Planting at Blair Athole. 



PLANTATIONS — PRICES — WOODLAND — PASTURAGE. 



The follo^ving are the particulars of outlay on one of the largest fir 

 plantations formed by the Duke of Athole : — 



Loch Ordie Plantation, planted with Lakch 1815 — 1818. 

 Particulaks of Outlay. 



Purchase of ground, 2,932 Scotch acres, 25 years' 



purchase at 9d. per acre per annum 

 Fencing 11^ miles at 5s. 6d. per rood of 6 yards ... 

 Roads, drives, and bridges, at 7s. 6d. per rood 

 Plants, 6,377,100 at 4s. per 1,200 (seedhngs) 

 Planting 

 Miscellaneous 

 Making good the failure of plants 



£ s. d. 



2,748 15 3 



902 11 3 



1,177 6 



1,062 17 



476 9 



375 13 6 



586 8 



7,330 



A Scotch acre being about five-fourths of a statute acre, the above 2,932 

 Scotch acres, at 50s. per acre, are equivalent to 3,665 statute acres at lOs. 

 per acre. 



The above careful calculation of costs will be useful at the present date 

 as a basis of similar calculations. Mr. M'Gregor, who has charge of the 

 Duke of Athole's woods and forests, has obliged me with details which will 

 bring down the information as to costs to date. Taking the item " plants" 

 first, it will be observed that the first cost was followed by a considerable 

 outlay in making good failures of plants. Seedlings, in fact, are rarely 

 desirable, and if there are rabbits on the estate they are altogether inad- 

 missible. The plants should be two years' seedlings and one year trans- 

 planted, or two years' seedlings and two years transplanted, for ground 

 covered unusually thick with herbage. The heather shelters a young 

 plantation, and on an exposed moor it should be as high as the plants. 



We may presume from the above that seedhngs cost the planter 4s. per 

 1,200 in his private nurseries. At present plants are dear. Very little 

 seed has been ripened in Scotland during the last two years, and the cost 

 of the common conifers has risen considerably in consequence. The usual 

 price charged by nurserymen is 10s. or 12s. per 1,000 for larch plants, two 

 years' seedlings and two years transplanted, and 8s. or 9s. if one year 

 transplanted. The number required per acre is from 2,500 to 3,000. A 

 man can plant 1,000 or 1,200 plants a day, aided by a woman, girl, or boy. 

 The cost of planting will therefore be about 9s. or 10s. per acre, instead of 



