ESTATE NURSERIES AND PLANTATIONS COMPETITION. 175 



As regards the one nursery in competition, it can be said 

 that it is a model of all that an estate nursery should be. 

 The owner confines himself to the rearing only of plants 

 required for his forestry operations. Provision is made for 

 a periodical fallow crop, and the nursery contains a full stock 

 of healthy plants of all ages required. 



In the Plantations section of the Competition, the subjects 

 entered for competition in Class IV. were both plantations of 

 Scots pine. This species has perhaps to contend with more 

 enemies in the course of its life than any other of the conifers 

 most commonly used for forest planting. The squirrel, to 

 mention one enemy, has probably reduced the value of a very 

 large proportion of the younger and middle-aged pine woods 

 in the north-east of Scotland by as much as one-third, and this 

 now makes it very difficult to assess the true value of the species 

 as a timber crop in the locality. Woodland owners are now 

 fully alive to this danger, and it was pleasing to note that 

 squirrels appeared to be kept well down on all the estates 

 visited, and no evidence of squirrel damage was apparent in 

 any of the woods entered in the Competition. 



With reference to the subjects in Class VI., special mention 

 should be made of the good results obtained with Douglas fir 

 at high altitudes. The 35-year-old Douglas fir plantation at 

 Balmoral on poor sandy soil is situated at an elevation of about 

 1000 feet above sea-level. A measured plot shows a production 

 of 3630 cubic feet (under bark) exclusive of thinnings, with an 

 average height-growth of 61 feet. The plantation, even at this 

 early age, carries a large proportion of trees suitable for railway 

 sleepers and larger-sized scantlings. 



The spruce wood at Fyvie, entered in the same class, is 

 deserving of special notice, inasmuch as it provides an example 

 of high production in spruce timber in a locality where Scots pine 

 has been proved to yield rather poor results. The spruce in this 

 case gives approximately a yield of 2700 cubic feet at 27 years 

 of age with an average height-growth of 40 feet. Although not 

 strictly comparable with the Douglas fir wood in the same class, 

 owing to difference in age and environment, it is worthy of notice 

 that the spruce in this case does not come far short of the 

 Douglas fir in the actual annual volume of timber produced. 



Full particulars of the plantations entered are given in the 

 accompanying table. 



