290 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
this stage may be given. The trees had arrived at a size at 
which they could easily be disposed of as crate-wood, which in 
this particular locality is worth 20s. per ton on the ground, 
This sum not only repays the cost of trimming up the stems and 
the ultimate removal of the birch, but it goes a good way in 
reducing the initial cost of the young plantation, and were this 
method more commonly practised, it could not fail to prove 
remunerative. 
The second instance in which a similar experiment has been 
tried is in the block known as the Torbain Moss. The soil here 
is of a peaty nature, is difficult to drain, and, as a natural 
consequence, it is very liable to hoar-frosts. Its elevation 
above sea-level is practically the same as the Begg Moss, namely, 
300 feet. 
Many parts of this area, which is over 50 acres in extent, 
and which in the open carries a rough crop of heather, were 
found very difficult to restock, especially with spruce. In some 
instances several attempts had been made with very unsatis- 
factory results. Other causes, such as damage by pine-weevil 
and ground game, added to the difficulty of restocking; but by 
far the greatest drawback to successful planting were the late 
spring and early summer frosts. At the south-western corner of 
this block, an area of about 5 acres was covered with a fairly 
dense crop of self-sown birch. Having by this time noted the 
satisfactory result of the Begg Moss experiment, it was decided 
to treat this portion on exactly similar lines. This was done 
during the spring of 1902, when the birch—which was from 7 to 
Io years growth—were thinned, and the young spruce were 
introduced underneath their shelter. The standards still remain, 
while the growth of the spruce is all that could be wished for. 
{Where naturally sown birch is not found on the ground, a 
light crop of that sylviculturally useful species might be raised 
by means of broad-cast sowing. ‘This would cost but little, and 
after a few years would provide the shelter needed by young 
spruce.—Hon. Ep. | 
