IMPORTANT LOCAL PLANTING. 77 



Extract from Eeport of Highland and Agricultural 

 Society, 1871, on Management of Plantations. 

 By William Gilchrist, Castlemilk. 



" No. 3. This is a mixed plantation, formed on the 

 western houndary of the estate, and contains about 51 

 imperial acres or thereby. It was laid off about the 

 middle of February 1862, and was intended for a fox 

 covert. The main body of it is laid off in a quadri- 

 lateral form. A belt, 60 yards broad, extends north- 

 wards along the upper side of the adjoining park, and 

 joins into a natural glen or hollow, containing about 

 3 J acres. The glen, belt, and main plantation are all 

 included in the one measurement, having been all 

 formed and planted at the same time and in the same 

 manner ; and besides, their connection is unbroken, 

 the whole being enclosed with the one line of fences. 



" Planting operations were begun in this plantation 

 on the 17th of March, and finished on the 14th of 

 April, the time occupied being only four weeks. How- 

 ever, it could have been better and cheaper done had 

 the men employed been accustomed to the work. A 

 great many of them were just beginniug to be able to 

 do a fair and reasonable day's work (and to do it 

 right), when the planting was finished ; and besides, 

 a great many of them had not even been accustomed 

 to outdoor work, numbers of them being unemployed 

 factory hands from the neighbouring town. 



" The following table will show the average growths 

 of the different varieties for the five years after being 

 planted : — 



