Scotch Forestry. ISS 



Nor as regards soil are there any insuperable difficulties. At 

 Corrour, near Fort Augustus, I have seen trees growing well even 

 though planted in peat moss on a subsoil which contains iron- 

 salts which appear to be injurious to the roots. This is at an alti- 

 tude of 1300 feet and without any specially favourable condition.s. 

 of any kind. AVhen one has seen Sir John Stirling Maxwell's 

 plantations at Corrour and also the Black Wood of Rannoch, one 

 is inclined to think that with drainage and on a proper system the 

 soil will in no wav prevent afforestation, at any rate by qualified 

 foresters. 



But there is one point which must be most carefully studied, 

 which is the question of altitude. 



It is the exposure to wind which limits tree growth in height 

 above the sea, just as it limits forest formation towards the North 

 in the Arctic regions. On the top of Criffel or of Tinto it would 

 be unwise to attempt to grow a plantation, although quite good 

 Larch forests exist at even 4000, and, though not .so good, even 

 at 6000 feet altitude in the Alps. 



Wherever the wind is unchecked and has free scope the 

 growth of trees is seriously affected. The enormous mass of high 

 land in the Swiss Alps makes it possible for trees to thrive at these 

 great altitudes. 



In the Southern counties our highest hills do not reach to 

 more than 2200 to 2764 feet. These exposed wind-harassed 

 summits are often very scantily covered with vegetation. One 

 finds there rock surfaces and stones which, during all the time 

 which has elapsed since the Ice Age, have been unable to pro- 

 duce anything beyond a mere stain of lichen or close cushion of 

 moss. 



On the slopes of the Merrick and about Alwhat it might be 

 ixjssible to grow trees profitably up to 1700 feet, or possibly at 

 even higher altitudes, but it 1)\ no means follows that you could 

 grow them even at 1200 feet if the highest land to the North-East 

 is only 1400 to 1500 feet altitude. 



Much seems to depend on the general slope of the country 

 and on the local configuration. I have seen at a height of barely 

 100 feet in Wigtownshire trees probably 60 years old but onlv 

 6 or 7 feet high and resembling exactly the miserable scrub which 

 occurs about the upper limit of trees in the Alps. 



The brow of a cliff and even the summit of a plateau over 



