"He therefore determined to cover with Larch sixteen hundred Scotch acres, situated from nine hundred to twelve hundred feet above the level of the sea. Its soil, presenting the most barren aspect, was strewed over thickly with fragments of rock, and vegetation of any kind scarcely existed upon it. 'To endeavor to grow ship-timber," writes the duke, "among rocks and shivered fragments of schist, such as I have described, would have appeared to a stranger extreme folly, and money thrown away; but, in the year 1800, I had for more than twenty-five years so watched and admired the hardihood and the strong vegetative powers of the Larch, in many situations as barren and as rugged as any part of this range, though not so elevated, as quite satisfied me that I ought, having so fair an opportunity, to seize it.' "Having now no doubt whatever of the successful growth of the Larch in very elevated situations, the duke still further pursued his object of covering _all_ his mountainous regions with that valuable wood. Accordingly, a space to the northward of the one last described, containing two thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine Scotch acres, was immediately inclosed, and planted entirely with Larch. "This tract, lying generally above the region of broom, furze, juniper, and long heath, required no artificial clearing. An improved mode of planting was employed here, that of using young plants only, two or three years' seedlings, put into the ground by means of an instrument invented by the duke instead of the common spade. "In 1824, the growth of the Larch in this last tract, called _Loch Ordie Forest_, having greatly exceeded the sanguine hopes and expectations of the duke, he determined on adding to it an extensive adjoining tract, consisting of two thousand two hundred and thirty-one Scotch acres, denominated Loch Hoishnie. The preparations of fencing, clearing (where that was necessary), making roads, and procuring plants from different nurserymen, occupied the time till October, 1825, when the planting commenced, and was carried on in such good earnest that the whole was finished by December, 1826. "The planting of this forest appears to have terminated the labors of the duke in planting. He and his predecessors had planted more than fourteen millions of Larch plants, occupying over ten thousand English acres. It has been estimated that the whole forest on mountain ground, planted entirely with Larch, about six thousand five hundred Scotch acres, will, in seventy-two years from the time of planting, be a forest of timber fit for building the largest ships. Before being cut down for this purpose, it will have been thinned to about four hundred trees to an acre. Supposing each tree to yield fifty cubic feet of timber, its value, at a shilling a foot (one half the present value), will give £1,000 an acre, or, in all, a sum of £6,500,000 sterling."[4] [4] Reports on Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts. THE PINE-TREE, OR FOREST LIFE.