ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE MODEL FORESTS FOR SCOTLAND. 2038 
to incur considerable expenditure on artificial pruning—an opera- 
tion which is practically out of the question on a large scale. The 
thinnings obtained at a very early age are of such poor quality 
as to be of little or no value. Growth in height is interfered 
with to an extraordinary extent, and the production of a well- 
shaped bole becomes almost an impossibility. Further, when a 
wood is thinned to its utmost extent it does not contain a reserve 
supply of trees to serve as substitutes for those that have lost 
their leaders, or are otherwise defective. This matter is of special 
importance in Scotland, where the squirrel does an amount of 
damage to trees that is unknown in Germany: in consequence of 
the removal of the bark from the upper part of the stems, the 
trees develop misshapen crowns, and are greatly reduced in 
value. . |. 
“Tt cannot be too much emphasised that strong and early 
thinning prevents the production of the maximum mass of timber, 
and at the same time makes the formation of valuable timber 
impossible. If the commencement of strong thinning were delayed 
for other ten or twenty years, the woods would give a permanent 
yield of timber fit for sleepers, while the main crop would develop 
into heavy timber suitable for all structural purposes. Instead of 
removing well-formed trees in the early thinnings, one ought to 
fell only such as are badly shaped, and I am afraid that this 
system is at present too little practised. 
“* At Scone Palace I inspected a very fine oak-wood, from ninety 
to one hundred years old. The trees were showing vigorous 
growth, and one can only regret that the ground was not more 
fully stocked, as would have been the case under a different system 
of management, and which would have resulted in the production 
of finer and more valuable stems. 
“ Between Callander and Balmaha I saw numerous woods of 
oak coppice on the lower slopes of the hills. These woods are 
managed on a rotation of twenty-one years, and furnish tanning 
bark and light timber, the latter being partly used for firewood. 
On the steep slopes with a shallow soil the system of coppicing 
is to be commended, but, with tanning bark as the main object, 
the manner of thinning appeared to leave much to be desired. 
Tanning bark should be as smooth on the surface as possible, and 
the stems which furnish it should be long and clean. I found, 
however, that owing to severe thinning about the seventh and 
