AMONG THE PINES AND FIRS 207 



with regard to the cultivation of silver fir under 

 climatic conditions differing so essentially from 

 those of the localities to which it is indigenous. 

 Except when grown under very favourable condi- 

 tions, its timber, known as * White Pine ' from 

 the paucity of resin ducts, ranks rather below 

 that of spruce in general quality, and both of 

 these are inferior to the heartwood of larch and 

 Scots pine. The wood of the Douglas Fir or 

 Red Pine of Oregon (P. Douglasii) produced in 

 Scotland is now known to rank in quality between 

 that of Scots pine and larch, and as its production 

 of wood exceeds in annual average that of any 

 other conifer grown in Britain, this very valuable 

 tree seems to deserve special consideration and 

 experimental cultivation in woods worked for 

 profit. 



The rate of growth of Douglas fir is indeed 

 remarkable. In 1887 evidence was given before 

 the Parliamentary Committee on Forestry that 

 on the Scone estate, in Perthshire, a plantation of 

 eight acres in extent, made in 1860, gave a thin- 

 ning of 620 poles of large size in the spring of 

 1887. This plantation, as the Earl of Mansfield 

 has kindly informed me, now consists of 1535 



