74 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



margin of profit, the initial works must be carried out not only 

 efficiently but in the most economical manner possible. The 

 system of planting the hillsides and mountain slopes, which has 

 hitherto been most practised in Scotland, is that of notching-in, 

 sometimes seedlings, but oftener transplanted nursery-grown trees 

 of considerable size. Many woods have been successfully estab- 

 lished in this way, and a very striking example of such success 

 was seen at Ardverikie, where, by this system, Sir John Ramsden 

 has laid the foundation of a forest of over 10,000 acres. With a 

 loose open soil and favourable surface conditions, notching-in 

 can generally be practised, but that it is in every case the best, 

 or even, in the long run, the most economical system, is more 

 than doubtful. There have been many failures of which we 

 have full details, and probably many more of which we have no 

 record at all. 



" In most of the German states, where artificial regeneration 

 of the forest is practised, or where new land is being afforested, 

 the greater part of the outlay consists of what is spent on soil- 

 preparation. But this somewhat expensive soil-preparation 

 enables the continental planter to use with safety a very small 

 and very young plant which has been raised at trifling cost, and 

 enables him also to stock very barren land which could not 

 otherwise have been planted. The system hitherto generally 

 practised in Britain has been to spend a great deal in bringing 

 forward comparatively large plants in the tree nursery and to 

 spend practically nothing in soil-preparation. To Sir John 

 Stirling-Maxwell and his foresters, Messrs Simon Cameron and 

 Donald Grant, is due the credit of demonstrating in a very 

 practical manner how success may be attained by adopting 

 continental methods where accepted British methods resulted in 

 almost entire failure. 



"The forestry work which is being taken in hand by them 

 at Corrour is of interest from this point of view. It is a 

 beginning in the necessary pioneer work which the State 

 should have long ago undertaken on an extensive scale in 

 many parts of the country, in order to determine what land 

 could be successfully stocked with paying crops of timber, 

 and to what extent such land could be taken up without 

 unduly interfering with existing interests. The planting opera- 

 tions are carried on around two centres — one at Fersit, near 

 Tulloch railway station, and the other at Loch Ossian. Each 



