50 Corpse Woops. 
apart as 9 ft. without equally quick-growing shade bearing 
species between them, the results will be as disastrous for 
British foresters in the future as the wide planting of the common 
spruce has been in the past. The only way to get clean timber 
is by crowding in early youth. By far the larger portion of my 
copse wood, however, has been treated only by a gradual thin- 
ning out of the poorer and weaker growths, leaving the stronger, 
and in some parts I am hopeful this may eventually produce a 
fairly valuable crop. The great difficulty is to get a sufficient 
number of really good trees evenly distributed over the ground. 
As I said before, it is too soon to make any definite statement as 
to which method is the best, but I am inclined to the belief that 
cutting clean over and replanting, while the more costly to begin 
with, will yield the best and quickest return. I have endea- 
voured to show that, while copse woods used to be a valuable 
property, they have now ceased to be so, and there appears to 
me to be here an excellent example of what a Government experi- 
mental station might be established to do. At such a station 
experiments like those I have tried to describe could be carried 
on upon a much more extended and systematic scale than I have 
been able to carry them on. And if these experiments proved 
profitable, there might again be opportunities of employment in 
country districts where none now exist. Who knows but that it 
might help the return to the land. 
Captain Walker said Mr Wellwood Maxwell had spoken of 
clean Douglas mixed with larch, and he wished to ask him if he 
did not consider that Menzies spruce mixed with Douglas would 
give cleaner Douglas than any tree that could be suggested 
at a moderate price. 
Mr Maxwell replied in the affirmative. 
RECORDS OF THE GROWTH OF TREES AT DORMONT, LOCKERBIE. 
By Major CARRUTHERS. 
Major Carruthers, Dormont, Lockerbie, contributed valuable 
records of the growth of trees at Dormont. These are as 
follow :— 
