296 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
market. It was mostly sold where it lay by private tender, and 
generally realised but indifferent prices, owing chiefly to the in- 
extricable confusion in which the trees lay ; good firs in many cases 
only realising a few pence per tree. There was not sufficient fore- 
thought exercised in this crisis, else proprietors would have had a 
large quantity of the fallen wood cut up into the lengths and sizes 
generally employed for estate purposes, and stored them away in 
open sheds, and thus saved the present heavy drain on many 
sadly depleted woodlands. 
Severe as these storms were, I believe that four-fifths of the 
damage done might have been obviated had the plantations been 
judiciously managed from the beginning. In laying out the planta- 
tions on many estates there had been no attempt made to establish 
screens from the blast, which would have saved much of the 
damage; as I have noticed, particularly in Dumfriesshire, that 
where natural birch, etc., happened to be growing on the exposed 
side of a plantation, the damage done has been comparatively 
trifling. 
Another source of damage from neglect was the absence of 
thorough drainage. Instances were to be found of plantations of 
from thirty to sixty years of age, the drains in which apparently 
had never received any attention since they were made. The grouud 
being swampy, the trees, though well grown, were necessarily 
surface rooted, and readily succumbed to the storm. The want of 
timely thinning was also the cause of a considerable amount of 
damage. In many cases the trees were crowded together, fifty to 
sixty feet in height, with long slender stems scarcely a foot in 
diameter. When once an opening was made these quickly yielded, 
and were either blown down or broken in the middle. The Scots 
fir plantations suffered most from this cause. 
The prevailing winds are westerly ; that of December 1883 was 
from the south-west, while those of January 1884 were from the 
west and north-west. The gale of 1839, however, was from the 
south-east. 
Since these storms a number of proprietors have done a great 
deal to repair the condition of their woodlands; perhaps Sir 
Robert Jardine, Bart., more than most others. ‘The plan adopted 
by Sir Robert was to trench out all the roots, which were after- 
wards collected into huge heaps and burned, and the ground 
replanted. This is undoubtedly the best system, but the great 
expense has deterred some from adopting it, while on many estates 
