Pinus Sylvestris 583 



of vigour, I should prefer them, though I would not plant Scots pine as a forest 

 tree on any soil where I could get larch to grow even fairly well ; and on dry chalk 

 and limestone soils it never grows with the vigour that it does on sandy soils. 



Large parts of the open heath of the New Forest, though constantly pastured 

 by horses, are becoming overgrown with Scots pine to such an extent that if they 

 escape fire it seems as though they would eventually turn those open wastes into 

 a more or less dense pine wood.^ But on clay soils, and wherever a rank growth 

 of grass, ferns, or briars is found, natural reproduction is comparatively rare, and 

 over the whole of the Cotswold Hills I only know of a few places where self-sown 

 pines can be seen. 



If natural reproduction is desired, the best way of encouraging it is to uncover 

 lines or patches of soil in the winter, on which the seed falling in April can 

 germinate ; but the growth of these self-sown plants is, as usual with almost all 

 natural seedlings, at first much slower than that of planted trees. In very old pine 

 woods of 100 to 150 years' growth, such as are found in Strathspey and in a few 

 parts of England, the accumulated carpet of dead pine needles seems to prevent 

 the young seedlings from establishing themselves ; and in the Belvidere plantation 

 at Windsor Park, which is one of the finest in England, I saw no self-sown seedlings 

 under the fine old trees, many of which are loo feet and more in height. 



In such cases it is best to burn the heather or to graze it closely with sheep 

 and cattle, and in many cases this is a necessary preliminary to preparing the 

 ground for natural reproduction in Scots pine woods ; but if the soil produces 

 grass rather than heather, the regeneration is always less successful and requires 

 more assistance. 



I shall not attempt to give any estimate of the financial results of planting 

 Scots pine as an unmixed plantation, because the conditions of soil and climate are so 

 varied that any estimates, such as we see commonly given in books on forestry, are 

 usually misleading. On very sandy, dry soil it will probably pay as well or better 

 than any other tree, because it can be planted so cheaply, and will regenerate itself 

 so easily.^ But it must be kept thick enough to clean its stem before the branches 

 get large, and in fact it may be better not to thin at all until 20 to 30 years old, 

 when the weaker stems which will hardly pay to cut and carry out will be killed by 

 their stronger neighbours. On high moorlands also it may be, and now often is, as 

 profitable a crop as larch, because it grows well in windy and exposed situations ; 

 but I would not plant it, except as a nurse to other trees, on any soil where 

 experience has shown that a more valuable tree will grow to fair timber size, and 

 the plan often adopted of mixing it in larch plantations on calcareous soil has led 

 in many places to absolute failure. 



With regard to the possible yield of Scots pine in England, I have heard of 

 nothing better than a part of the Dipton Woods near Hexham, Northumberland, 

 the property of Lord Allendale. This was described in Trans. Scott. Arb. Soc. xx. 



* I was informed during a recent visit to tlie New Forest that the commoners already complain that the pasture is 

 deteriorating from this cause. 



2 I have seen no better example of natural regeneration than on the Duke of Bedford's property at Old Wavendon 

 heath, near Wobum. 



