THE DOUGLAS FIR IN SCOTLAND. 227 



retaining moisture well. The locality may safely be given as first 

 or best quality for the growth of trees. The rainfall has been put 

 down at 28 inches annually. The area of the plantation amounts 

 to 8 acres. It was planted by Mr William M'Corquodale, forester 

 and wood-surveyor to the Earl of Mansfield, who may be said to be 

 the senior wood-manager in Scotland, in the spring of 1860, in the 

 following manner : Douglas fir, four years old, 9 by 9 feet ; larch, 

 four years old, one between every two Douglas firs, and an additional 

 line between every two lines of fir, so that the plants stood 4J by 

 4| feet, each acre containing 2151 plants, of which 538 were 

 Douglas fir, and 1613 larch. The plants of Douglas fir were two 

 years' seedlings, and two years' transplanted. The plantation made 

 a good start, and the firs are said to have taken the lead at once. 

 The larch were gradually thinned out, until the last disappeared 

 before the year 1880, since which time the plantation has been 

 pure Douglas fir. The first regular thinning of the Douglas fir 

 occurred in 1887. Before that thinning, about 277 trees remained 

 per acre, the remaining 261 having gradually disappeared during 

 the previous twenty-seven years. Of the 277 trees seventy-five per 

 acre were thinned out in 1887, so that now, in 1888, the countings 

 showed 202 trees per acre. 



No accurate statistics are in my possession regarding the material 

 removed by thinning up to date. At the present moment the area 

 is well stocked, and any small interruption of the leaf canopy by 

 the thinning of 1887 will disappear by the end of 1889, when the 

 cover overhead will, barring accidents, be again perfect. Thus, 

 the thinning of 1SS7, though fairly heavy, was by no means too 

 heavy. 



On a sample plot, measuring four-tenths of an acre of average 

 appearance, all the trees were carefully measured by myself, per- 

 sonally, on July 20, 1888, at height of chest, or 4 feet 6 inches 

 from the ground. A selected sample tree was felled, by the kind 

 I)ermission of Mr M'Corquodale, and carefully measured, and thus 

 the cubic contents of the tree were ascertained, separated into solid 

 wood and branches. The former includes all wood over 3 inches 

 diameter at the small end. In the present case none of the 

 branches measured as much as 3 inches in diameter, so that the 

 solid wood represents the stem of the tree from the ground up to a 

 diameter of 3 inches. The following table shows the growing crop 

 per acre : — 



