136 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



That is an original idea which has suggested itself to me 

 after considering the whole matter, and I just put it 

 forward to the members of this Society as an important 

 suggestion. At the present moment it just happens that this 

 is an extremely opportune time, when the Government is 

 going in for oil of high-flash point such as can be got by 

 the distillation of peat just as well as from oil shale. So that 

 you get a fortune by the peat once you get the water out of 

 it, and you get the land under it for nothing. There are 

 plenty of old lochs in the country which have been silted up over 

 the edges, and the bottom of these lochs is not made up of mud, 

 but it is made up of rich alluvial soil. There is an endless 

 amount of possibilities for members of the Society who are 

 interested in the growth of trees. It might be worth while for 

 the Society to cultivate peat mosses. There is another point, 

 and Mr Gammell stated that it was very important, and so it 

 is, to have a local industry which gives employment to people 

 in the summer time. Well, the cutting of these peats and the 

 preparing of them for the retorts is the very thing they want. In 

 the winter time they could not work at it because the peats are 

 wet. This is one of those local industries which ought to be 

 encouraged." 



Mr George Leven, Bowmont Forest, Kelso, said: — "There 

 is certainly need to deal with the point of shelter. Coming 

 as I do from a part of the country that is naturally bare and 

 exposed, the part that Mr Scott Elliot and Mr Milne-Home 

 have referred to already, I know something of the benefit of 

 shelter-belts. If you were to pass through a part of the 

 ('heviot country at this moment you would see all the 

 shepherds busy erecting bields. These, as a rule, are artificial, 

 but where there is an abundance of sheltering belts of trees 

 they are not required. The fact has also been referred to that 

 shelter is half meat, and certainly in Mr Elliot's country of 

 Clifton Park it has proved to be the case, because the local 

 shelter they have provided by plantation has been the means of 

 improving the grass and also of improving the stock. Mr Gammell 

 also referred to small holdings. As has been shown, we find 

 that small landholders require a certain amount of employment 

 to fill in their time when they are not required on the holdings. 

 While one class of small holder may be able to enter a holding 

 that would occupy their full time, there are others who are quite 



