158 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



22. On the Growth of the Sitka Spruce and other Trees 

 in Linlithgowshire and Stidingshire. 



By Henry M. Cadell of Grange, B.Sc, F R.S.E. 



Practical experiments, even on a small scale, have always 

 their value, and although I cannot claim to have great things 

 to record, the following discursive notes may be of interest to 

 those who, fortunately or unfortunately, have to do with the 

 ownership of land and trees on the south side of the Forth 

 valley. 



Being mainly agricultural or adapted for industry or mining, 

 my land is better suited for small arboricultural experiments 

 than for large silvicultural operations. In Linlithgowshire it 

 extends on Grange and Bonnytoun estates from sea-level at 

 Bo'ness up to 550 feet; and at Banton, in Stirlingshire, on 

 the watershed of the country, 20 miles farther west, it rises 

 from 200 feet at the Forth and Clyde Canal to 1200 feet on 

 the ridge of this part of the Campsie Hills. The rocks in 

 each locality belong to the Carboniferous Limestone formation, 

 and consist partly of coal-bearing strata, mainly argillaceous 

 in character, and partly of basalt and other volcanic materials, 

 the disintegration of which produces a more or less heavy 

 clay or loamy soil. The rainfall in Linlithgowshire is about 

 30 inches, and in the part of Stirlingshire in question a little 

 over 40 inches per annum, the prevailing wind being from 

 the S.W. The land near the sea is free and open, but the 

 highest ground has a cold clay bottom on barren volcanic 

 rock, and is unfit for anything but rough hill pasture or 

 partial aflforestation. 



My arboricultural experiments were begun in 18S9, when 

 some wood planted by my grandfather in 1805 was cut down, 

 and the site replanted with broad-leaved trees and conifers. 

 The original plantation, on the ancient sea margin, less than 

 100 feet above the present shore, now consists chiefly of elms 

 and sycamores with some beech and oak ; the larches, which 

 were once mixed with the broad-leaved trees, having been 

 nearly all thinned out and used for estate purposes. These 

 trees, now 105 years old, have a girth at breast-height of 

 4^ to 5 feet, on the average, and as this has not appreciably 

 increased in many cases during recent years, it is time, 

 economically speaking, that the wood was felled and the price 



