2 2 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



with the altitude and character of the farm. The most suitable 

 subjects will be those on which blocks of not less than 400 or 

 500 acres could be planted — so that the whole area of the 

 farm must be 4000 acres or more. Even so, great care must 

 be taken in selecting the ground to be planted, so as to interfere 

 as little as possible with the management of the sheep stock, 

 and in particular to avoid running the plantation fences on 

 lines which might increase the danger to sheep in times of 

 heavy snow ; subject to these conditions, it may be possible to 

 select areas adjoining the march between farms, so that blocks 

 of 1000 acres or more could be planted in the case of two 

 large farms, or 400 in the case of two smaller ones. 



" Sufficient data are not at present available for a considered 

 opinion as to the extent to which sheep could be wintered in 

 plantations. 



" In the older larch and pine plantations sheep are wintered 

 successfully in many districts, but such plantations do not as 

 a rule reach a high silvicultural standard of density of crop — 

 in fact it may be said, the worse the wood the better the 

 wintering. Open plantations of larch and pine provide not 

 only shelter but a considerable amount of winter grazing ; larch 

 plantations at forty-five years old or older will generally show 

 a growth of grass, while pine plantations are apt to revert to 

 heather as they become more open. Strictly silvicultural 

 considerations prescribe under-planting in both cases, and that 

 is quite incompatible with the wintering of sheep. It may be, 

 however, that in our climate we can afford to relax the strict 

 silvicultural rule of soil protection in favour of sheep farmers. 

 Plantations of Norway and Sitka spruce and of Douglas fir, 

 which are likely to become extensive and important in the 

 near future, are of much denser growth at all ages than larch 

 and pine, and are unlikely to afford any grazing worth speaking 

 of up to the age of seventy to eighty years, at which they are 

 likely to be utilized. Still, they are capable of providing 

 excellent shelter at forty to fifty years old, in which sheep could 

 be hand-fed in times of deep snow. 



" There is one grave objection to wintering sheep in plantations, 

 in the loss of wool where sheep come in contact with rough 

 bark and snags of branches. This objection can be minimised 

 by the removal of all dead branches from the lower part of 

 the stems, but if these branches are not collected and burnt — 



