CHAP. CX1II. CONl'FKHvE. PlVlJS. 2181 



age, and are planted in the same way, as the pines. The seasons of planting 

 are autumn and spring; but the former is preferred, from the uncertainty of 

 getting the work accomplished in spring, on account of snow and frost. The 

 men are paid 1-?., and the women and boys Cr/. , per day, of six hours. The 

 Scotch pine plants of the true kind (from Highland seed) cost 2.v. per thou- 

 sand of 1200, and the two-years' seedling larches 3s. per thousand. To 

 these expenses must be added that of fencing, which varies according to 

 the situation of the plantation. If near farms, stone walls or turf dikes 

 faced with stone are required ; if further removed from the approaches of 

 cattle, turf fences are sufficient; whilst in the most remote parts, where occa- 

 sional inroads from sheep are alone to be apprehended, fences are sometimes 

 dispensed with, and a person resident on the spot is employed, at a small salary, 

 (say 51. per annum) to protect the plantation by driving away any sheep 

 or cattle that may encroach on it. A healthy plantation should be safe from 

 injury from sheep in 8 years, and in 12 years from cattle. In wet portions of 

 the hilly ground, narrow surface drains are of great advantage, and may be 

 made at a small expense. 



" In the natural forests of Scotch pine, the plants spring up of different 

 ages ; and, being consequently of various sizes, the stronger gradually destroy 

 the weaker, until the wood is reduced to the distances at which the trees can 

 ultimately stand ; whilst the lateral branches gradually decay and fall off, so 

 that thinning and pruning are quite unnecessary. In short, a natural, or 

 self-sown, forest of Scotch fir is left entirely to nature. Nature sows the 

 seed, rears the tree, prunes and thins the wood ; and the hand of man is 

 applied only to cut it down when fit for timber. In this manner, the exten- 

 sive forests of Glenfeshie, Rothiemurchus, Dulnain, Glenmore, and Abernethy, 

 .on the Spey, and those of Braemar and Invercauld on the Dee, were pro- 

 duced. The high price of timber during the war induced the proprietors of 

 those fine woods to cut them down. Most of them are now exhausted ; and 

 the few trees which remain of the others scarcely suffice to convey an idea 

 of those that are gone. For several years, 18,000/. per annum was produced 

 from the Rothiemurchus wood, after deducting all expenses of felling, sawing, 

 and floating to the mouth of the Spey ; and a sum not less than 250,000/. 

 has probably been obtained from that forest alone. The ground which has 

 been cleared is rapidly regaining its covering of wood : wherever the heath is 

 short, and especially where the surface is broken so as readily to admit the 

 seed, thousands of plants spring up ; nor do I know a more interesting sight, 

 than this gradual progress of nature to repair the destruction caused by the 

 hand of man. Macpherson Grant. BallindaHoch, August 26. 1837." 



Thinning and Pruning, as at present practised in the Scotch Pine Plantations in 

 the North of Scotland. After perusing Mr. Grigor's Report on the native pine 

 forests of Scotland, of which an abstract is given in p. 2165., we wrote to him 

 for information on the subjects of thinning and pruning, as actually practised in 

 these forests, and also inartificial plantations ; and as to the effects of the 

 neglect of either or both of these operations. To our application Mr. Grigor 

 kindly and promptly sent us the following answer: " The old trees of the 

 native Scotch pine forests have trunks quite clean and free from old stumps, so 

 that the side branches must have rotted off when the trees were young, and 

 of a small size. Some of the pines, grown on exposed situations, have strong 

 side branches, but not very near the ground : such branches are commonly 

 found above large clean trunks of from 15 ft. to 30 ft. in length. When the 

 timber of these forests is cut up, loose knots are rarely met with : indeed, 

 knots of any importance are seldom seen, except where such were attached to 

 live branches at the time the trees were felled. The wood of the old trees 

 appears so clean and equal when sawn up, that, in many, only very slight 

 marks of lateral branches are visible. The young trees, of from 25 to 40 

 years' growth, present regular tiers of decayed branches near the ground, 

 which fall away in course of time. The proprietors of the native forests 

 sometimes prune and thin the woods, but not often : they thin when the 



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