234 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and so on. A pretty wide range ! Even at the rates found 

 near the bottom of the table the burden of providing fences is 

 heavy enough ; but if the blocks of forest are large ones, it is 

 not so heavy as it is often represented to be. If, however, the 

 blocks are of irregular outline, or are elongated into the form 

 of strips or shelter-belts, the cost of fencing will be much higher 

 than that stated above, which has reference to square blocks 

 only. Indeed, if the blocks be sufficiently irregular or elongated, 

 the cost may be almost infinitely expanded. 



It may therefore be assumed that, having regard to the bill 

 for fencing, large, regularly shaped, and approximately square 

 blocks are much to be preferred. And large blocks have the 

 further great advantage that, as indicated by the proportionally 

 shorter length of the fence required to enclose them, they carry 

 a smaller proportion of ill-shapen, branchy, marginal trees ; while 

 the larger the area, the more do the conditions of moisture, 

 temperature, and air-stillness in the interior approach those 

 of a natural forest, and thus promote the healthy development 

 of the crop. Again, in the case of large areas, work, being 

 more concentrated, can be more efficiently supervised and 

 more economically done; fewer roads for the removal of 

 timber have to be kept up, while labour-saving mechanical 

 means of transport may be more successfully employed; and, 

 finally, the market can be better served, to the enhancement of 

 sale prices. 



On most estates woods are required for game coverts; and 

 they answer this purpose better if they are not too large, and 

 if they are more or less elongated rather than compact in 

 shape. But on some estates, at least, it may be possible, 

 after duly providing for sporting requirements, to devote con- 

 siderable areas to the practice of systematic forestry, with 

 profit as the object of management; and such areas should, 

 as far as practicable, be laid out in large and compact blocks. 



F. B. 



Experimental Study of Larch Canker. 



Mr E. R. Burdon, of the Botany School, Cambridge, proposes 

 to organise an experiment on a large scale to test the theory 

 that the Chermes bug is responsible for the majority of cases 

 of Larch canker. In outline the experiment is as follows : — 

 It is proposed to start in different parts of England and Scotland 



