106 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sist of ] " " The bulk is larch ; five or six thousand acres of larch 

 mixed with spruce, and about a thousand acres of oak coppice. 

 The remainder principally Scots fir. The largest larch plantations 

 are those of Loch Ordie and Loch Hoishen." — " Have you any 

 other description of pine 1 " " None, except specimen trees in policy 

 grounds." — " Have you not the Abies Donglasii in your woods?" 

 " A few thousand trees ; more experimental than anything else." 



" Have you given your attention to the general subject of the 

 condition of woods and forests in Scotland 1 " *' In Perthshire ; I 

 confined it to Perthshire, because I have never been much out of 

 it." — "What is your opinion as to the management in Perthshire? " 

 " It might be better." — " Do you consider that the land agents, or 

 the factors, as they are called in Scotland, are fairly well informed 

 as to the management of woods and timber 1 " " Very few of 

 them." — " What are the subjects on which factors and woodmen 

 are deficient?" "They are deficient in the knowledge of what 

 trees ought to be planted on suitable soils, and when thinning out 

 ought to commence ; and, in fact, the general management of the 

 woods altogether." — " What are the special subjects which those 

 who have charge of woods ought to understand?" " They ought 

 to understand the soils and situations suited for the different 

 varieties of forest trees to be cultivated for profit, and they ought 

 to know the proportions in which those trees should be planted, 

 and whether they ought to be planted mixed or pure." — "They 

 should know something about the diseases of trees 1" " Cer- 

 tainly." — "And of the insects afiecting trees?" "Yes; that is a 

 subject which requires to be very much studied." 



" Will you give us some idea of the system pursued upon the 

 Duke of Athole's estates as regards falling and thinning timber. 

 Do you cut down a certain quantity every year ? " " That depends 

 very much on the demand. We commence to thin as soon as ever 

 a plantation requires thinning, and we thin out the least vigorous 

 trees, the least valuable, leaving the best, generally, until the wood 

 is ripe, and then it is all cut down." — " Have you a steady and 

 ready demand for the fallings and thinnings ?" " We had before 

 the gales of 1879 ; but since then the demand has fallen off, and 

 the price has also fallen off very much." — " That is in consequence 

 of the large amount of timber that was blown down by the gale ; 

 the market has been over-stocked ? " " Ye.s, and the depression of 

 the coal and iron trades as well." — " Do you consider that in Scot- 

 land tracts of waste land can be planted with profit ? " "I think so." 



