THE NEW FORESTRY. 67 



SECTION I. — ELEVATION AND ASPECT. 



The altitude to which timber-culture may be carried no 

 doubt varies between the southern and northern limits of the 

 three Kingdoms, but no exact data exists on the subject. The 

 broad-leaved species like the oak, elm, chestnut, lime, ash, 

 sycamore, and beech, etc., attain their greatest development 

 the further south we go in Britain, or low down in valleys ; 

 while the best examples of Scotch fir, larch and spruce, and 

 other firs are found north of the Tweed. But the Scotch and 

 other firs also succeed well in the south, on poor land, in high 

 and low situations. But although the beech, ash, and syca- 

 more succeed best in the south, they yet grow to a large size 

 in many parts of Scotland, both north and south, and are well 

 worth planting there on a large scale as timber-trees. Good 

 examples of the oak are also found in Scotland, in favourable 

 localities, but the oak timber-trade is, and has always been, 

 chiefly confined to England, where the trees are generally 

 larger and of superior quality. In ancient buildings in Scot- 

 land, the beams of buildings, etc., are commonly of Scotch fir, 

 and in England of oak. The comparatively diminutive oak 

 trees still existing in fragments of the old Caledonian forest 

 show that the oak never did thrive in, Scotland as it does in 

 England ; and Professor Lindley has shown, in his " Theory 

 and Practice of Horticulture," by the Admiralty tests, that by 

 far the best quality of oak is produced in the south, and that 

 the trees grow much faster there. Latitude should therefore 

 enter first into the calculations of the planter in determining 

 what species are likely to produce the most profitable crops 

 on his estate ; and, next to that, in hilly districts, the elevation 

 and aspect,^ which are more under his control. Quality of soil 

 or severe frosts hardly enter into comparison with these two 

 factors so far as growth is concerned. Late frosts may 

 occasionally injure the extremities of the young shoots of forest 

 trees, but new shoots are immediately produced again from the 

 older wood, below the injured parts, and all signs of injury 

 have usually disappeared by the end of the season, or at latest 

 by the following year. Serious injury is rarely done to any of 

 our forest trees by frost after the leaves have fallen, in the case 

 of deciduous trees, and as seldom to any of the conifera, 

 commonly grown, .that ripen their annual growth perfectly. 

 We are here speaking of frost as distinguished from a low 

 mean temperature, which, whether due to elevation or latitude, 



