; 5th, The reverberating of the sun’s rays, between the sides of the narrow valley, thus rendering the soil comparatively warmer than the incumbent air, which is cooled by the oblique currents of the higher strata of air, occasioned by the unequal surface of the ground. This comparatively greater warmth of the ground, when aided by moisture, either in the soil or atmosphere, is greatly conducive to the luxuriancy of vegetation.

Firm dry clays and sound brown loam.—Soils well adapted for wheat and red clover, not too rich, {85} and which will bear cattle in winter, are generally congenial to the larch.

All very rough ground, particularly ravines, where the soil is neither soft sand nor too wet; also the sides of the channels of rapid rivulets.—The roots of most trees luxuriate in living or flowing water; and, where it is of salubrious quality, especially when containing a slight solution of lime, will throw themselves out a considerable distance under the stream. The reason why steep slopes, and hills whose strata are nearly perpendicular to the horizon, are so much affected by larch and other trees, is, because the moisture in such situations is in motion, and often continues dripping through the fissures throughout the whole summer. The desideratum of situation for larch, is where the roots will neither be drowned in stagnant water in winter, nor parched by drought in summer, and where the soil is free from any corrosive mineral or corrupting mouldiness.

Larch, in suitable soil, sixty years planted, and seasonably thinned, will have produced double the value of what almost any other timber would have done; and from its general adaptation both for sea and land purposes, it will always command a ready sale.

CLASS II. SOILS AND SUBSOILS WHERE LARCH TAKES DRY ROT.

Situations (steep slopes excepted) with cold till subsoil, nearly impervious to water.—The larch succeeds worst when moorish dead sand alone, or with admixture of peat, occupies the surface of these retentive bottoms. Where the whole soil and subsoil is one uniform, retentive, firm till, it will often reach considerable size before being attacked by the rot. When this heavy till occupies a steep slope, the larch will sometimes succeed well, owing to the more equable supply of moisture, and the water in the soil not stagnating, but gliding down the declivity.

In general, soils whose surface assumes the appearance of honeycomb in time of frost, owing to the great quantity of water imbibed by the soil, will not produce large sound larch. More than half the low country of Scotland is soil of this description.

Soft sand soil and subsoil.—Sand is still less adapted for growing larch than the tills, the plants being often destroyed by the summer’s drought before they attain size for any useful purpose: the rot also attacks earlier here than in the tills. It appears that {87} light sand, sloping considerably on moist back-lying alpine situations, covered towards the south by steep hill, will sometimes produce sound larch; whereas did the same sand occupy a dry front or lowland situation, the larch would not succeed in it. The same moist back situation that conduces to produce sound larch in light dry soils, may probably tend to promote rot in the wet. The moisture and the less evaporation of altitude diminishing the tendency to rot in dry light sand, and increasing it in wet till. Larch will sometimes succeed well in sharp dry alluvial sand left by rivulets.

Soils incumbent on brittle dry trap, or broken slaty sandstone.—Although soil, the debris of trap, be generally much better adapted for the production of herbaceous vegetables than that of sandstone or freestone, yet larch does not seem to succeed much better on the former than the latter. The deeper superior soils, generally incumbent on the recent dark red sandstone, are better suited for larch than the shallow inferior soils incumbent on the old grey and red sandstone.

Ground having a subsoil of dry rotten rock, and which sounds hollow to the foot in time of drought.

Rich deaf earth, or vegetable {88} mould.—Independently of receiving ultimate contamination from the putrid juices or exhalations of this soil, the larch does not seem, even while remaining sound, to make so much comparative progress of growth, as some of the hard wood trees, as elm, ash, plane.

Black or grey moorish soils, with admixture of peat-moss.

Although the 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 purposes, or for coal-mines, where a slight taint of rot is of minor importance. The lightness of larch, especially when new cut (about one-third less weight than the evergreen coniferæ), gives a facility to the loading and carriage, which enhances its value, independent of its greater strength and durability. Those larches in which rot has commenced, are fully as suitable for paling as the sound: they have fewer circles of sap-wood, and more of red or matured. When the rot has commenced, the maturing or reddening of the circles does not proceed regularly, reaching nearest the bark on the side where the rot has advanced farthest.

