190 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



27. Excursion of the Aberdeen Branch to 

 Glendye Woods. 



On the invitation of Sir John Gladstone, Bart, of Fasque, the 

 members of the Aberdeen Branch of the Society to the number 

 of seventy held an excursion on Saturday, the 26th July 19 19, 

 to Glendye. The parent Society was officially represented by 

 Mr R. Galloway, S.S.C., Secretary of the Society. 



The party proceeded by train to Banchory station, where they 

 were met by a number of motor cars which conveyed them to 

 the estate. The first stoppage was at the Templeton wood, 

 where the party were joined by Sir John Gladstone and the 

 forester, Mr Neil Macgregor. The Templeton wood is a 

 middle-aged plantation of Scots pine adjoining a large tract of 

 heather moorland, where a splendid crop of young Scots pine 

 has made its appearance within recent years. The success of the 

 regeneration is attributed to the trampling and wounding of the 

 ground by a flock of sheep which had been folded on the area 

 a few years previously. In this way a good germinating surface 

 was provided for the seed blown from the Templeton wood, and 

 a large number of seedlings were enabled to get a start. After 

 a visit to the sawmills of Messrs Black — who had been cutting 

 pit-wood for a number of years on the Bogarn woods — the party 

 proceeded to the Smithy wood, where a number of plots were 

 planted 5 or 6 years ago with the semi-circular spade. The 

 ground here is very diversified, both as regards surface 

 vegetation and soil, and an effort was made in laying out the 

 plots to grow species suited to each type of locality. On the 

 drier slopes with a covering of heather and grass the plots 

 consist of larch, Japanese larch, and Douglas fir, and on the 

 lower ground, partly covered with rushes, where the soil was 

 wet and had to be drained before planting, the group consisted 

 chiefly of Sitka spruce. The Sitka spruce and some of the 

 Japanese larch were damaged by frost in 1918, but when the 

 canopy closes, it is expected that there will be no risk of the 

 trees being injured in this manner, and that the plantations will 

 make rapid growth. 



The estate nursery, which has been established for many years, 

 was then visited. The nursery is kept in first-class condition, 

 and is protected by a hedge surrounding it on the outside and 

 by a number of interior hedges. The seed beds and transplant 



