THE ANNUAL EXCURSION. 79 



A run by way of Lamblairs Wood, where some fine timber 

 trees were noted in passing, and through Denhohn Village, 

 brought the party to Hawick, the headquarters for the night. 



On the morning of 30th June, the excursionists travelled by 

 special train from Hawick to Langholm, to visit the planta- 

 tions in Eskdale and Liddesdale, belonging to the Duke of 

 Buccleuch. On their arrival, Mr Milne Home, chamberlain, 

 and Mr D. Crabbe, forester, took the party in hand, and were at 

 great trouble to explain all points that cropped up during the 

 day. The existing aged woods are mostly mixed, half conifers 

 and half broad-leaved trees, but the greater part of what was 

 seen was undoubtedly rather thin and irregular. The younger 

 plantations have a larger percentage of conifers, and the newer 

 species such as Douglas fir, Menzies spruce and Japanese larch, 

 have been extensively planted. European larch was observed 

 to be badly attacked by disease, and particularly so in the Dean 

 Banks, where a strip of this species, planted through the centre of 

 an area of 5^ acres of Japanese larch, was seen to be in a very 

 bad state, while the Japanese species was in an extremely 

 healthy condition. Much interest was evinced in a portable 

 tramway that was seen in use removing timber from a very 

 steep glen. The bed of the stream was utilised for laying the 

 rails on wooden sleepers which were light and easily taken up 

 and removed. An experiment in tree manuring is being carried 

 out, but it was started so recently that little can be said regarding 

 it at present, and as it is being duplicated elsewhere, an official 

 report on the subject will in all probability be issued in due time. 

 A further experiment with larch disease is being conducted, 

 under the control of Mr E. R. Burdon. It is carried out on 

 a series of plots of Japanese and European larch planted in 

 different ways, by spraying certain of them with an emulsion of 

 soft soap and paraffin, by strewing twigs of larch, bearing Peziza 

 cups, over the enclosure, and by tying shoots, bearing Chermes 

 and their eggs, to the stems and branches. The results, up to the 

 middleof July 1911, have been kindly given by Mr Milne Home: — 



1. The growth of Japanese larch has been about twice as 



fast as that of the common larch. 



2. The sprayed plots are on the whole freer from Peziza than 



the unsprayed, but there is not much difference in height- 

 growth. 



3. There is no sign of disease on the Japanese larch. 



