A CENTURY OF FORESTRY ON THE ESTATE OF LEARNEY,. b ays 
4. In the earlier portion of the century under review facilities 
for removal were practically non-existent, except in the form of 
horse and cart. The woods lie twenty miles from the county 
town of Aberdeen, and six or seven miles from the river Dee, 
on the waters of which flotation by rafts was employed for the 
forests in the vicinity of that river. Railway. communication 
was only brought to Torphins in 1861, and the average distance 
of the woods from Torphins Railway Station is about four miles 
by road, whilst about one mile is frequently over rough tracks 
on a rugged hill-side. The lowering effect on prices obtained 
for trees, owing to difficulties of transport and distance from a 
railway station, is too well known to call for further notice 
here, 
The cost of planting and replanting the 830 acres since 1844 
amounted to £1955, being an average of £2, 7s, per acre, and 
the schedule on the annexed plan gives the details, exclusive of 
fencing and draining, neither of which have been heavy items, 
as the ground is generally dry, and rabbits have been well kept 
down. The cost of planting, as of most other such work, has 
greatly risen in recent years, whilst the results in growth are 
perhaps not quite so sure and satisfactory as in former times; 
plants seem to be less hardy and more subject to the attacks of 
the many varieties of insect pests, which are much described and 
much depicted in books and in pamphlets, but against whose 
depredations it is hard to find any practical remedy within the 
limits of reasonable economy. Some interesting comparisons as 
to the success of diverse methods with this end in view, by 
varying the interval of time between cutting and replanting, by 
change of crop, and by clearance and preparation of the surface, 
may be arrived at from the particulars given in the annexed 
plan and schedule. 
Prevention of the formerly unknown ravages of ground game 
and squirrels demands much time and attention, and the 
necessary clearance of the ground from brushwood before re- 
planting, after felling the previous crop, is now a troublesome and 
expensive operation. As farmers and others are not nearly so 
ready as formerly to remove the brushwood, although granted 
free, collecting in heaps and burning has now to be resorted to, 
which sometimes costs about as much as the ordinary price of 
replanting. This apathy on the part of farmers is apparently 
owing partly to labour difficulties, and partly to the fact 
