42 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This letter is, I think, chiefly interesting as showing the trifling 

 cost of planting, compared with the high price of timber, towards 

 the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth 

 centuries, and also the methods of thinning and management. 



From wages-receipts in my possession, it appears that a man's 

 daily wage for planting from 1777 to 1779 was 8d. to iod., and 

 Scots pine seedlings cost 2s. 8d. per 1000. 



I regret that I am unable to identify with any certainty the 

 boundaries of the various plantations mentioned except the first 

 two, and only in that case through having an estate map of 

 1 759, which shows these two plantations. These two plantations 

 are not now in existence, having been sold and replanted long 

 ago, but the trees on about 40 acres of the other plantations 

 mentioned are still standing. 



In 1907 I sold about 16 acres of Scots pine which was at that 

 time between 120 and 130 years old. The trees averaged about 

 40 cubic feet, and were from 90 to 100 feet high and perfectly 

 sound, the soil being peat 2 to 3 feet deep over granite sand 

 mixed with boulders. The price realised was 6d. per cubic foot 

 standing, and the total value ^858. 



Adjoining this there is still standing about 3 acres of Scots 

 pine mixed with a few Weymouth pine, larch and silver fir, 

 which was evidently planted at the same date. A view of part 

 of this clump is shown. Probably owing to being on rather 

 better land, drier and for the most part free from peat, these trees 

 have made a larger increment, and average about 50 cubic feet 

 for the Scots pine, some measuring up to about 150 cubic feet. 



The boles are perfectly clean, and it is interesting to note that 

 a natural thin crop of beech has come up under all the old Scots 

 pine planted about that date. 



I regret that I am unable to locate the sites of the other 

 plantations except those which contain beech, which all now con- 

 sist of pure beech crops with a few oak scattered through them. 



In 1 9 10 I sold about 4 acres of large rough beech (almost 

 certainly that planted in 1772) for about 1 id. per cubic foot. 

 The beech was pure, but about 10 acres of old wood adjoining, 

 which was included in the same sale, consisted of mixed oak, 

 larch and Scots pine. This was no doubt part of the remainder 

 of the 28-acre plantation planted in the same year. Many of 

 the larch measured over 100 cubic feet, and the Scots pine was 

 not much, if any, behind them. They were all perfectly sound 



