SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 369 
grow, in the case of this and other large forests, that the figure of one man to twenty- 
five acres may eventually be reached. 
Part II of the address was directed to the question of how the scenic grandeur and 
especially the beauty spots of the New Forest, now under the management of the 
Forestry Commissioners, can best be preserved for all time. 
11. Sir Jon Srietinc Maxwett, Bart.—The Use of Manures in Peat 
: Planting. 
Practical experiments extending over twenty years have been carried out at 
Corrour. The valley runs east and west. Its floor is 1270 ft. above sea level. Rain- 
fall, seventy-seven inches. Geological formation varies from quartz-mica-schist to 
_ micaceous gneiss and granite. The notes refer to the two latter rocks where the 
glacial drift underlying the peat is of very poor quality. The depth and quality of 
the peat vary much and rapidly. The best quality is marked by a strong growth of 
Molinia cerulea, and a few better grasses with scabious and buttercups, and strong 
healthy tufts of ling and bog myrtle if these are present. The worst quality bears 
scirpus sedge and the cross-leaved heath. The medium quality is characterised by 
stunted growth of heather and certain bog plants such as butterwort and bog asphodel. 
All types must be drained. The experiments consisted in the addition of two small 
handfuls of mineral matter, of which one-eighth part was basic slag, the other seven 
parts being sand or gravel from the nearest available source. The experiments were 
_ of two kinds :—(1) The application of the minerals round the roots at the time of 
_ planting or immediately afterwards, and (2) the top dressing of plantations some years 
: after planting. It has been applied to Scots pine, Norway spruce and Abies nobilis ; 
all these species respond. The species most difficult to establish on peat are the spruces. 
They are liable to suffer a severe and prolonged check before becoming properly 
established when planted in the ordinary way. With the addition of manure the 
check stage is eliminated on the better type of peat, on the worse types the check 
occurs when the manure is exhausted unless by that time the plantation has closed up 
and killed out the surface vegetation. The quantity of mineral and slag supplied at 
the time of planting is regulated by the amount per tree and not the amount per acre. 
If each tree receives two ounces of slag the total quantity required per acre will 
naturally vary with the planting distance. 
Photographs and actual specimens of trees were shown to illustrate the difference 
between treated and non-treated plantations. The plants from the untreated 
_ plantation showed a maximum growth of 10 ft. in height, with a girth at breast height 
of 53 in. The smallest plants, though twenty-one years old and still alive, were 
scarcely larger than when they were planted. The treated plantation, though two 
years younger, showed a height growth of 26 ft., with a girth at breast height of 12 in. 
The smallest plants showed a height growth of 5 ft., but they were relatively few in 
number. The soil and elevation in both plantations were similar. There are two 
planting stations at Corrour, that already referred to and a lower one seven miles 
distant and 500 ft. nearer sea level. Here the pines and larches grow far more rapidly 
than in the higher plantations. Not so the spruces planted in peat. The same 
‘methods of planting have been followed in both cases, but in the lower group no 
manures have been added, and the plantations of spruce on peat made before the War 
are still hovering between life and death. 
The use of slag as a top dressing in the case of plantations in a chronic check stage 
was equally striking. 
12. Mr. A. C. Forses.—Peat Problems in connexion. with Afforestation. 
i) Peat covers so large a proportion of the high-lying and poorer soils of the British 
Isles that one might imagine that little remains to be said either as to its distribution 
or nature. It is generally recognised that many different causes may have been 
_ responsible for its origin, but it is not so clearly brought out that a vast difference 
exists in the productive capacity of peat due to climatic causea, and that of peat due 
to edaphic or local soil conditions. 
7 Climatic peat may be as plentiful in Northern and Western Europe as in the 
British Isles, but the particular form of it usually known as ‘ mountain peat’ has a 
_ relatively poor representation outside ScotJand, Ireland, and the North of England, 
and its influence upon afforestation is correspondingly small. In the British Isles, 
i ~ 1925 BB 
