80 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTUUAL SOCIETY. 



the Scots pine that are selected for sowing the ground are 

 gradually isolated, until, upon the appearance of a seed-year, 

 they stand at distances apart from each other of about 25 yards. 

 No cultivation is given to the soil ; the regulation of the canojjy, 

 so as to prepare the seed-bed, is all that is necessary. What 

 is most to be avoided is an accumulation upon the surface of 

 hard, undecomposed humus. When the young crop is fairly 

 established, most of the older trees are removed, and when the 

 former has reached the age of eight or ten years, but few of 

 the latter remain. It is better, indeed, that they should be 

 gradually but entirely removed within that pei'iod. 



Upon the whole the system has been successful at Osterby ; 

 little " beating up " is required, the parent trees stock the area 

 plentifully, and the only costs are those for superintendence and 

 the loss of timber-production while the stock is incomplete 

 before the seeding. With clear-felling and subsequent regenera- 

 tion by sowing or planting, the expenditure is more apparent, 

 but it is probably not really greater than the unreckoned loss 

 in natural restocking. The latter method requires more care 

 and skill in management, the felling operations are more pro- 

 tracted, the occurrence of seed-years is uncertain, and the risk to 

 the standards from wind is considerable. It has its advantages, 

 but it is doubtful whether they counterbalance these drawbacks. 



Many of the woods are composed of Scots pine and spruce in 

 even-aged mixture. The combination is an unhappy one. The 

 two species seldom make a similar growth in height, and in 

 localities where the disparity is very marked, they are better 

 separate. Where the spruce claims ascendancy, it is useless to 

 attempt to maintain the pine in the mixture, for it cannot en- 

 dure the shade of the spruce. Then in places — as at Osterby — 

 where the situation favours the pine, the opposite condition 

 obtains ; the pine asserting itself from the very beginning, and 

 by its vigorous growth suppressing and ultimately killing the 

 spruce. This might matter very little were it not that the pine 

 takes advantage of the unintended accession of space, caused by 

 its neighbour's death, to overdevelop its lateral branches at the 

 expense of its growth in height. But if exception be taken 

 to the management of the Osterby woods in some matters, in 

 others it is to be praised and emulated. Most of the woods look 

 well, and it is not too much to say that the best forestry seen in 

 Sweden was that at Osterby. Tins good appearance is largely 



