48 TRANSACTIONS OP ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



also be remembered that after the expiry of the period to which 

 the present Plan relates, there will, throughout an interval of about 

 thirty-six years, be no regular fellings on the estate. But no 

 opportunity should be lost of cheapening the cost of moving 

 timber ; and temporary slides, etc., should be constructed wherever 

 they can be profitably employed. 



RESTOCKING. 



The average felling-area during the next twenty-five years Avill 

 be 37 acres, of which 35 acres will be in coniferous woods and the 

 remainder in hardwoods. In order to enable the new crop to 

 establish itself before an increased growth of briars, brackens and 

 other coarse vegetation has had time to develop into a serious 

 obstacle to its progress, as well as for other reasons, the ground 

 should be restocked as soon as possible after felling. 



On this light and favourable soil, indications of successful natural 

 regeneration of Scots fir and larch are very encouraging. The larch 

 seeds well almost every year, and plentiful crops of Scots fir seed 

 are produced at intervals not usually exceeding five or six years. 

 Advantage should be taken of each seed-year of Scots fir to obtain 

 as complete a crop of natural seedlings as possible on the felling- 

 area of the year, by leaving a few — not more than twenty-five to the 

 acr e — evenly distributed, full-crowned trees standing as seed-bearers, 

 to be subsequently removed within tw r o or three years, preferably 

 when the ground is protected by snow. In some places it may be 

 necessary to loosen the soil, or at least to clear away coarse herbage 

 in horizontal strips with a wide-toothed iron rake. Such strips 

 might be lh foot wide and 3 feet apart, the mineral soil being 

 exposed ; they would be interrupted where not required, or where 

 obstacles, such as stumps or rocks, intervened. In broken ground 

 patches might be substituted for strips. Coarse herbage and debris 

 might also be got rid of by carefully conducted burning. Some 

 portions of the four or five areas next in order for felling may 

 perhaps, on the occurrence of a seed-year, be found thinly enough 

 stocked to enable a partial young natural crop to be secured by 

 similar treatment of the soil and its covering; and in other 

 portions of these areas the removal of a comparatively small 

 number of trees might suffice to afford the needful degree of 

 light. Thus, by a judicious and very moderate anticipation (to be 

 subsequently adjusted) of the yield during seed-years of Scots fir, 



