2o8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



which brings in ready money, and many proprietors, however 

 willing to make improvements, are glad of a quick return. The 

 last reason which I will mention is the increased expense of 

 planting. I have got information from a very reliable source 

 of the cost of fencing, draining, and planting a plantation of 

 very nearly looo acres, now nearly 50 years old. The plants 

 used consisted of Scots fir, larch, and a few spruce, all three years 

 old, in the proportion of two Scots firs to one larch. The total 

 cost (including everything save superintendence) was as nearly as 

 possible thirty shillings per acre. This sounds to me, and I am 

 sure to you, a very low figure, but I am confident my information 

 is quite correct. Another plantation I have heard of, now about 

 80 years old, was planted at ten shillings the acre. I am certain 

 this could not be done now for anything like the same price. The 

 price of labour has increased, the price of plants has also risen 

 enormously. About the year i860 one-year seedling Scots firs 

 could be purchased at ^£4. per hundred thousand, two-year 

 seedlings at ;^5, and one-year one-year transplants at ^£12 

 per hundred thousand. A catalogue of a most respectable 

 firm of nurserymen for the year 1906- 1907 is before me. The 

 prices given in it are — one-year seedlings, 4s. per thousand ; two- 

 year seedlings, los. to 12s.; and one-year one-year transplants, 

 14s. to 1 6s. per thousand — at least five times the previous 

 prices. This is an exceptional year, but I am quite con- 

 vinced that it will be a long time before we see the above- 

 quoted low figures again. Then as to the price of labour. I 

 remember in the year 1843 '^hat in the South of Scotland men's 

 wages were 7s. a week in summer and 6s. in winter. We all 

 know what has to be paid nowadays. On the other hand, almost 

 the only circumstances I can mention as having tended to in- 

 crease the value of woodlands are the improvements in the 

 manufacture of timber from the old sawpits to machinery of the 

 finest possible kind, and the improvements in inland transport, 

 from horse-haulage and river-floating to traction-engines, steam 

 lorries, and railways. But though this has certainly tended to 

 make woods more valuable, and in remote districts more saleable, 

 it can hardly lead to increased planting in the case of proprietors 

 who are in lack of ready money, and anxious for a speedy interest 

 on their outlays. I remember that at one of the early meetings 

 of the Society in Edinburgh, a very worthy forester, one held in 

 estimation all over the country, rose and said : ' I have a letter 



