NOTES AND QUERIES. 223 



despised. For house and garden shelter, the gean, mountain 

 ash, laburnum, and oval-leaved privet are among the species 

 insufficiently employed. Chestnuts, black Italian poplars and 

 Acers will soon make a show on unutilised spots of bare land — 

 and much of arable Scotland remains very bare — and will serve 

 for shelter or for ornament. Beech, elm and ash should be 

 clumped or grown in two or three close lines for avenues, else 

 they will rarely become ornamental timber. 



Corners where fields meet can often be planted with a clump 

 of trees to the great advantage of the landscape. The willow, 

 and especially its scarlet variety, too rarely gives colour to the 

 margin of our streams and pools. Nor is the toom or ashpit 

 often enough secluded by a diadem of Retinospora or other 

 ornamental species. Apart altogether from large plantations, 

 were landowners to take a more active interest in the disposition 

 of ornamental timber, outside their policies, this would have a 

 considerable effect upon the comfort and welfare of their tenants 

 and their employees — whilst by removing the eyesores of stunted, 

 hidebound, ill-grown standards, and by covering bare and ugly 

 pieces of ground with shelter clumps for man and beast, the 

 splendid natural scenery of Scotland would be further enhanced. 



R. M. Ferguson. 



The Ardgoil Estate. 



The development and utilisation of the above estate, lately 

 presented to the city of Glasgow by Mr Cameron Corbett, M.P., 

 is of considerable interest from a forestry point of view. 



The estate is situated in the parishes of Lochgoilhead and 

 Kilmorich, and consists of 14,650 acres, the majority of the 

 area being rough hill pasture land. The greatest elevation is 

 found on the summit of Ben Ime, which attains a height of 

 3318 feet, while five other hills of over 2000 feet in height occur 

 on the estate. Very few estates present such a minimum 

 proportion of level arable ground. 



The purpose for which the gift was made was to provide a 

 place of resort for the citizens of Glasgow ; and all revenues 

 from the estate are to be devoted to the upkeep of the estate, 

 and to rendering it more accessible to the inhabitants of 



