THE PINE TREE. 175 
taken from the native forests in Strathspey, having when 
they were children been employed at the formation of the 
plantation. An instance is given in Lawson’s Manual of 
“a plantation recently cut down, which stood on the north 
side of the Perth and Dundee road, nearly ten miles from the 
former town, the seed of which was, seventy or eighty years 
since, received from the forest of Mar; and the timber, 
although grown on a poor, damp, tenacious clay, besides 
attaining to a great size, was found equal in quality to that 
for which the above natural forest is esteemed.” 
The durability of the red timber of the Scotch pine was 
supposed by the celebrated engineer Brindley to be as great 
as that of the oak; and Dr. Smith, in his essay on the pro- 
duction of timber in the Transactions of the Highland Society 
of Scotland, vol. i. p. 165, says that he has seen some Scotch 
pine grown in the north Highlands, which, when taken down 
after it had been 300 years in the roof of an old castle, was 
as fresh and full of resin as newly imported timber from 
Memel, and that part of it was actually wrought up into new 
furniture. 
There is no timber more generally useful than that of the 
Scotch pine. The first thinnings of a plantation, retaining 
the branches and leaves, are suitable for being employed in 
the erection of screen fences, to protect young plantations from 
the influence of the sea, and from the effects of the weather in 
cold exposures, for sheep-flakes, and similar purposes. The 
next thinnings are adapted for coal props, an article in con- 
stant demand at all shipping ports. The usual prices for 
common props range from Is. 9d. to 2s. per dozen; crown 
props sell at from 2s. 9d. to 3s. per dozen. 
These articles are bought in lengths of six, twelve, and 
eighteen feet; seventy-two lineal feet make a dozen. Com- 
mon props must stand three inches in diameter at the small 
end, and crown props are not under four inches. 
Prop-wood is very profitable when the carriage to the 
shore is not expensive; and its value is not influenced so 
much as that of other wood is by the price of foreign timber. 
