REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. 135 



that the same person, the professor of agriculture, should also 

 instruct in forestry ?" "I should think so." 



" Do you think, at the present time, with the drawbacks of pre- 

 ferential rates and foreign competition, that timber really can be 

 grown to a profit ? " " Foreign competition is the ruination of our 

 own timber, I know." — " But with all these disadvantages, do you 

 think still that there is any hope of growing timber in Great Britain 

 and Ireland at a profit V "Yes, I think that timber may yield a 

 pretty good return if well managed. There is a great mistake 

 frequently made in not planting the proper tree. It is a crop that 

 cannot be altered for fifty or sixty years ; and the right tree should 

 always be put into the right place." — " Then who are the persons 

 who should direct that proper selection ; the factors, or the land 

 agents of estates ? " " Well, I do not think the factors are very 

 competent," — "But they are the persons who naturally would 

 make the selection?" "There is frequently advantage taken of 

 that by such as Mr M'Gregor, Mr Thomson, and myself. We, 

 and such as we are, frequently go to give advice. I have been 

 employed on the estate of Lord Dalhousie, on which I have laid 

 out 22 sites for new plantations varying fi'om 10 to 200 acres 

 each." — " But by some system of instruction the factors, who are 

 really responsible for this selection of the trees and the supervision 

 of the plantations, could be made quite capable of managing woods 

 without the special advice of such gentlemen as yourself 1 " " It 

 is very rarely that factors have experience in selecting trees for 

 growing. For instance, taking land going to be planted, if my 

 opinion was to be asked I should say on some lands, ' plant larch 

 and Scots fir intermixed in equal quantities ; ' on other lands I 

 would recommend silver fir to be planted for a permanent tree, and 

 so on." 



"You have had a good deal of experience with the Douglas fir?" 

 "Yes." — "Have your plantations siicceeded ? " " They are doing 

 remarkably well. Lord Mansfield's are the most extensive planta- 

 tions of the Douglas fir {Abies Douglasii) I know." — " Have you 

 suffered much from trees being blown down with wind ? " " No. 

 There is one plantation on which a good many were blown down ; but 

 there is one on the side of the railway to Dunkeld that has never 

 had a tree blown down in it. There are eight acres of it. It is a 

 pure Douglas fir plantation. It was thinned in the spring of this 

 year. We have taken 620 trees out of it ; and they are the largest 

 of their age I ever saw. They measured about 60 feet in length ; 



