516 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBOR I CULTURAL SOCIETY. 



forestry was a national industry; and in Central Europe — in 

 the Austrian Tyrol and northern Germany — there were hundreds 

 of villagers who depended on the woods for their livelihood. Of 

 course there were no coal-pits there, and there was an enormous 

 consumption of wood, chiefly for fuel. There was also a con- 

 siderable export trade in wood, but nothing to compare with 

 that which comes to this country from Norway, Sweden, and 

 America. In Germany, women were very largely employed in 

 forestry. The seeding and the planting in all the nurseries 

 were done by women. Of course labour was more plentiful, and 

 much cheaper than it was here. He saw very little natural re- 

 generation in Germany. Experimental forestry work was largely 

 carried out there, and in many places the visitor saw, at the 

 nurseries, experimental plots of different kinds of trees, all 

 growing near each other. He saw very little larch, as the 

 Germans were not planting much of it, on account of the 

 prevalence of disease. The Douglas fir was of more recent 

 introduction, and he did not see one that was over 20 feet 

 high; but the German foresters were very favourably impressed 

 with the capabilities of that tree. As regards the larch in the 

 Harz Mountains, it was distinctly bad. He saw five or six 

 hundred acres of it, half of which was dead, and the other 

 half was in a very indifferent condition. The land there was 

 very steep and dry. He never saw draining of any kind in 

 the forests of Germany, and he thought that our home forest- 

 lands had been over-drained. He felt quite certain you could 

 find trees to suit any kind of soil, and even in the very wettest 

 of lands the alders would grow all right. They might say that 

 the alder was not a valuable timber. That was true; but, then, 

 it was grown much cheaper. If suitable kinds of trees were 

 selected and planted, he was satisfied that even the moss land — 

 the peat-bogs — could be very profitably planted with trees. 



Mr Boyd, Pollok, said it was quite true that alder was easily 

 grown, but then it was of little value, and in the remoter parts 

 of the Highlands it could not be sold at all. With respect to 

 Mr Tennant's remarks on the drainage of land, he (the speaker) 

 said that, in Germany, the conditions were altogether different 

 from those that prevailed in this country. In Germany, the soil 

 of the forest areas was light, and the climate was drier than 

 ours; but, on the flat lands of this country, it was absolutely 

 necessary to drain the land before planting it. 



