32 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PRINCIPAL INJURIES TO WHICH THE WOODS ARE SUBJECT. 



The attacks most to be feared are those by storms, larch disease, 

 squirrels and ground game. 



Storms. 



The estate has suffered very severely from violent gales, blowing, 

 usually, from directions ranging between north-east and north- 

 west. During the years 1893-94 these winds did great damage, 

 overthrowing no less than 55,000 trees, or more than half the number 

 now estimated to stand in the older coniferous woods, and causing 

 an immediate loss of £2000, owing to a fall in prices consequent 

 on the flooding of the market. The woods which suffered most 

 were Cnoc Duchaire, Moultavie Belt, Contullich Wood, Cnoc 

 Fyrish, Creag Ruadh, Cnoc-na-Coille, Meann Chnoc, Badger Hill, 

 Dail Gheal, Evanton Wood, Blackrock Brae and Inchcholtair. As 

 a precaution against the recurrence of such serious calamities, the 

 outer margins of all woods, especially on the sides from Avhich 

 experience has shown that danger is most to be feared, should be 

 strengthened by permanent shelter-belts, comprising Austrian, 

 Corsican, Mountain or Cembran Pines, Norway Maple, Sycamore, 

 Beech, Birch, or other wind-firm trees, according to locality. 

 Intermediate belts should also *be established within the larger 

 woods, running in a direction perpendicular to that of the dreaded 

 storms; and the outer trees on all sides should be left standing 

 while fellings are in progress. The stock in permanent shelter- 

 belts should be maintained by planting or sowing in all openings 

 left by the gradual disappearance of the old trees. 



Larch Disease. 



Larch cancer acts as a terrible scourge in many of these woods. 

 In places — as in the lower part of Cnoc-na-Coille — trees seventy 

 years old show marks on their boles of the disease, which is, 

 however, no longer active ; but the older larch crops appear, as a 

 rule, to have escaped serious injury. Among the younger woods, 

 disease is particularly prevalent in Cross Hills, where larch has been 

 planted in a moist hollow, and in the 138-acre block of pure larch on 

 Assynt Hill, especially towards its western end. The disease has 

 also a strong hold on the young trees growing on ill-drained ground 

 in Toll Belt ; and few, if any, of the young larch woods are entirely 



