I70 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
may be assumed all over at about 74 cubic feet, with fivepence 
for pine and sevenpence half-penny for larch per cube foot as the 
general prices obtained. 
In reviewing the results and financial returns, and in com- 
paring them with similar statistics from other localities, the 
following points must be kept well in view in order to arrive at 
any correct judgment :— : 
1. The soil, elevation and exposure. 
2. The age and species of the trees. 
3. The mode of disposal in the market. 
4. The facilities for transport on removal. 
With regard to these points, in connection with the Estate of 
Learney, the following observations may be made :— 
1. The soil and elevation have been already described, but 
it should be added that the hill is to a great extent isolated 
and exposed to gales of wind from S.W. and N.W., which 
have on several occasions made great havoc amongst the 
trees, and thus both lowered the financial return per acre by 
the small price obtained for blown and broken trees in a glutted 
market, and lowered the average number of mature trees stand- 
ing on the ground per acre when the time for clean cutting 
arrived. 
2. On a large extent of the ground the trees were allowed to 
grow for eighty years before clean cutting, as they required fully 
that time to arrive at maturity on the higher elevations; whilst 
on other parts of the area the glutted markets, following the 
severe gales experienced in 1893 and 1894, delayed sales for 
several years. The trees, however, and especially the larch 
on the northern slopes, have provided hard, close-grained, 
sound timber, samples of which, well over eighty years 
of age, may be seen in the Forestry Department of the 
University of Edinburgh. 
3. The trees were, as a rule, sold by means of advertisement 
followed by offers taken in the open market, and have been 
purchased by many timber merchants well known in Scotland, 
and a fair market price has thus been secured. There is no 
_ local industry in the immediate neighbourhood, such as coal- 
mines or barrel factories, which can afford a steady demand 
for thinnings and thus augment the financial return. 
