294 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Castle, in Kirkeudbrightshire, which is also famed for its beeches, 
scarcely surpassed anywhere for their size and symmetry. Many 
other beeches of large size are met with on several estates in 
Dumfriesshire, particularly in Annandale. 
Yet, under such favourable conditions, arboriculture has not 
received the same amount of attention which has been paid to it 
in many other districts in Scotland. The total acreage under wood, 
according to the agricultural returns of 1882, in the three counties 
is — Dumfriesshire, 31,162; Kirkcudbrightshire, 19,714; and 
Wigtownshire, 8009 acres; or a total of 58,885 imperial acres. 
The year following that on which these returns were made, the 
south of Scotland was visited by a series of terrific gales, on the 
11th December 1883, and again on the 23rd and 24th January 
1884, which caused great destruction of the woods on many estates 
in these counties, and have thus reduced the acreage of them by 
at least one-third. Those woods which suffered most were com- 
posed of the healthiest well-grown trees, and consequently they were 
most valuable. Nothing approaching this has been experienced 
since the disastrous gale of 7th January 1839, at which time the 
woods in the south of Scotland suffered, it was estimated, to the 
extent of more than £20,000. 
On several of the larger estates the proprietors have paid con- 
siderable attention to their woodlands, particularly the Duke of 
Buecleuch, the Earl of Mansfield, and Sir Robert Jardine, Bart., in 
Dumfriesshire ; the Earl of Selkirk, and Murray Stewart, Esq., in 
Kirkeudbrightshire ; and the Earl of Stair, in Wigtownshire. On 
these and a few other estates, the forester’s department is managed in 
a thoroughly systematic manner. There are, however, at the same 
time many medium sized and smaller estates possessing a consider- 
able area of woodlands, where no experienced forester is kept, 
and where there is no proper or systematic management of the 
woods, 
There is a fair proportion of the woodlands under hardwood, the 
majority of which, however, is aged; and, on the whole, there isa 
rather insufficient succession crop, as they have not been planted so 
profusely as is advisable. Where recently planted they have often 
been set along with fir, spruce, etc., as nurses, and afterwards left to 
themselves for several years, when the conifers have overgrown, and 
eventually destroyed the hardwoods. 
The kinds of trees most extensively planted are pines (including 
several of the newer species), spruce, and larch. Of the pines, 
