REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 13 
—according to German methods of classification of forest soils. 
The older woods are showing satisfactory growth, and, with the 
exception of those in the neighbourhood of the Castle, are 
exclusively regenerated by naturally sown seed. At Curr Hill 
it was an interesting experience for me to find a wood about 
twenty years old and a hundred acres in extent, which had been 
regenerated naturally, and which was showing a density and 
uniformity which, without artificial assistance, could not have 
been obtained in Germany, where the young trees suffer much 
during the felling of the seed-trees. 
In other parts of the forest, ¢.g., Millton Wood and 
Drumindunan, I found exactly the same state of things as 
we are accustomed to meet with in woods that have originated 
through natural regeneration in Germany. I refer to the 
condition of things where one finds some parts of the ground 
sufficiently stocked, but the rest so incompletely supplied with 
plants as to preclude the possibility of perfect density without 
artificial assistance. Woods of this character, from which the 
seed-trees have been removed, contain numerous over-branched 
trees, amongst which one meets with small areas which are 
sufficiently dense, and where the growth is satisfactory. Such 
woods were only too common on the Seafield property, and it 
struck me as remarkable that nothing was done by transplanta- 
tion to fill up the gaps in these natural woods, an operation that 
would certainly prove very profitable. 
The lack of uniform success that has attended natural regener- 
ation in the neighbourhood of Grantown is no doubt due to the 
varying quantity of raw humus existing in and on the soil, a 
substance which opposes the greatest obstacles to the system of 
sylviculture which is practised on that estate. When a wood is 
in the seed-felling stage, the soil offers satisfactory conditions of 
growth for the young seedlings only when the humus is in a 
certain stage of decomposition. This period lasts for but a short 
time, and unless the seedlings take root during this period it is 
hopeless to expect a further supply of seed to produce a supple- 
mentary stocking of young plants. When at Grantown I hed 
also the pleasure of inspecting a wood, about twenty years old, at 
Croft-na-Haven, which had been established by planting, and 
which was growing in a most satisfactory manner. Mr Thomson 
informed me that from 2500 to 3000 plants were used per acre, 
and that this is the usual number employed in the woods under 
