368 Treatment of the Scotch Pine 



1837), of the two species; / being that of the insect which 

 these German writers name Eccoptogaster destructor; and i 

 being that of Eccoptogaster Scolytus. The French and English 

 authors having employed the latter specific name for the genus, 

 in preference to Herbst's not very euphonous name, another 

 specific name must be applied to the latter species. 



Art. III. On the Treatment of the Scotch Pine in the Plantations at 

 Huntley Lodge, Banffshire. By Alexander Murdoch. 



I RECEIVED your letter of October 6. 1837, making enquiry 

 concerning the treatment of the Scotch pine in " natural woods 

 and artificial plantations." I can say little of natural woods, as 

 there are none in this district, the localities of natural woods 

 being about forty miles distant to the south and south-west of 

 Huntly, on the rivers Dee and Spey. 1'he wood grows chiefly 

 in Glent, near the base of the Grampian Mountains. It ap- 

 peared to me that the soil on which the natural Scotch pine 

 grows at Rothiemurchus is 2 or 3 inches of peat mould covered 

 with heath ; the subsoil being dry gravel, into which the small 

 roots of the pine penetrate, the large roots running to a con- 

 siderable distance near the surface. I am not aware that these 

 woods are regularly thinned. The strongest trees obtain a 

 mastery over the weakest, and ultimately the best trees arrange 

 their distances for themselves. Neither do I think these woods 

 are pruned : where the trees stand close together, the air is 

 excluded, and the lower branches die and drop ofl'. 



There are about one thousand acres of artificial Scotch pine 

 plantation on the Duke of Richmond's estates, near Huntly, from 

 12 to 60 years' growth. These plantations are chiefly formed 

 on hilly and rocky ground, from about 400 to 800 feet above 

 the level of the sea, and about 18 or 20 miles south of the 

 Moray Firth. The soil is generally of a peaty nature, growing 

 heath ; and partly loam, such as, if cultivated, would produce 

 turnips ; the subsoil is principally of clay, and rather too damp 

 for the successful growth of the pine. There is a portion of 

 these plantations, also growing on a thin peaty soil, over a sub- 

 soil of gravel or sand ; but, as, from the springs, the sand 

 appears to be much impregnated with iron, the pine does not 

 thrive here on this soil so well as on ground much like it near 

 the Spey. 



The trees in these woods are planted about 4 ft. apart, and 

 require little attention, but filling up of vacancies for the first 

 20 years ; and, from that age to 40 years, according to growth, 

 pruning and thhming go on. At about 20 years, where the trees 

 stand at the original thickness, about three fourths of the weakest 



