50 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH AKHORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



XI. In 1876, M. Carridre invented a clever and simple plan 

 for dealing with relatively small ravines on bare hillsides, where 

 torrents form and cause much damage below. This is known 

 as " Garnissage," and it has been very successful. Having 

 assured a firm bottom to the ravine with stones or lines of pegs, 

 branches are laid heading up the ravine, the lower ends being 

 stuck into the soil. On this are laid rough poles placed criss- 

 cross at about 45 degrees to the line of the ravine, the lower 

 ends stuck into the banks. Finally, at right angles to the 

 ravine, more poles are laid across and fixed to pegs driven into 

 the banks. Wire is used liberally to tie these poles together. 

 When finished the surface must be slightly concave. The rains 

 and snows soon cover this garnissage with stones and soil, and 

 it is then necessary to sow grasses and the seeds of bushy 

 plants, to be followed by cuttings of willows and poplars, and 

 plants of Robinia, alder and many other things. These are 

 often afterwards cut back to make them bushy, or are layered. 

 A further stage is to peg down branches higher up the slopes. 

 The vegetation soon spreads. 



XII. Of late years a new use for ash has sprung up, namely 

 the manufacture of skis. Herr Janka, of the Research Station 

 of Mariabriinn, has lately, writes M. Huflfel, made a study 

 of the matter, in order to ascertain which is the best ash-wood 

 to employ. The special qualities of ash — elasticity, flexibility, 

 hardness, resistance to crushing — are proportional to the density 

 of the wood. An excess of moisture diminishes the hardness 

 of ash and its resistance to crushing, but augments its flexibility 

 and elasticity. To some extent we may judge merely by eye 

 of the qualities of ash. The fact, already stated by Mathieu, 

 that the breadth of the spring-wood of ash (as also of oak, elm 

 and others of analogous structure) is constant, whereas the 

 dense autumn-wood may vary in breadth, shows that the faster 

 the growth (and larger the annual ring) the heavier the 

 wood. It is the exact opposite with the conifers. While it is 

 true that ash with a narrow annual ring, such as is grown in 

 a crowded wood, has always a relatively inferior quality — 

 another reason, by the way, for freeing the crowns of ash in 

 a wood — it nevertheless does not follow (so the article states) 

 that the trees that have grown quickest have always the densest 

 wood, and it appears that wood grown moderately fast is the 

 best for ski making. There is very great waste in this industry, 



