Trees for Economic Planting 63 



quite different. The finest quality of Scotch pine timber, 

 such as that produced in some of the northern Scottish 

 counties, no doubt, is even now fairly remunerative ; but, 

 generally speaking, that grown throughout Southern 

 Scotland, England as a whole, and also Ireland, is of so 

 inferior a quality as hardly to fetch a remunerative price. 

 No doubt, however, this pine will continue to be largely 

 planted wherever shelter and ornament are of first impor- 

 tance : and rightly so, for few otheis are so well able to 

 withstand cold, cutting blasts at high altitudes. 



The Douglas Fir (Peeudotsuga Douglasii) is, in certain 

 situations, a valuable timber-producing tree indeed, as 

 regards the actual production of timber in a given time, 

 it is, perhaps, ahead of any other tree grown in this country. 

 From measurements we have taken, the actual production 

 of timber during fifty years was 240 ft., or nearly 5 ft. per 

 year for half a century. In a plantation of the Douglas fir 

 in Wales, planted twenty-two years, we found the average 

 dimensions to be as follows : Height, 76 ft. ; girth of stem 

 at 24 ft., 4 ft. ; cubic contents, fully 50 ft. The timber pro- 

 duced in this country is of excellent quality, being light but 

 strong, works very readily, has a pleasant yellowish tinge, 

 and takes on a good polish. That the Douglas fir is a tree 

 that is eminently adapted for cultivation in this country is 

 already well known ; but to grow it in anything like a satis- 

 factory way it must be planted in sheltered hollows, for 

 extensive experience has long ago proved to us that it is 

 ill-adapted for braving the storm, even at a few feet above 

 the sea-level. Long ago we strongly advocated the form- 

 ing of plantations of P. Douglasii alone, or with some 

 other tree of about equally rapid growth, for, when 

 mixed up with the general run of our forest trees, the 

 leader, on overtopping those of its neighbours, soon 

 gets broken over, or otherwise presents an almost 

 branchless, whip-handle-like appearance. We do not 

 wish to say one word against this our favourite fir : but 

 the truth must be told, and our own experience, gained 

 principally on a low-lying seaside estate, where the tree was 

 annually planted by the thousand, is that P, Douglasii must 



