94 ORMISTOUN^S LETTERS 



over top or hurt the other trees. I can name no number to 

 be taken out nor out of what places. That must be left to 

 the judgment and discretion of them upon the spot. I don't 

 mean by this to destroy all the firs as in some places was done at 

 last sneding of the Haining for I look upon them as both 

 useful and profitable trees if considered justly, and none from 

 Norway equal to the Timber I saw wrought from them which 

 grew upon that spot when the Coal machines were made. 

 What I mean is only to take out some to give air and room for 

 the rest of the firs and other trees to thrive the better. Where 

 too thick take out the worst and leave the best tree. The best 

 time for cutting is in frost or any time after this frost before 

 sap thins. Care must be taken that when they fall they don't 

 hurt more trees than they serve by being thinned. I design 

 the tops for dry-fences so be sure they are not carried away. 



If your Tares are gone, buy a Boll of mouse Pease^ as called 

 for the Pidgeons and feed them and after you have fed them 

 for a Week and made them find meat at home, secure all in 

 the house over night, and go in and kill all the Blue and . . . 

 in both houses, and continue feeding till people begin to sow. 

 The number of Pidgeon Houses in the Country make ^ pidgeons 

 give little profit, so I '11 have them for the colour tho' few. 

 Many will destroy more Wheat than ten times their number 

 will pay for. The feeding before the fright from killing the 

 Blue, will make the White come back for Meat, which other- 

 wise may be frightened to the . . . Pits or Belshes.^ The 

 sooner this is done the better. 



When I began this I designed it for yourself, but as I find 

 most of it is for Ch: Bell, you may give it to him to do as 

 directed in it, and also what was in my last about . . . hills 



^ Mouse eaten, and so tainted and unfit for what was then the commonest 

 bread food. 



2 'Number . . . make.' Due to influence of the nearer plural houses. The 

 ' little profit ' due to the number of dovecots showed that the game of ' beggar 

 my neighbour ' did not pay. This, the only loose joint in Cockburn's economical 

 armour, was a survival from his feudal upbringing. The laird's pigeons, he 

 thought, had every right to live on the laird's tenants. See pp. 65 and 86. 



^ Halfway up the avenue from the entrance nearest the village. It has some 

 fine laurels and hollies. The dovecot could not have been at Belshes, but 

 nearer the old House. See Introduction, p. xx. 



