12 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



rabbit he has trapped — it is natural. In the case of the 

 professional rabbit trapper, of course it is a sorrowful thing for 

 him to kill out all the rabbits, because there will be no more 

 rabbits to trap next year. That is only human nature. But 

 when in spite of all ordinary efforts to keep them in check, 

 rabbits are becoming too numerous, I have found extraordinary 

 good results to follow from supplying the forester with his own 

 rabbit killer as a permanent man who is there to destroy the 

 rabbits and to help the forester. The results that can be 

 achieved by a man who is put on at any season are 

 extraordinary, for he minds neither age nor sex nor time nor 

 weather so long as he gets rid of the pest. I think if you are 

 going in seriously for forestry, and more especially if you have 

 got big blocks wired in, that a rabbit trapper of this description 

 is very useful, for he is interested in killing the last rabbit, which 

 none of the others are. For economic reasons, certainly on high 

 ground, and on bare ground, such as I have got in many places 

 where there formerly was a crop of larch — a tree that grows very 

 easily and naturally with us — and also in the case of spruce, 

 where large blocks have recently been cut down, I think it would 

 pay us to fence such areas immediately after felling when the 

 ground is still red, and to leave it to nature. I am quite 

 certain that in this way we should get a very good natural crop, 

 judging by any protected spots which I have seen near such 

 areas on which seedlings are coming up thickly. Of course 

 it is also well to leave a few trees for seeding purposes. Far 

 too little of this is done when wood is cut. The curse of my 

 country is bracken and broom. Since the Government cut our 

 woods, far more extensively than we can afford to replant them, 

 it means that extensive areas are being invaded by an absolute 

 thicket of broom, and there is only one way to deal with broom, 

 which is to leave it alone, but that takes fifteen years." 



Mr Charles Buchanan moved a vote of thanks to Mr 

 Macdonald for his paper, and to His Grace for presiding. 



