282 FIELD AND FERN. 



CIAPffli 



TO BlU! fiTHOLL 



" I drove up to Loch Ordrie, and home "by Craig-y-Barns, fifteen 

 through woods of my own planting, from a year to forty years old, a very 

 grand picturesque drive, not to be equalled in Great Britain.'" 



The Athole Larches The late Duke of Athole His Love of Otter 

 Hunting The Athole Forest The Dunkeld Ayrshires Milk Sta- 

 tistics The Duchess Dowager's Farm at St. Colme's Pitlochry 

 The Castle and Burial-place at Blair Athole The "\Vcst Highland 

 Herd. 



So wrote John Fourth Duke of Athole, the most 

 energetic of Scottish planters. Mr. Christopher 

 Sykes, of Sledmere, who received a Book on Birds 

 from an East Riding Society in 1780 for planting 

 54,430 larches, was as nothing to his Grace. In 

 larch, and larch only, "with its sharp-pointed 

 top, which gives no rest to the snow," he placed 

 his woodland trust. Six thousand five hundred 

 acres were planted with it solely, and he gave it 

 seventy-two years to build a navy. Each tree was 

 to produce fifty cubic feet, and they were to sell 

 for 1,000 an acre, plus 7 an acre for the thin- 

 nings. Everything conspired to strengthen his con- 

 viction. The Navy Office reported the " AtholP to 

 be far sounder than the "Niemen" frigate of Baltic 



