108 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



faster .than the common spruce, which it resembles in its habits 

 and wants, and its timber is used for similar purposes. The 

 two are commonly planted together in Scotland. Probably no 

 forest tree involves so much work in felling and cleaning as 

 this fir when grown in thin woods, where it is always heavily 

 branched. Jn Continental spruce forests we have seen trees 

 one hundred and thirty feet high, felled, that needed scarcely 

 any cleaning save the cutting off of the short top, whereas in 

 Scotland, trees of less size we have known to occupy two men 

 nearly a day in cutting off the -branches alone. 



DOUGLAS FIR. Abies Douglasii. Within the last few 

 years a new variety of this species, called " Colorada Douglas 

 Fir," has been introduced, and recommended as superior to 

 the original variety. Planters should, however, be cautious in 

 substituting the new for the old. The Colorada variety is still 

 dear, and wherever we have seen it side by side with the original 

 form, its slower height-growth was very marked ; and as the 

 rapid growth of the original Douglas fir is its best recom- 

 mendation, as a timber-tree, the superior value of the new kind 

 may be doubted. The latter is of a more squat habit, and 

 varies in the colour of its foliage from light to glaucus green. 

 The old variety comes true and is the safest to plant for 

 timber. The vitality of this tree exceeds ,that of all other 

 firs in suitable situations. Like the spruce, it fails on dry 

 soils and exposures. We have known it tried repeatedly and 

 carefully in such positions far inland on the eastern slopes of 

 the Pennine Range in Yorkshire and fail completely, but have 

 seen it growing freely near the sea on the Norfolk coast along 

 with other spruces. In the New Forest it is as much at home 

 as in Perthshire, where it is seen at its best the fine lawn 

 specimen at Dunkeld, planted about 1845, and containing 

 about one hundred cubic feet, being one of the finest examples 

 in Scotland. The tree should be grown in crowded planta- 

 tions by itself in order to cause the lower branches to be shed 

 early. Under such conditions, probably no other forest tree 

 would reach large and useful pole size so soon, but, unfor- 

 tunately, it has not been grown in that way as yet, and 

 examples we have seen have been of the worst description as 

 timber trees, being clothed to their base with branches that 

 produced huge knots at their junction with the trunk, which 

 was also ,too tapering. In one well-known plantation the 

 forester had sawn the lower branches off, a practice that would 

 have been unnecessary had the trees been sufficiently crowded. 

 The timber of the Douglas fir has been sold at one shilling 



