64 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



on an average to ;£t, per acre. Planting was then carried out 

 in the following manner: — Alternate rows of Scots pine and 

 Norway spruce were notched in 3 ft. apart in damp heathery 

 parts, with the spruce replaced by Corsican pine in the drier 

 parts, and in wet mossy parts Sitka spruce, pure, at the same 

 interval were used. On better-class bracken-covered soil 

 Douglas and Japanese larch were pitted in with the mattock 

 4 ft. by 4I ft. apart, with Austrian and Corsican pines on bare 

 rocky patches at 3 ft. by 3 ft. The total cost of establishing 

 the crop, including fencing, draining, plants at £1 per 1000, 

 planting at about 9s. per 1000, and with labour at 42s. per week, 

 amounted to ^9 per acre. It was very noticeable that the 

 spruce were not doing well except on the edge of ditches, and 

 Mr Bennett called for opinions as to the cause of this. Some 

 members expressed the opinion that with the merely moderate 

 rainfall of the district, the draining had been overdone, leaving 

 the area too dry for spruce, while the better result at the ditches 

 arose from the aeration of the soil from the breaking up of the 

 pan. Mr George Leven, on being appealed to, said he thought 

 conditions here were very similar to those obtaining in his 

 countryside at the east end of the Cheviots, where with a 

 heather-covered soil derived from sandstone and a low rainfall 

 he found spruce quite hopeless. The surface-rooting spruce 

 could not break through even a thin pan whereas the Scots pine 

 could, and he had no hesitation in saying that this was the tree 

 for such conditions, though Douglas and Sitka spruce would no 

 doubt be better than Norway spruce. Mr Gammell added that 

 though mountain pine was of no value in itself, he found it 

 of great use in such circumstances for sweetening and improving 

 the soil for the benefit of other more valuable species, which 

 recalls the similar use made of Scots pine in the great French 

 forest of Troncais in improving degenerate soil for the future 

 introduction of oak and beech. 



Speaking generally Mr Bennett said that his guiding rule was 

 pines in heather, larch in bracken, and Corsican and mountain 

 pines on rocky outcrops. 



The party then passed an interesting example of natural 

 regeneration from a neighbouring area, the seeds in this case 

 having been carried about 300 yds. from the parent trees of 

 Scots pine and larch. Part of the adjoining area had lately 

 been clear felled and replanted this year (1923) with i-yr. i-yr. 



