76 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



larch, chestnut, beech, and sycamore, growing at a fairly rapid 

 rate, though the situation is north-east, or east, and extremely 

 exposed. 



Of course, in speaking of trees at high elevations planta- 

 tions are meant, because these will succeed on the dense 

 principle, where single trees would never be much better than 

 scrub. The sycamore, although Brown recommends it to be 

 nursed with Scotch firs, is a very hardy tree, isolated specimens 

 on the most exposed sites attaining to large size. The sweet 

 chestnut also grows freely at high elevations and so does the 

 beech. 



The late Mr. John Macgregor, forester to the Duke of 

 Athole, in his evidence before the Parliamentary Committee, 

 stated that from one thousand to twelve hundred feet should 

 be the limit for the larch, and averred that the difference in 

 the value of a crop of larch per acre, at one thousand feet 

 elevation and lower down, would probably amount to 80 

 that is to say, the crop highest up was worth 20, and that 

 lower down worth 100. We know the larch woods from 

 which these valuations were taken, and our opinion is that the 

 crops might have been worth more if they had been less 

 severely thinned. We have known larch crops, not valued, 

 but sold, at 50 per acre, at an elevation of twelve hundred 

 feet, and from soil of the poorest description. This wood was 

 near the summit of the Pennine Range. 



As regards aspect in planting, that, of course, may make 

 much difference. The warmest and most sheltered spots 

 should, as a rule, be chosen for the most tender species mostly 

 hard-woods and the coldest spots for the firs, beech, birch, 

 and alder, etc., which, in the south, seems to prefer northern 

 exposures where the soil is suitable. This is found to be the 

 case in the mountain ranges of the Black Forest, in about the 

 same parallel as Central France, at an elevation of from two 

 thousand feet to three thousand five hundred feet, where the 

 common silver firs and Scotch fir attain a height of one 

 hundred and forty feet. Here reproduction is generally good, 

 but " a marked difference is found between northern and 

 southern slopes, the growth and reproduction being far more 

 vigorous on the former than on the latter." Schlich, vol. iii., 

 p. 366. 



Gales are another subject to be noticed under this head. 

 Both owners and their foresters in Scotland are under the 

 impression that nowhere in Europe are gales so destructive to 

 woods as in Scotland, and it is asserted that dense woods 



