64 AFFORESTATION IN SCOTLAND. 



Transpo/t Facilities. — The Caledonian Canal passes through 

 the middle of the area. Every part of it is also served by good 

 main roads converging on Fort Augustus. The upper end of 

 the area in Glen Moriston is also accessible from Fort Augustus, 

 by a good path over the hill in Port Clair deer forest, while 

 the northmost end of the ground, on Loch Ness beyond Glen 

 Doe, can easily be reached by water. 



Further road-making will be unnecessary in the beginning. 

 Carting roads will ultimately be necessary in some places, 

 and the various compartments must be intersected by drag 

 roads and inspection paths. The lines of these roads must 

 be marked off before planting begins, and strips of the requisite 

 breadth must be left implanted ; the making can be postponed 

 till a later period, at which labour is easily available. It will be 

 possible to bring the timber from much of the ground, down to 

 the existing main roads, by means of slides or by temporary 

 tramways. The compartment divisions should be laid down in 

 such a way as to allow of their being used for this purpose. 



Planting Scheme.- — The actual planting will present few diffi- 

 culties here. Deer must be fenced out, and black game kept down. 

 Rabbits must be exterminated. The surface herbage will not be 

 difficult to treat. Where bracken is found, it must be attacked 

 early in the year previous to planting, and the cutting or flicking 

 operations repeated in the same season, as often as is necessary. 

 In a few places only will it be necessary to adopt any special 

 methods of planting, such as planting on the tops of upturned 

 turfs in wet places. Two-year-old seedlings can be used to a large 

 extent, although on grassy land, where spruce will be planted, older 

 material must be used. Existing birch-woods should be utilised 

 to afford protection to the young crop from frost and wind. Where 

 fjirch ex-ists on ground which is to be planted, total clearance 

 should not take place. A number of trees should be left till the 

 young plantation is established and beyond the danger of frost. 

 The removal of these trees at a later period will present no 

 practical difficulty. In selected places, existing birch-woods 

 should be left intact, in order that protection from wind may be 

 afforded to neighbouring plantations. Birch should also be left 

 in fairly broad strips, at intervals throughout the new woods. 

 These will serve as fire lines as well as shelter-belts, and both the 

 strips and blocks will provide shelter for deer, meantime. The 

 birch will, of course, be completely removed in time. 



