8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of Arboriculture, and I must say that with all respect to the 

 writer of this excellent work, I cannot help thinking that he 

 has overstated the character of the oak forest. An old adage 

 tells us that "a single swallow does not make a summer," and, 

 I suppose, a single oak tree does not make a forest ; but with 

 regard to the mere size of oaks I have measurements of the 

 three largest oaks at present in Darnaway Forest. For 

 instance : — 



(i) The largest -on the Meads of St John— at 6 feet from the 

 ground, 14 ft. 2 ins. circumference. 



(2) Nearby— at 6 feet from the ground, 12 ft. 2 ins. circum- 



ference. 



(3) Further up the river, at 6 feet from the ground, 1 1 ft. 2 ins. 



circumference. 



Thinking that these were not of remarkable girth, a few days 

 ago, namely, 2nd February, while looking from a window at 

 Doune Lodge in Perthshire, I arranged to measure the largest 

 oak within sight — 150 yards from where I stood — and at 6 feet 

 from the ground it measured 14 ft. 8 ins. Thus the largest 

 tree selected by chance in front of a house in Perthshire 

 measured 6 inches more in circumference than the largest in 

 the forest of Darnaway. 



The Aberdeen Branch of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society visited Darnaway Forest on the 27th August 1920. The 

 party numbered about fifty. After a light luncheon, a brief 

 description was given by the head forester on the present plan 

 of working, and subsequently the chairman, secretary, and one 

 or two others of the company, expressed their pleasure at 

 what they had been able to see, and stated chat from their 

 experience the district for obtaining the best seeds of Scots 

 pine was to be found along the line running between Grantown 

 on the south and Forres on the north. This information was 

 exceedingly agreeable, for the line practically runs along the 

 eastern side of the forest. We have, within recent years, 

 extended our nursery and started a kiln to extract the seed 

 from pine and larch cones, and have arranged a plan to supply 

 various portions of the family estates with 2-year-old seedlings 

 of economic conifers. The nursery for growth of conifers 

 from the seed at Redstone and Cooperhill, Darnaway, is 

 (i) \\ acres for germinating and growing seedlings, and 