A great amelioration of our climate and of our soil, and considerable addition to the beauty and salubrity of the country, might be attained by {89} landholders of skill and spirit, did they carry off the noxious moisture, by sufficient use of open drainage, from their extensive wastes of mossy moors and wet tills, which are only productive of the black heath, the most dismal robe[21] of the earth, or rather the funeral pall with which Nature has shrouded her undecayed remains. This miserable portion of our country, so dreary when spread out in wide continuous flats, and so offensive to the eye of the traveller, unless his mind is attuned to gloom and desolation, lies a disgrace to the possessor. Were a proper system of superficial draining executed on these districts, and kept in repair, most of our conifers, particularly spruce and Scots fir, with oak, beech, birch, alder, and, in the sounder situations, larch, would thrive and come to maturity, ultimately enhancing the value of the district an hundred fold. This could be done by fluting the ground, opening large ditches every 30, 50, or 100 yards, according to the wetness or closeness of the subsoil—the deeper, the more serviceable both in efficacy and distance of drainage. These flutes should stretch across the slope with just sufficient declivity to allow the {90} water to flow off easily, The excavated matter should be thrown to the lower side; and when the whole, or any part, of the excavation consists of earth or gravel, it ought to be spread over the whole mossy surface, whether the field be morass or drier hill-peat: this would be useful in consolidating it, and in preventing too great exhaustion of moisture in severe droughts, from which vegetation in moss-soil suffers so much. Even though planting were not intended, this fluting and top-dressing would facilitate the raising of the gramineæ. These ditches, when the ground is not too stoney, or too moist, or containing roots, might be scooped out, excepting a little help at the bottom, by means of a scoop-sledge, or levelling box, worked by a man and two horses, the surface being always loosened by the common plough: one of these will remove earth as fast as twenty men with wheelbarrows.

ON BENDING AND KNEEING LARCH.

We cannot too forcibly inculcate the urgent necessity of attending to the bending of the larch: for our country’s interest, we almost regret we cannot compel it. In all larch plantations, in proper {91} soil, not too far advanced, and in all that may hereafter be planted, a proportion of those intended to remain as standards should be bended. The most proper time for this would perhaps be May or June, before the top-growth commences, or has advanced far; the best size is from three feet high and upwards. The plants should be bent the first season to an angle of from 40° to 60° with the horizon, and the next brought down to from 10° to 60°, according to the size of the plant, or the curve required,—the smallest plants to the lowest angle.

From experience we find that the roots of larch form the best of all knees; they, however, might be much improved by culture[22], although it does not {92} seem as yet to have been attempted or thought of. To form the roots properly into knees, should the plants be pretty large, the planter ought to select those plants which have four main roots springing out nearly at right angles, the regularity of which he may improve a little by pruning, and plant them out as standards in the thinnest dryest soil suited for larch, carefully spreading the roots to equal distances and in a horizontal position. To promote the regular square diverging of these four roots, he should dig narrow ruts about a foot deep and three feet long out from the point of each root, and fill them in with the richest of the neighbouring turf along with a little manure. When the plants are small, and the roots only a tuft of fibres, he should dig two narrow ruts about eight feet long crossing each other at the middle at right angles, fill these as above, and put in the plant at the crossing: the rich mould of the rotted turf and its softness from being dug, will cause the plant to throw out its roots in the form of a cross along the trenches. When the plants have reached five or six feet in height, the earth may be removed a little from the root, and, if more than one stout root leader have run out into any of the four trenches, or if any have entered the unstirred earth, they ought all to be cut excepting one, the stoutest {93} and most regular in each trench. In a few years afterwards, when the plants have acquired some strength, the earth should be removed gradually, baring the roots to from two to five feet distance from the stool, or as far as the main spurs have kept straight, cutting off any side-shoots within this distance, should it be found that such late root-pruning does not induce rot. This process of baring the roots will scarcely injure the growth of the trees, as the roots draw the necessary pabulum from a considerable distance, nor, if done carefully, will it endanger their upsetting; and the roots, from exposure to the air, will swell to extraordinary size[23], so as to render them, ere long, the firmest rooted trees in the wood. The labour of this not amounting to the value of sixpence each, will be counterbalanced thrice {94} over by the ease of grubbing the roots for knees; and the whole brought to the shipwright will produce more than double the price that the straight tree alone would have done.

