148 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY.. 



As to the question of thinning, Mr Story mentioned that in 

 Germany, instead of taking out the smaller trees, they were 

 now taking out the stronger ones, those which overtopped the 

 others ; but I suppose that would only be done where the 

 trees overtopping the others were very small in number, pro- 

 portionately. Thus, say, if one-half of the trees overtopped the 

 other half, I do not suppose it would be the smaller ones that 

 would be retained. I presume it would only be when the tall 

 trees were a small percentage of the whole that they would be 

 removed in thinning? (Mr Story : Yes, that is so.) Of course, 

 we know that in Germany oak and beech are grown cleaner than 

 they are here, but for certain purposes German-grown beech 

 would not be of much use in this country. In fact, a brush- 

 manufacturer in Edinburgh told me recently that the beech 

 grown in Buckinghamshire, which is grown very much on the 

 German plan, would not be at all suitable for his purposes. 

 Beech-wood for certain requirements must be from trees grown 

 openly. For instance, for tool-makers, for making planes and 

 so forth, beech as grown in Germany would be of little use. 

 Of course the great bulk of the beech there is used as fuel, 

 and for charcoal-making, and in that case density in the wood 

 is not of quite so much importance. 



Mr Story in reply said : — I shall not detain you many minutes 

 at so late an hour. I thank you very much for the manner in 

 which you have received my remarks, and for the kindly refer- 

 ences you have made to the slides. The first speaker asked 

 about the returns from some of the woods in the Harz. If I 

 remember rightly, Dr Somerville, in a short account he gave of 

 the Harz, put the return of all the woods there at 14s. per acre 

 per annum. Some of it was less and some more, but if that is 

 right, it is surely a good return from such poor land. Reference 

 was also made to the officials and the increased expenditure 

 they involved on the management; but with increase in the 

 cost of management, the value of the woods has also increased, 

 and to an extent which is great in proportion to the outlay. 

 Then as to the destruction of birds, I was not very much struck 

 with that. On the contrary, the small birds are in some places 

 largely protected, and boxes are hung up on the trees for starlings 

 to nest in. As to the Japanese larch, nothing can be definitely 

 said of it as yet. They are only young trees at the best. The 

 species was introduced, I think, at the end of Bismarck's time. 



