136 TRANSACTIQNS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



they are twenty-seven years of age ; many of them girth 5 feet 9 

 inches in circumference 3 fe^t above the ground. I never knew of 

 that amount of growth in any conifer of the age. There are 

 two trees of the Douglas fir growing on the estate of Lynedoch ; 

 and when they were fifty years of age they were 73 feet in length. 

 These trees contained 150 cubic feet of timber each. The larch 

 is a very fast-growing tree ; and very rarely indeed have I found a 

 larch fifty years of age to contain 50 cubic feet of timber ; but the 

 Douglas firs have added 3 cubic feet for every year of their 

 growth." — " Have you put any Douglas fir timber into the 

 m.arket 1 " " This is the first lot that has been thinned out ; 

 I have sold individual trees, perhaps a score at a time, but this is 

 the first lot of any consequence." — " Can you tell what it cost to 

 plant all those eight acres of Douglas fir ? " " We reared the plants 

 from seed.s, and the planting cost about 10s. per acre." — "What 

 did you get for the G20 trees that you sold 1 " " They are not sold; 

 they have just been cut." — " What do you expect they will fetch 1 " 

 " I do not know how they will sell, as the wood is not known, but 

 I should hardly expect that they would sell for as much as larch 

 spars, for which we get 4s. to 6s. per 100 feet run." 



" Is it your experience that plantations in Perthshire have suf- 

 fered much from game 1 " " They have suifered very much." — ■ 

 " There has been great loss by game ? " " Great loss. The rabbits 

 and hares will eat the bark of trees from 80 to 100 years of age, 

 elm, ash, and beech. I have seen them peeling them, raising 

 themselves up as high as they can, and not leaving any of the bark 

 within two feet of the ground." — " You find game is very pre- 

 judicial to forestry in Perthshire ? " " Yes, very." 



" Have you any experience of making a plantation with borrowed 

 money ? " " No." — " Can you imagine any man who would borrow 

 money from the Government at three per cent, and make it pay ? " 

 " Well, it might pay ; but it will take a considerable time before it 

 does. Lord Stormont wished me last year to draw out a note of 

 what 20 acres would cost to plant, and what they might realise in 

 eighty years. I have drawn out this paper for Lord Stormont. 

 Perhaps I may read it." — "Yes; pray do." " It was 20 acres of 

 land to be planted under larch." — " Will you give us the heading 1 " 

 " First of all, there is the cost of fencing 20 acres, £41 ; cost of 

 plants, £25 ; cost of planting, £8 ; rent of 20 acres at 10s. per 

 acre, £10; that amounts in all to £84. Then there is compound 

 interest on above £84 for twelve years, that is £126, 8s. 7d. 



