No. 6. We have examined Scots fir grown in many different situations; by far the best quality, of its age, of any we know, stands upon a very adhesive Carse clay, which, from the proprietor’s neglect, is all winter and in wet weather soaking with water, and the trees not of very luxuriant growth. These, till a few years ago, stood in close order, without the stem being {205} much exposed to parching or evaporation; this exposure of the stem rendering fir timber much harder and more resinous. Every body who has touched larch must be convinced that the slow grown on poor _tills_, especially with long naked stems in exposed situation, is very much stronger and harder than the quick grown, though often not so tough: but much depends on the variety in larch, those having the reddest matured wood being much harder than the paler coloured. Memel fir, which is the largest growthed red pine we are acquainted with, is very strong and durable, probably next to the pitch pine of North America; yet the very large growthed Memel is generally weakest, though we frequently find a log of small growthed, mild and inferior in strength. In old buildings we have often witnessed the beautiful small growthed red wood pine wormed, when the larger growthed was sound, but we are sensible that spontaneous decomposition and consumption by insects are very different; much resin deters insects, whereas, in moist situations, as in treenails of vessels, it conduces to spontaneous decay; yet is it preservative when the timber is exposed to the weather by excluding the rain. {206}