202 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



26. Report of the Annual Excursion. 



By R. A. Galloway, B.Sc. 



The Society's Annual Excursion was held in Perthshire and 

 Forfarshire from 4th to 7th July 1922. The headquarters were 

 the Atholl Palace Hotel, Pitlochry, whence motor runs were 

 made each day to estates of interest in the surrounding country- 

 side. The attendance was a record one, as can be seen by a 

 glance at the list of excursionists. 



The district chosen is one particularly interesting to Scottish 

 foresters. Here the European larch was first cultivated as a 

 commercial species and its requirements carefully studied and 

 recorded ; here the Douglas fir was first planted in this country ; 

 here a new hybrid larch has been discovered and propagated ; 

 here many unique examples of arboriculture are to be seen ; 

 and to the district belong several men whose names are famous 

 in the world of forestry, such as John, Duke of Athole, 

 Archibald Menzies, and David Douglas. In fact, this district 

 is generally considered to be the home of Scottish forestry. 



Scone. 



On the 4th, the party left Pitlochry after an early breakfast 

 and motored via Perth to Scone, the estate of the Earl of 

 Mansfield. Mr William Leven, Woods Manager of the 

 Mansfield estates, met the party and acted as leader. It is 

 stated that 150 years ago there was little wood on the Mansfield 

 estates ; and if this be so, we need not look for a finer example 

 of what can be achieved by an active afforestation policy. 

 The countryside is now well wooded and the farms enjoy 

 excellent shelter. A good sample of the class of Scots pine 

 that can be grown here was seen in Ardgilzean Wood, one part 

 of which consists of a crop 104 years old, with 81 12 cub. ft. 

 per acre, and the other part of two-story-high forest, the over- 

 wood 138 years old with 1980 cub. ft, the underwood (also 

 pine) 80 years old with 2400 cub. ft. per acre. Felling opera- 

 tions were going on in part of the wood, and the forest 

 sawmill was inspected. The next call was at the Estate Nursery 



