WHITELARCH—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 kind17common 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 alpine18plant, 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 tills19, 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 subsoils20may 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.
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.
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 robe21of 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.
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 culture22, 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 size23, 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 adernier 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 opposedend-wayto 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 stiledcured; 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-cuts24, 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.