154 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
spruce forms a thick even crop about 50 to 55 years of age, average 
individuals containing about 20 cubic feet of timber, the largest 
trees running up to 50 feet cubic contents. On exposed margins 
the White American species has succeeded much the better of the 
two, and at the highest point of the shelter-belt a small clump has 
attained a height of 10 to 15 feet, where neither Norway spruce nor 
larch have been able to rise above the wall forming the boundary. 
At 1800 feet, on damp, peaty ground, the same species has reached 
a height of 30 feet, and is perfectly healthy, and the foliage entirely 
unaffected by cold winds which redden the needles of the common 
spruce. Lower down, where the two have been mixed together, 
the American species has quite held its own, but Mr Davidson 
states that it has been found much more liable to heart-rot than the 
common spruce. 
Mr Richardson, of Garrgill, who assisted in the planting of this 
wood, has been kind enough to furnish the following particulars 
of its past history :—Previous to 1850 the wood, which was then 
owned by the London Lead Company, was carrying a crop of 
young larch badly affected by disease and aphis. In 1851 to 1852 
the ground was cleared of larch, which was then large enough for 
fence-rails, pit-timber, etc., and the branches burned on the ground. 
The part now occupied by pure spruce was prepared by cutting 
open drains 6 feet apart, 3 feet wide, and 24 feet deep, and the 
material taken out spread regularly over the ground between them. 
This was done in the summer or autumn, and the ground planted 
in the following March. In other places, pits were prepared by 
cutting circular sods 15 or 18 inches in diameter, and the soil below 
taken out, and allowed to weather before planting, the sod then 
being placed grass downwards on the surface again. Other species 
tried here were Scots, American, Corsican and mountain pines, and 
ash, elm, poplars, beech, sycamore, etc., but all failed except spruce, 
beech, and Scots pine. The last-named is doing well on dry ground 
near the South Tyne, and beech and sycamore succeed well enough 
for shelter; but for all practical purposes spruce is the only tree 
which attains to any commercial value on the clayey subsoil. 
Where the latter consists of gravel, and the ground is well sheltered, 
as in the Gills, larch has attained dimensions of 20 to 30 cubic feet 
in the past, but it appears to be too risky a crop for trying on a 
large scale. Ash also reaches a size which can be turned to account 
for handle wood, shafts, etc., and from the name ‘‘Ashgill” is prob- 
ably indigenous, and beech attains a fair timber size on well 
drained ground. 
At the present time the spruce is being gradually cut in sections, 
and a ready sale at 6d. per cubic foot is found for it as pit-timber, 
for use in the Nenthead lead-mines. As shown in the table 
appended, an average annual increment of 60 cubic feet has been 
obtained from the ground, so that a gross rental of something like 
30s. per acre per annum is being obtained from the best portions. 
Allowing for bad and unproductive ground, and estimating the 
annual cost of management, replanting, etc., at 10s. per acre, it is. 
evident that a net annual return of 10s. to 20s. per acre is possible 
from this ground under present conditions. This, of course, is due 
to the exceptionally favourable conditions which exist for disposing 
of the timber, and which enable a price to be obtained for it which 
is probably fully double the average price which might be anticipated 
in such a locality under ordinary circumstances. 
Langdon Beck plantation, in which Plot 6 was measured, lies 
