On the Native Forests of Aberdeenshire. 11 



the subsoils of the phintations, which occasion the death of the 

 trees when the roots have become large, and have gone deep enough 

 to reach them, although some of these plantations are contiguous 

 to ground where the noble remains of former forests of lir are still 

 found. Nor is it necessary to dweU on these conjectures farther, 

 because I conceive a patli is open for us to arrive at the secret 

 with certainty. 



Are tliere any examples of the cultivated fir surviving the ordi- 

 nary period of its life, and still continuing healthy and vigorous ? 

 And can any peculiarity in the culture and management of these 

 examples account for the circumstance of their doing so ? There 

 are, in the immediate neighbourhood of my residence, a sufficient 

 number of such examples to serve our present purpose, and the' pe- 

 culiar circumstances of their culture, admit of no doubt regarding 

 the causes to which we must assign their present thriving condi- 

 tion, after they have passed, by many years, the common period of 

 the duration of planted trees. My attention was directed to these 

 trees two years ago, when, upon occasion of enlarging the parish 

 church here, the proprietor of them, John Farquliarson of Haugh- 

 fon, the principal heritor of the parish, to whom the great superio- 

 rity of their wood had been for some time known, proposed em- 

 ploying them in the additional building. Some of them were ac- 

 cordingly so employed, and I had an opportunity of seeing the 

 excellent quality of the wood, which, in the opinion of the archi- 

 tect and workmen, approaches nearly to the best, and equals much 

 of the ordinary run of the native wood of Braeraar, the trees there 

 being of very various ages, and consequently different qualities. It 

 was natural to be inquisitive into the cause of this unusual excel- 

 lence of planted fir wood, which immediately became apparent on 

 examining the situation of the growing trees. They consist of a 

 few hundreds of trees, dispersed over several acres of ground, and 

 generally standing remote from each other, a few only being found, 

 here and there, in small groups of five or six together, within a dis- 

 tance of six or seven yards. The intervals between them have been 



fir. Mr. Don also remarks that it seems to be a more hardy plant, being easily 

 reconciled to very various soils and situations ; and conjectures that the fine 

 woods which formerly abounded in Scotland, and the trees of which arrived at a 

 large size, were of this variety or species, whilst he has observed that the greater 

 part of the fir woods of the present day, and which are so much complained of, 

 are of the conjmon variety. In this way Mr. Don would account for the sup. 

 posed decline of the Scotch fir in this country, for two reasons ; 1 . because the 

 former variety still retains all the good qualities ever ascribed to the Scotch fir ; 

 and 2. because, as tlie common variety produces its cones nmch more freely than 

 the other, the seed-gatherers, who were only to be paid by the quantity, and not 

 by the quality, would seize upon the former and neglect the latter. " The evi- 

 ^ent remedy for this defect in our plantations of Scotch fir," concludes Mr. Don, 

 " is tlierefore the cultivating exclusively this second and well marked variety." 

 Of the other two varieties noticed by the author, one is more common than the 

 *' horizontalis,''' and is also a good tree, whilst the other is scarce, Mr. Don not 

 having seen more than three or four specimens. Ed. 



