REPORT OF THE ANNUAL EXCURSION. 6 1 



On leaving, Mr Whitton voiced the thanks of the Society to 

 Capt. Wingate for his courteous leadership, and also asked him 

 to convey their thanks to the Earl for so kindly allowing them 

 to see over this magnificent estate. 



Dalemain. 



The party then proceeded to the village of Askham, had 

 an alfresco lunch, and continued the journey to Dalemain 

 where they were met by the proprietor. Major Hasell, a 

 Cambridge graduate in Forestry, The first wood visited 

 consisted of oak and beech, about 150 to 160 years old, on red 

 loam over carboniferous limestone, and the owner explained 

 that his problem here was to regenerate the area without clear 

 felling, which would destroy the amenity of his mansion-house 

 adjoining. He started natural regeneration on part of the area 

 in 1 91 2, but found it very slow, and the young seedlings being 

 mostly ash and sycamore, as there had only been one full mast 

 of oak and beech in the last 10 years, it was necessary to sow 

 these latter artificially. Major Hasell asked for suggestions for 

 improving the natural regeneration, and several members 

 mentioned the method of grazing pigs on the area to dig up 

 the soil with their sharp hoofs and so prepare it for the 

 germination of the seeds, but the owner felt that the necessary 

 fencing in of the pigs would prove too expensive to be 

 practicable. The party was then taken to a slope which had 

 been clear felled and replanted in 19 14 with Scots pine at the 

 top, larch, maple and sycamore lower down, while at the foot 

 acorns had been sown in trenches 2 ft. wide which had produced 

 a dense crop of young oak about 4 ft. high. In discussing 

 various methods of sowing acorns Mr MacBean said that it 

 was his experience that one should disturb the ground as little 

 as possible in sowing, otherwise moles and mice would be 

 attracted to the spot and eat up the seed; which recalls a 

 French method of sowing acorns in filling up blanks in natural 

 regeneration areas by dropping acorns down a steel tube pushed 

 into the ground, so as not to attract the attention of jays, which 

 are very destructive to acorns. 



The next point of interest was an area planted in 1913 with 

 pure groups of European larch, Sitka spruce and Scots pine, 

 with Italian poplar on a water-course, also on a small part 

 acorns had been sown in every third and fourth furrow broad- 



