ON ESTABLISHING AN EXPERIMENTAL FOREST AREA. 163 
Physical Features. 
These should be as nearly typical of the class of land specially 
adapted for afforestation as possible. The chief physical features 
of Scotland consist of low hill ranges, rising in the Grampians and 
southern Highlands to the dignity of mountains. With the low- 
lying tracts of fertile land forestry has little to do, but enormous 
scope exists for its development on the hill-sides and elevated land 
which possess little value for agricultural purposes. There are 
large tracts, however, which, owing to elevation, or the absence or 
character of the surface-soil, are quite unfitted for growing a 
profitable crop of timber, and no useful purpose would be served 
by experimenting with such land. The planting enterprise of 
Scottish proprietors in the past has placed us in the position of 
knowing pretty accurately the conditions necessary for the successful 
growth of a plantation in Scotland. With this knowledge before 
us, we may describe land favourable for profitable afforestation as 
that forming the sides of hills at moderate elevations, and possessing 
a healthy surface-soil, or loose and porous subsoil of not less than 
18 inches or 24 inches in depth. Whether the site selected should 
occupy the breast of a mountain, or the entire area of one or more 
smaller hills or tracts of undulating ground, will probably be decided 
by force of circumstances. The former would probably be most 
favourable in many respects. On a mountain side the conditions 
of growth are usually more uniform than where the ground rises 
and falls alternately, and where the aspect or exposure is continually 
changing. The removal of timber from a slope having a steady fall 
in one direction is more easily effected than from ground broken up 
by hills and valleys, and this has some influence upon the value of 
the timber when felled. On the other hand, varied localities allow 
a greater variety of species to be used, and on an experimental area 
this may be an advantage, providing it does not interfere with the 
regular succession of age classes and systematic working of the 
forest. For Scots pine and larch, good natural drainage is a 
desirable feature, and the presence of running streamlets and 
brooks usually indicates a healthy soil 
Soil. 
This is usually divided into subsoil and surface-soil. On the 
class of land we are dealing with, what lies on the surface closely 
approaches, in composition and texture, the subsoil of more fertile 