The forester should also examine and probe the roots of his growing larch, even those of considerable size, in sound ground; and when several strong horizontal spurs, not exceeding four, are discovered nearly straight, and from two to five feet long, he ought to bare these roots to that distance, that they may swell, carefully pruning away any small side-roots, and reserve these plants as valuable store, 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 gradually removed from the roots.

The rot in larch taking place in the part appropriate to knees, the forester cannot be too wary in selecting the situations where there is no risk of its attack, for planting those destined for this purpose. It is also desirable, if possible, to have the knee timber in ground free of stones or gravel, as the grubbing in stoney ground is expensive, and the roots often embrace stones which, by the future swelling of the bulb, are completely imbedded and shut up in the wood, particularly in those places between the spurs {95} where the saw section has to divide them for knees. Were the roots carefully bared at an early period, it would tend to prevent the gravel from becoming imbedded in the bulb. Nothing can be more annoying to the shipwright, when he has bestowed his money, ingenuity, and labour, upon an unwieldy root, and brought his knees into figure at the cost of the destruction of his tools by the enveloped gravel, to discover stains of incipient rot which renders it lumber.

This plan of baring the roots might be extended to oak trees for knees, baring and pruning about a foot out from the bulb annually. By exposure to the air, the timber of the root would mature and become red wood of sufficient durability. When covered with earth, the root of the oak remains white or sap wood, and soon decays after being dug up, the matured wood of the stem scarcely extending at all underneath the surface of the ground. The roots of the pine tribe are the reverse of this, at least the bulb and the spurs near it, are the best matured, reddest, toughest, most resinous, part of the tree. It is probably unnecessary to observe, that it would be folly to remove the earth from the bulb of trees in situations where water would stand for any length of time in the excavation. {96}

Larch knees are possessed of such strength and durability, and are of such adaptation by their figure and toughness, that were a sufficient quantity in the market, and their qualities generally known, we believe that none else would be used for vessels of any description of timber—even for our war-navy of oak. In America, where it is difficult to procure good oak knees in their close forest, it is customary to use them of spruce roots even for their finest vessels. The knees of vessels have a number of strong bolts, generally of iron, passing through them to secure the beam-ends to the sides of the ship. Larch knees are the more suited for this, as they do not split in the driving of the bolts, and contain a resinous gum which prevents the oxidation of the iron.

As the larch, unlike the oak, affords few or no crooks naturally, excepting knees, the artificial formation of larch crooks is of the utmost consequence to the interest of the holders of larch plantations now growing. In order to obtain a good market for their straight timber, it is absolutely necessary to have a supply of crooks ready as soon as possible to work the straight up. This would increase the demand, and thence enhance the price of the straight more than any one not belonging to the craft could {97} believe. In good soil many of the crooks would be of sufficient size in twenty years to begin the supply, if properly thinned out. In a forest of larch containing many thousand loads, and which had been untouched by any builder, we have seen the greatest difficulty in procuring crooks for one small brig. It is only on very steep ground, and where the tree has been a little upset after planting, that any good crooks are found. From the rather greater diameter required of larch timbers, and also from the nature of the fibre of the wood, we should suppose that steam bending of larch timbers would scarcely be followed, even as a dernier ressort.

