THE TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL EXCURSION. 85 
Woods belonging to Mr Beaumont a crop of Scots pine one 
hundred years old received a good deal of attention from the 
party. The crop was very good, but, owing to its having been 
thinned rather freely in the early stages, the timber was some- 
what rougher than it should have been. The plantation contains 
something like gooo cubic feet per acre, which, at 4d. per foot, 
works out at £150 per acre. A younger part of the same wood, 
belonging to the Duke of Northumberland, was also visited, 
and after an inspection of the portable saw-mill which was 
being used here, and a demonstration of the method of extract- 
ing the timber from the adjoining woods, by means of a winding- 
drum and wire cable with which the traction engine which 
drives the saw-mill is provided, the party repaired to some 
thirty-year-old plantations, also on the Duke’s property, where 
Mr A. C. Forbes has commenced some interesting experiments 
to show the effects respectively of (2) removing from the ground, 
every third or fourth year, the needles shed by the trees, 
(4) leaving the needles as they fall, and (c) dressing the 
ground with beech leaves. 
After lunch at Holly Bush, an inspection of some newly formed 
Scots pine plantations on the Duke of Northumberland’s 
property was made. The soil is of a light sandy nature, with 
an overlying layer of thin peat, carrying a strong crop of 
heather. In planting this, Mr Gillanders has adopted the plan 
of removing wholly a large turf, about a yard in diameter, where 
each plant is inserted, in order to get the roots into the mineral 
soil beneath, and the results seemed to amply justify the method 
employed. Some young Scots pine plantations on the same 
property, on which experiments with various kinds of artificial 
manures were being carried out, were next visited, and the 
party thereafter repaired to a part of the Dipton Woods belong- 
ing to Mr Beaumont, where some splendid larch were seen. 
These trees are ninety years old, and a sample acre contains 
6600 cubic feet, which, at rs. per cubic foot, works out at £350 
per acre, and this on ground which, it was stated, is not worth 
more than rs. per acre for other purposes. A hurried inspection 
of a rather open thirty-year-old Scots pine plantation, some parts of 
which had been badly damaged by squirrels, on the Healey estate 
was made ex route to Minster Acres ; and at the latter place, where 
a short halt was made, some fine specimen conifers were seen, 
including an avenue of Wellingtonias of very vigorous growth. 
