824 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



With regard to the future of the Douglas fir forests it is very hard to say 

 to what extent or for what period the present supply will last. Axe and fire are 

 certainly destroying them at a great rate, but the reproduction all over the coast 

 region is so good, and the danger of fire in dense young growths of trees so 

 small, that many places cleared twenty to forty years ago are already covered 

 with healthy young trees ; and though the size and quality of these will probably 

 never equal those of the virgin forests, yet there is no reason why, with 

 reasonable care, the forests should be devastated as they are now. On the drier 

 mountains of the interior, the danger of destruction is greater; and it seems to 

 me that whilst Douglas pine is the dominant tree of the coast region, Pinus 

 ponderosa, owing to its thicker bark and greater adaptability to dry soils and 

 climates, will replace it in the interior. 



Introduction 



The Douglas fir was discovered by Menzies at Nootka Sound in 1797. Seeds 

 were, however, first sent home by Douglas in 1827, from which plants were raised 

 by the Horticultural Society of London and distributed throughout the country. 

 According to a note by Mr. Frost 1 the tree at Dropmore, which is usually 

 considered to be the oldest in England, was raised from seed sown by himself 

 in the winter of 1827-1828. 



Cultivation 



The best account 2 of the cultivation of Douglas fir yet written is by Mr. Crozier, 

 forester on the Durris estate in Kincardineshire, who has paid special attention to 

 this tree, and is one of the most experienced foresters in Scotland. He 

 prefers to collect home-grown seed, and considers that much may be done to 

 improve the type of the tree commercially, by selection of the best varieties as seed- 

 bearers ; and states that the production of seed in good years is enormous, no less than 

 15,000 cones having been counted on an outlying specimen tree about 40 years old. 



The seed ripens about the beginning of October, when the cones should be 

 gathered without delay before the seed escapes. After storage in a dry loft through 

 the winter, the cones are exposed to sun heat, which causes them to shed the seed. 

 In the beginning of May the seed is sown in beds 3 to 3J feet wide, one pound being 

 allowed to every 8 or 10 yards. The seedlings are transplanted at two years old, and 

 Mr. Crozier prefers to plant them out in the month of April one year later by 

 notching, or if the ground is liable to be covered with bracken or herbage, 

 by pitting in plants a year older. 



So far as my own observations go this tree will not grow well on clay or on 

 the oolite formation, but it thrives on greensand, and on sandstone of the Llandovery 

 group at Tortworth. If desired to grow to a large size, it should be planted in a 

 well-sheltered situation, where the soil is of sufficient depth and fertility to keep the 

 trees growing for a long period, but in exposed situations the tops are ruined by the 



1 Gard. Chron. 187 1, p. 1360. * Trans. Koy. Scot. Arb. Sac. xxi. 31 (1908). 