Larch, from its great lateral toughness, particularly the root, and from its lightness, seems better adapted for the construction of shot-proof vessels than any other timber; and opposed end-way to shot in a layer, arch fashion, several feet deep around a vessel, would sustain more battering than any other subject we are acquainted with, metal excepted. Were the part above water of a strong steam-vessel, having the paddles under cover, a section of a spheroid or half egg cut longitudinally, and covered all around with the root cuts of larch five or six feet deep with the hewn down bulb, external; well supported {98} inside, having nothing exposed outside of this arch, and only a few small holes for ventilators and eyes; there is no shot in present naval use that would have much impression upon it. Had such a vessel a great impelling power, and a very strong iron cutwater, or short beak wedge-shaped (in manner of the old Grecian galleys), projecting before the vessel under water, well supported within by beams radiating back in all directions, she might be wrought to split and sink a fleet of men-of-war lying becalmed, in a few hours. This could be done by running successively against each, midships, and on percussion immediately backing the engine, at same time spouting forth missiles, hot water, or sulphuric acid from the bow to obstruct boarding; but even though the external arch were covered with assailants like a swarm of bees, they would be harmless, or could be easily displaced. To prevent combustion by red hot shot, the larch blocks, after drying, might have their pores filled by pressure with alkali. However, the employment of bomb-cannon about to be introduced in naval warfare, throwing explosive shot, regulated with just sufficient force to penetrate without passing through the side of the opposed vessel, will render any other than metallic defensive cover ineffectual; but {99} this circumstance will, at the same time, completely revolutionize sea affairs, laying on the shelf our huge men-of-war, whose place will be occupied with numerous bomb-cannon boats, whose small size will render them difficult to be hit, and from which one single explosive shot taking effect low down in the large exposed side of a three decker will tear open a breach sufficient to sink her almost instantly. For the construction of these boats, larch, especially were a proportion bent, would be extremely suitable, and thence larch will probably, ere long, become our naval stay.

Larch has been used in the building-yards of the Tay for 20 years back; and there is now afloat several thousand tons of shipping constructed of it. The Athole Frigate built of it nearly 12 years ago, the Larch, a fine brig built by the Duke of Athole several years earlier, and many other vessels built more recently, prove that larch is as valuable for naval purposes as the most sanguine had anticipated. The first instance we have heard of British larch being used in this manner, was in a sloop repaired with it about 22 years back. The person to whom it had belonged, and who had sailed it himself, stated to us immediately after its loss, that this sloop had been built of oak about 36 years before; that at 18 years {100} old her upper timbers were so much decayed as to require renewal, which was done with larch; that 18 years after this repair this sloop went to pieces on the remains of the pier of Methel, Fifeshire, and the top timbers and second foot-hooks of larch were washed ashore as tough and sound as when first put into the vessel, not one spot of decay appearing, they having assumed the blue dark colour which some timber acquires in moist situations, when it may be stiled cured; being either no longer liable to the putrid change constituting dry rot, or which forms timber into a proper soil for the growth of dry rot; or, from this blueness caused by the union of the tannin with iron acting as a poison on vegetation: this blueness, resulting from some alteration in the balance of affinities, occurs chiefly in timber containing much of the tannin principle, in which larch abounds. The owner of a larch brig who had employed her for several years on tropical voyages, also assures us that the timber will wear well in any climate, and that he would prefer larch to any other kind of wood, especially for small vessels; he also states that the deck of this brig, composed of larch plank, stood the tropical heat well, and that it did not warp or shrink as was apprehended.

From the softness of the fibre and want of {101} density of the larch, we would not deem it suitable for planking vessels beyond the size of ordinary merchantmen, say 500 tons, as in the straining of very large vessels, when the greatest force comes upon the outward skin, the fabric of the wood might crush before it, along the edge of the plank, and throw (chew) the oakum. In ordinary sized vessels, however, larch plank retains the oakum better than oak, from greater lateral elasticity. For the purpose of timbers, if root-cuts[24], and properly bent, we would think larch suitable to the largest class of vessels; as, though light, it is tough and quite free from knot, crack, or cross-grain, which is so common in oak, and which occasions dense old oak in large masses to give way at once, before a shock or strain, the hardness and unyielding nature of the fibre concentrating the whole dirupting impetus to one point. Larch may also be advantageously employed in the ceiling or inside skin of the part of war vessels above water: shot bores it, comparatively, like an auger,—thence the structure will endure longer under fire, and life be much economized.

