THE NEW FORESTRY. 7 1 



nursed with Scotch firs, is a very hardy tree, isolated specimens 

 on the most exposed sites attaining to large size. The sweet 

 chestnut also grows freely at high elevations and so does the 

 beech. 



The late Mr. John Macgregor„ forester to the Duke of 

 Athole, in his evidence before the Parliamentary Committee, 

 stated that from one thousand to twelve hundred feet should 

 be the limit for the larch, and averred that the difference in 

 the value of a crop of larch per acre, at one thousand feet 

 elevation and lower down, would probably amount to £80 — 

 that is to say the crop highest up was worth £20, and that 

 lower down worth £100. We know the larch woods from 

 which these valuations were taken, and our opinion is that the 

 crops might have been worth more if they had. been less 

 severely thinned. We have certainly known larch crops, not 

 valued, but sold at a much higher price than £-20 per acre, at 

 an elevation of twelve hundred feet, and from soil of the 

 poorest description. 



As regards aspect in planting, that, of course, .may make 

 much difference. The warmest and most sheltered spots 

 should, as a rule, be chosen for the most tender species — mostly 

 hard-woods — and the coldest spots for the firs, beech, birch, 

 and alder, etc., which, in the south, seems to prefer northern 

 exposures where the soil is ; suitable. This is found to be the 

 case in the mountain, ranges of the Black Forest, in about the 

 same parallel as central France, at an elevation of from two 

 thousand feet to three thousand five hundred feet, where the 

 common silver firs and Scotch fir attain a height of one hun- 

 dred and forty feet. Here reproduction is generally good, but 

 " a marked difference is found between northern and southern 

 slopes, the growth and reproduction being far more vigorous 

 on the former than on the latter. " : — Schlich, vol. iii., p. 366. 



Gales are another subject to be noticed under this : head. 

 Both owners and their foresters in Scotland are under the 

 impression that nowhere in Europe are gales so destructive to 

 woods as in Scotland, and it is asserted that dense woods 

 suffer worst ; whereas, if the case was stated fairly, it is a fact 

 that nowhere in Europe are the woods so severely thinned as 

 in Scotland, and if they i do suffer more severely from gales it 

 is a fair conclusion that over-thinning is the main cause of it 

 We have visited frequently the worst gale-devastated districts 

 in the south and north of Scotland, and our impression was 

 that the most destruction occurred in middle-aged and older 

 woods in which the trees were thin on the ground, the over- 



