THE ANNUAL EXCURSION, 141 



the home woods, passed in the course of the day, the larches and 

 Scots firs were of stately dimensions and of much commercial 

 value. 



In the afternoon the party was entertained to luncheon by 

 Lord Lovat at the high-lying farm of Achnacloich, from which a 

 magnificent view of the surrounding country could be obtained ; 

 and thereafter an inspection was made of the plantation bearing 

 the same name, which lies on a sunny slope at an altitude of 

 600 feet. This wood, 450 acres in extent, was planted thirty- 

 four years ago, by Lord Thomas Lovat. It was explained by 

 Mr Dewar that his Lordship, being of a practical turn of mind, 

 thought that as the wood was such a distance from a railway or 

 a shipping port, little or no revenue might be expected for early 

 thinnings. He therefore resolved to plant thin, and thereby 

 save the expense of labour. At first his Lordship was inclined to 

 plant only 2000 trees to the acre, but it was finally settled that 

 2500 should be the number. The result was not unsatisfactory, 

 as beyond the initial cost there had been little or no outlay. The 

 wood, it was explained, had suffered greatly from squirrels, which 

 were a pest on this part of the estate. 



A short discussion, which was invited, took place regarding the 

 state of the wood. It was generally agreed by the critics that 

 the wood had been too thinly planted, and that its present not 

 over flourishing state was largely due to that fact. Mr James 

 Robertson, Panmure, threw out the suggestion that in any further 

 treatment of the wood a couple of acres should be experimented 

 on in the old British way, and that at the end of ten years it 

 should be contrasted with the rest of the plantation to which 

 German methods are being applied. 



Photograph No. 2 is taken in a part of the Achnacloich planta- 

 tion, where the density is about the average. It gives a fair idea 

 of the appearance of this plantation. 



Another point of interest in the afternoon's drive was Balblair 

 Wood, which consists entirely of pine of grand quality. About 

 60 or 80 aci'es of it owed its existence entirely to natural 

 regeneration. Old standard trees had been allowed to remain on 

 the ground ; and by preparing the land in the direction of the 

 prevailing wind, the seed which fell when the cones opened found 

 a congenial resting-place, took root, and grew. The seedlings, it 

 was said, came up like a crop of grass, and though, owing to the 

 poverty of the soil, the trees, which are of an average height of 



