70 Sir John Stirling iViaxwell [March 16, 



111 the plantations of which I have been speaking^, the Scots pine 

 is broken by snow and browned by spring winds which deprives its 

 fohage of moisture, which the roots cannot replace while the ground 

 is frozen. After twenty years' growth it is not more than 20 feet 

 high, and often less. The height growth of Sitka spruce and 

 Nobilis fir is nearly double. Their branches bend to the snow 

 and decline to yield their moisture to the east wdnd. They stand 

 uninjured among the debris of the pine. The Nobilis fir is a tree 

 specially adapted to moorland planting, because it hates lime and 

 thrives on peat. In any scheme of afforestation deserving to be 

 called scientific, one of the first steps will be thoroughly to test the 

 value of the newer exotics as agents capable of extending plantations 

 to soils and elevations which it would be useless to plant with our 

 native trees. 



In nothing has the unscientific character of recent forestry in 

 this country been so conspicuous as in its relation to exotic trees. 

 The spruce and larch have been with us since the 17th Century, but 

 even now their habits are still very far from being generally under- 

 stood. The larch is essentially a mountain tree, only growing 

 vigorously Avhere the soil is stony, the drainage quick, and moisture, 

 whether from rain or melting snow, abundant in spring. It has been 

 planted in this country by the million in situations as unfriendly to 

 the tree as they are favourable to its enemy, the canker fungus. 

 "What disappointment would have been saved if we had taken a hint 

 from the French, who never emj^loy it except on the stony slopes of 

 their mountains. 



The spruce, as we usually see it in this country, is a tree of no 

 value, because the wood is full of knots. Properly grown in close 

 plantations it produces a very large volume of light, easily worked 

 timber, which is in constant demand and which, creosoted, makes 

 good railway sleepers. It can be grown to perfection in England, 

 Scotland and Ireland, as may be seen in the photographs which 

 adorn the noble volume of Mr. Elwes and Dr. Henry. Yet if you 

 search Britain from Land's End to John o' Groats I doubt whether 

 you will find more good spruce woods than you can count on 

 your fingers. 



The Douglas fir has been cultivated here since 1827, but well 

 grown woods of it are still scarce. One of the oldest and best known, 

 at Taymount in Perthshire, is only fifty-seven years old, and grows on 

 soil far from ideal. At Benmore in Argyllshire there is a much 

 larger Avood, planted thirty-seven years ago on ground very steep and 

 rocky but evidently congenial. These suffice to prove that the 

 species can on suitable sites yield heavy crops of good timber in a 

 shorter time than any other tree. 



The Sitka spruce, introduced in 1831, has not yet been tried on 

 so large a scale, but promises results equally remarkable. At Craigo 

 in Forfarshire there is a group sixty-six years old and well over 



