1 62 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



At a less exposed and more level part of the ground on the 

 same hill slope a smaller area (B), about two acres in extent 

 at a height of 750 feet, was fenced off and planted. It was to 

 have formed the beginning of a large plantation, and was 

 named the Coronation Wood. The trees were put in as in 

 wood A, 3^ feet apart, and consisted chiefly of Norway and 

 black spruce, Colorado Douglas, Austrian, and Corsican 

 pines, with some larch, alder, sycamore, and balsam poplars 

 to form nurses. All the black pines soon died, none of the 

 Douglas firs made any growth, and now only some of the 

 spruces are left, with a few dwarf larches and hardwoods here 

 and there. The soil is cold and stiff, covered with rough bent 

 grass. It is proper to mention here that a considerable part 

 of the damage was done by black-faced sheep, which show 

 extraordinary agility in jumping dykes and wriggling through 

 wire fences, no matter how well made, in order to taste the 

 sweets of forbidden places. Hares and black game also con- 

 tributed to the damage. Sometimes the snow drifted to the top 

 of the fences and provided an easy bridge in winter, and the 

 tops of the trees being the only green thing in sight, were 

 attacked with avidity by the starving creatures. Some of the 

 spruces, many of which had to be replanted of course, are now 

 growing up, the Black American being the leaders. A few 

 Sitkas were subsequently put in, and some of them are now 

 growing well. 



In another clump of trees (C) 300 yards east of the 

 Coronation Wood, on the same level, planted by my predecessor 

 about twenty years ago with spruce, larch, and birCh, all the 

 larches, now about 15 feet high, are rapidly being destroyed 

 by the larch fungus, and the spruces are considerably injured 

 by the south-west winds to which the hillside is fully exposed. 

 The ground is cold and wet, and obviously, although European 

 larch can be got to grow, it will not ultimately thrive on such 

 a soil. No Japanese larch has been tried here. Some Scots 

 firs, which were planted in 1902 round the original wood, are 

 now beginning to shoot up. No Sitka spruces were planted^ 

 but from recent experience this would appear to be the very 

 place where they would grow to advantage. 



In the winter of 1903-4 another patch (D), 4^ acres in extent, 

 was prepared for planting. The ground is nearly flat, and is 

 situated at a height of about 650 feet, near the old farmhouse 