In all places where larch has become known, it has completely superseded other timber for {102} clinker-built boats, surpassing all others in strength, lightness, and durability. For this purpose, young trees of about 9 inches diameter, in root-cuts from 10 to 20 feet in length, with a gentle bend at one end, such as the larch often receives from the south-west wind, are the most suitable. The log should be kept in the bark till used, and in dry weather the boards put upon the boat’s side within two or three days from being sawn out, as no timber we are acquainted with parts sooner with its moisture than larch; and the boards do not work or bend pleasantly when dry. When dried, the thin larch board is at once strong, tough, durable, and extremely light. The tough strength, almost equalling leather, is owing to the woven or netted structure of the fibre of the wood, entirely different from the pine, whose reedy structure runs parallel with very slight connecting or diverging fibres. It is very difficult to split larch even by wedges.

For rural purposes generally, larch is incomparably the best adapted timber, especially for rail or fence, or out-door fabric exposed to wind and weather. It is also getting into use for implements of husbandry, such as harrows, ploughs, and carts. We have seen a larch upright paling, the timber of which, with the exception of the large charred posts, {103} had only been eight years in growing, standing a good fence, sixteen years old, decked out by moss and lichen in all the hoary garniture of time.

In the construction of buildings, larch is valuable only for the grosser parts, as beams, lintels, joists, couples. For the finer boarded part, it is so much disposed to warp, and so difficult to be worked, as generally to preclude use. It is, however, asserted that if larch be seasoned by standing two years with the bark stripped from the bole before being cut down, that the timber becomes manageable for finer house work.

Although larch timber be extremely durable in exposed situation, yet it yields to the depredations of insects fully as soon as any pine timber in close houses. We have proof of it in house-furniture about 50 years old, but it is considerably moth-eaten by apparently a smaller insect than common. Larch stools also disappear in forests sooner than the stools of Scots fir, being eaten by a species of beetle; and the sea-worm devours larch in preference to almost any other wood.

We have looked over some experiments conducted at Woolwich, in trial of the comparative strength of larch and other fir timber, where the larch is stated inferior to Riga and Dantzic fir, Pitch pine, {104} and even Yellow pine. Larch, in the districts of Scotland where it is grown and much in use, is universally allowed to be considerably stronger than other fir; and the sawyers of it have one-fourth more pay per stated measure. We, ourselves, have had considerable experience of the strength of larch applied to many purposes, and have found it in general much superior in strength to other fir. We have known a crooked topmast of this timber, to which the sailors bore a grudge, defy their utmost ingenuity to get carried away. We once had four double horse-carts, made (excepting the wheels) of peeled young larch of rather slow growth, for the carriage of large stones; these, by mistake, were made very slight, so light, that, without the wheels, a man could have carried one of them away. When we saw the first loading of stones nearly a ton weight each, two in each cart, and the timber yielding and creaking like a willow-basket, we did not expect they would have supported the weight and jostlings of a rugged road many yards; yet they withstood this coarse employment for a long time. The timber of larch near the top of the tree is, however, very inferior and deficient in toughness; and it is not improbable that the experiments above alluded to at Woolwich had been made with larch {105} timber deficient in strength from being a top. White larch has comparatively smaller and more numerous branches than any other of the Coniferæ; consequently the timber is freer of large knots, and has more equable strength, as well in small spars as when large and cut out into joists and beams, provided the timber be not too far up the tree. Larch, however, compared with pines and firs, has the timber much stronger when young, and several inches or below a foot in diameter, than when old and large: this may partly be owing to its deficiency in resinous deposit.