50 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



relatively young trees ^ is of doubtful wisdom, whereas gemmage 

 d mort practised just previous to the utilisation of the timber, 

 may be an economical operation. 



4. The Forest Research Station at Ziirich has lately published 

 a volume of 345 pages, the work of twenty years. The book 

 contains tables of production for the spruce and beech. Up to 

 80 years of age the spruce produces nearly twice as much wood 

 as the beech, and the proportion is the same at 1 20 years when 

 the forest is in the mountains. In the plains the spruce has a 

 fast growth only up to 60 years old, when the growth diminishes. 

 At 80 years the decrease becomes rapid, and it is the exception 

 to find spruce forest 100 years old in low altitudes; they have 

 died away. In the mountains, say from 2500 feet level, the 

 rate of growth is slow in early years, and reaches its maximum 

 very late, but the tree retains its productivity there up to 140 

 years or later. As the growth is more regular in the mountains, 

 the wood is more valuable. The spruce suffers badly from 

 fungus, but this becomes less and less the case as the elevation 

 increases. It does not appear that the trouble is in any way 

 affected by the degree of density of the stock in a pure spruce 

 wood, but it is the case that when mixed with broad-leaved 

 species the spruce is at its healthiest. 



Very important results must follow from the establishment of 

 research stations. Everywhere abroad, in Europe and America, 

 and now at last in India, we find them. There are so many 

 secrets of nature still awaiting the forester; silviculture is the 

 youngest, and probably the least explored, of the sciences, and, 

 we think, the most fascinating. Many results will no doubt be 

 arrived at by accident, in the course of other investigations, 

 but there are some obvious objects to be sought by long 

 observation, as for example, the rate of growth of species at 

 different periods of their lives, upon which depends the length 

 of rotation to apply. There is no manner of doubt that careful, 

 patient, accurately recorded research is of the utmost importance. 

 To be in tune with the forest movement in these islands, and, 

 above all, to render the movement permanent, the time has 

 come for England, Scotland, and Ireland to each establish a 

 research station. Although there are research stations in many 



^ Twenty years ago f^emmage A vie was not practised on the dunes of 

 Gascony until the trees had attained a girth of nearly 4 feet. — Hon. Ed. 



