1883.] EDITORS BOX. 147 



rusty-looking,' but always regarded this as an indication of the 

 presence, not of the carbonate, but of the oxide, or rust of iron. 

 Carbonate of iron being that description of iron ore found frequently 

 in the vicinity of coal, its specific gravity is about 3'5, and it must, 

 therefore, sink in water, being over three times its weight. 



M. 



LARGE PLANTATIONS, 



Sii!, — I rpiite agree with Mr. Henderson (' Fokestry ' for October, 

 p. 433), in thinking that * proprietors who have large estates in wild 

 mountain districts should plant extensively, as woods in large masses 

 grow faster and pay better. Narrow strips and miserable patches here 

 and there may afford a little shelter, but seldom yield much revenue.' 

 As a general rule patches, say of an acre, or as near as possible to 

 70 yards square, in exposed mountainous districts, suffer from pre- 

 vailing winds, more or less, to a breadth of about lU yards at least 

 all round, thus requiring about the one-half of the acre to shelter 

 the other half; whereas, a plantation of 2,0G0 yards square, 

 containing 82G acres, might by the same breadth of 10 yards all 

 round, have 810 acres slieltered thereby within it. But the most 

 serious drawback of all to the small plantation is the relative cost of 

 fencing ; for example, fencing one-acre plots at, say, a shilling per 

 running yard of fence, may cost £14 per acre ; whereas, the 826 acres 

 at the same cost per yard, may be fenced at under IDs. per acre, and 

 a larger square area would cost still less. 



Nor does this large 'expenditure per acre on the small plantation 

 fences end here, as in a sense it is only beginning, because such 

 fences have to be always looked after and maintained, and with so 

 much greater care, because a given number of stock can feed all over 

 the small areas, and destroy the young trees in very much less time 

 than in the large areas : £100 can therefore be much more profitably 

 spent in fencing a large plantation, something similar in size and 

 shape to the example given, than £2,800 can in plantations ^f only 

 about an acre. 



A time comes when these trees are matured and offered for sale, 

 and the intending purchaser not only looks at the standing timber, 

 but, among other things, looks out for a suitable site for his portable 

 saw-mill ; and in doing so, he remembers the fact that 100 torfe of 

 timlier just felled and ready for sawing, will only turn out about 

 50 tons of saleable sawn timber, the other 50 tons having been 

 lost in waste and evaporation of moisture while seasoning. It is 

 here self-evident how much more costly it is to manufacture the 

 produce of small scattered plantations, when compared with large 

 compact ones, in consequence of the heavy extra cartage. 



Dunrohin, Golqyie, KB. D. M'Corquodale. 



