196 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARRURICULTU UAL SOCIETY. 



6. Fungus disease has in rare cases attacked the Scots pine 



stems, causing them to be partly bent (by Caeoma pini- 

 torquum), so that an individual bole here and there is 

 spoiled; but unfortunately the larch canker (Peziza Will- 

 kommii) has caught hold of many of the larch crops and 

 spoiled some of them so entirely as to necessitate their 

 being cleared (Eveley Field Larches, II. c). 



7. Babbits and Hares do a great deal of damage, and it would 



on this account be next to impossible to raise plantations, 



or to expect trees planted out to succeed, unless protected 



for several years with wire-netting. Ash, spruce, and larch 



are especially attacked, but other kinds of trees are also 



gnawed. The Corsican pine seems, probably on account 



of its large amount of resin, to be less attacked by them 



than any of the other kinds of trees. Self-sown seedlings 



appear less liable to attack from rabbits than transplants. 



Squirrels also do a certain amount of damage among the 



larch and Scots pine. 



Hate of Growth. — Without making elaborate measurements to 



determine this quantitively, which seem uncalled for under the 



existing conditions of the crops, it may merely be stated that the 



copsewoods appear to be in vigorous growth. But, owing partly 



to the excessive branch development of the standards, partly to 



the species of trees and shrubs forming the underwood, and partly 



to past want of care in securing proper density of the latter, the 



productive capacity of the soil is not being utilised at present in 



the most economic manner. In the conifer plantations on the 



sandy soils the rate of growth is very satisfactory in some places. 



but poor in others. This is in part due to comparatively wide 



planting, and this mistake can only be now rectified to a certain 



extent by maintaining close canopy when once this has been 



formed by the pole forests. 



Past Management. — Until within about the last five years the 

 standard trees in the copses have not been utilised for about twenty- 

 five or thirty years, nor have they been systematically increased in 

 number by the selection of young stores. Only the coppice was 

 during that time felled in a rotation of about ten to twelve years ; 

 and during the last five years occasional standards have at the same 

 time been utilised, young stores being selected to fill their places. 

 This latter operation has, however, been conducted very irregularly. 

 During the last three or four years attention has also been given to 



