422 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



it is a pity he does not always get it when he asks for and pays 

 for it. As all the trees represented by the foregoing measure- 

 ments are healthy and vigorous, the measurements prove that 

 Kentish soil is congenial to the oak, our most valuable timber 

 tree. Nature, if she were not frustrated in her efforts, would in 

 time effect the re-afforestation of the woods, and oak would be a 

 principal factor in her working plan. 



The idea entertained by most people with regard to the late 

 W. E. Gladstone's knowledge of trees was that it was confined to 

 the cutting of them down. That this was a wrong impression the 

 following incident will serve to show. When courteously and 

 proudly pointing out the beauties of some of the fine old trees at 

 Hawarden to the members of the English Arboricultural Society 

 a few years ago, the venerable statesman rather surprised his 

 auditors by the statement that it is unusual to find a birch tree 

 whose quarter-girth measurement is greater than 16 inches, and 

 that he had never, to his knowledge, seen one larger that was 

 also quite sound. Bedgebury Park, in Kent, the property of 

 Isaac Lewis, Esq., contains a sound, healthy specimen of the 

 silver birch, the quarter-girth of which, at the height of 5 feet, is 

 2 Of inches. Another, which is, however, showing symptoms of 

 decay, gives, at the same height, a quarter-girth of 25 inches. 

 On the same property there are two splendid larches, nearly a 

 hundred feet high, which girth respectively at breast-height 

 7 feet 6 inches and 8 feet 7 inches, while the following measure- 

 ments were also noted : — 



Austrian pine, . . 8 feet 9 inches at 5 feet high. 



Silver fir, . . . 8 ,, 3 ,, „ „ 



Wellingtonia gigantea, . 8 „ 9 ,, ,, ,, 



English yew, . . 11 „ 1 ,, „ „ 



Scots fir, . . 9 „ 9 ,, ,, „ 



Cedrus Libani, . . 8 ,, 1 ,, ,, ,, 



The cedar above referred to is growing by itself in a very exposed 

 situation, and is a magnificent landscape tree. The foregoing 

 measurements, which are by no means phenomenal, are recorded 

 merely in support of the writer's contention that, at present 

 prices, it would be much more profitable to grow high forest trees 

 on land which can produce such timber than to grow coppice. 



As already stated, the soils which have come under notice do 

 not show very wide variations, being chiefly clayey loams resting 



