6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



2. Discussion on Mr Macdonald's Paper. 



The Chairman. — " It is refreshing to hear such a thoroughly 

 practical lecture, and I am sure we are all grateful to Mr 

 Macdonald for what he has told us concerning the result of his 

 personal experience. His sound advice will make those of us 

 who have not already done so pay more careful attention to the 

 points he mentioned. He has shown how economy may be 

 effected without loss of efficiency, and these hard times are 

 going to do good to forestry, because there is nothing like 

 adversity to bring about eflficiency, or at least to get rid of 

 inefficiency. 



"With regard to the grey squirrel, I should like to suggest 

 that it would be a little dangerous to try the experiment until we 

 get somebody to try it first in England where, I understand, 

 experiments are being made. I am not altogether a perfervid 

 Scot, but I do not mind giving way to England on some 

 occasions, and I know one place in Scotland where the ex- 

 periment was tried with disastrous results. The red squirrels 

 may have gone, but the grey squirrels are there, and the greatest 

 difficulty is experienced in killing them, because, although they 

 are always apparent from the window, they are extraordinarily 

 elusive when you want to kill them. They have dropped the 

 taste for trees, but have taken up a decided penchant for the 

 greenhouses, and they get in and clear the gardens right out, 

 and so if it is possible it might be wise to have this antidote 

 to the red squirrel tried by some other body elsewhere." 



Viscount NovAR of Raith. — " Lord Holland in the eighteenth 

 century, shortly before the Union, objecting to bad legislation, 

 and being in the Cabinet, whenever a Bill was proposed 

 invariably suggested : ' Try it /« corpore vile ' — try in Scotland. 

 The tables have been very neatly turned by our Chairman 

 to-day. I had great pleasure in listening to Mr Macdonald. 

 I have been long associated, in practical work, with him, and 

 so I have had the advantage of knowing both sides of him. 

 The lecture he has given to-day represents experiences 

 accumulated during his life-long work. I think there is only 

 one subject he has omitted, and that is fire. It is a difficult 

 thing to prevent. The wind may come and just scatter a few 

 sparks about, and these may, in spite of all precautions, set 

 a fire goinor which no one can control. I think that Mr 



