138 FOEESTS, WOODS, AND TEEES 



is once established it gives no further trouble ; it cleans its 

 stem more rapidly than the common spruce, but, like it, 

 must be kept dense if timber free from knots and narrow- 

 ringed is desired. 



There are many enormous isolated trees of this species 

 in parks and pleasure grounds, one of the finest being a tree 

 at Murthly, which measured 125 feet in height and 13^ 

 feet in girth in 1916, and is known not to exceed 70 

 years of age. Old plantations of Sitka spruce are rare, the 

 best known being that of Strathgyle, Durris. Here 80 

 acres of exposed moorland, at 750 to 900 feet elevation, 

 were planted in 1879. Larch and Scots pine failed com- 

 pletely. Sitka spruce flourishes to the highest point, 

 excelling the common spruce in height, and suppressing it 

 in mixture. At 31 years old Sitka spruce in a pure 

 part of this plantation averaged 50 feet in height, and was 

 estimated to contain 6000 cubic feet of timber per acre, 

 almost an annual increment of 200 cubic feet. In the 

 west of Scotland, at Loch Ossian, it is growing well in 

 young plantations at 1300 feet elevation under the worst 

 conditions of soil and exposure, having been planted by the 

 Belgian method, on inverted turfs. At Glenart, in County 

 Wicklow, a plantation of larch and Sitka spruce, 43 

 years old, at 300 feet elevation, is very thriving. Sitka 

 spruce here averages 75 to 83 feet in height, with a girth 

 of 5 to 6 feet. Splendid larch alongside it are much less 

 in size, averaging 70 feet in height by 3 to 4 feet in girth. 

 Scots pine is only 50 feet by 3 feet. 



White Spruce. — This species is of little value for pro- 

 ducing a timber crop in this country, as under ordinary 

 circumstances it is much inferior to common spruce. It 

 has, however, been successfully used in the formation of 

 shelter belts on exposed sites at high elevations in the 

 north of England and in Scotland, It is absolutely hardy ; 

 and at Ashgill Wood, in Northumberland, attained 30 feet 

 in height at 1800 feet elevation on damp peaty ground, 

 where common spruce failed to resist the cold winds. It 



