336 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



OBITUARY NOTICE. 



The late Daniel Dewar. Forester, Beaufort. 



Like all other societies, the Scottish Arboricultural is doomed 

 to lose its members — "men who can be ill spared"; to have its 

 " blanks which cannot be readily filled." Yet the march of 

 time fills up these blanks, and other men fall in and take the 

 place of those who have gone before. 



Mr Dewar took a keen iaterest in the affairs of the Society; 

 he was one of its oldest and best supporters, and took a lively 

 and intelligent interest in its work. The many members who 

 took part in the Excursion of 1899 to Beaufort and Dunrobin, 

 will recall with pleasure their meeting with him among the trees 

 and woods where he had spen* so many years of his life. Thi3 

 Excursion was rendered all the more interesting from the fact 

 that Mr Dewar, early realising the value of "German methods" 

 as applied to tree planting and thinning, had for years before 

 these methods were appreciated or generally understood in this 

 country, adopted the system in his young plantations, and had 

 done so with a success which elicited the warm congratulations 

 of those best qualified to judge. The "natural" system for the 

 reproduction of pine woods, a system commenced at Beaufort by 

 the grandfather of the present Lord Lovat, was continued by 

 Mr Dewar, and was naturally a source of pride to those who took 

 part in it, as well as a matter of much interest to all engaged in 

 tree-culture ; for although these woods were far from any busy 

 centre of population and of commerce, many of the greatest 

 foresters of Germany, France, and America, as well as those at 

 home, found their way to Beaufort sooner or later, and there 

 studied with profit the results of Mr Dewar's work. 



Mr Dewar was a thoroughly practical forester, and being a 

 diligent student of forest literature, he kept himself well abreast 

 of the time?. His professional library was large, and the value 

 of many of his books was enhanced by their being inscribed 

 " with the compliments of the author " ; and well might some of 



