ERRORS IN CULTIVATION OF WOOD. 



31 



seems to be but very imperfectly understood in the 

 southern part of the island. In Loudon's Encyclo- 

 paedia of Gardening, — a work which contains a vast 

 mass of general information on the subjects of which 

 it treats, as well as many useful practical directions, 

 we are told that the seeds of the spruce, larch, and 

 Scots fir, should be covered half an inch deep. If 

 this be the general practice in England, it serves, 

 in some measure, to explain, why so many seed- 

 ling firs are imported annually into that country, 

 from a latitude so far north as Aberdeen *, where a 



* Some apology may perhaps be requisite for so often quot- 

 ing examples from Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, as is done in the 

 following pages, as there may be some people in the south, 

 who are of opinion, that little can be learned respecting the 

 culture of trees from that quarter. I may state, therefore, 

 (and the fact is mentioned, I believe, in Loudon's " Encyclo- 

 paedia of Gardening," article Aberdeenshire), that planting has 

 been carried on here to a greater extent, during the last thirty 

 years, than in any other district of equal size in Great Britain, 

 It is farther to be noted, that the finest pine forests now re- 

 maining in the island, are those belonging to the Earls of 

 Fife and Aboyne, in that county ; and, that the cheapest 

 and most successful method of planting firs ever known, origi- 

 nated in Aberdeenshire. With regard to the culture of hard 

 wood, I claim no pre-eminence for the Aberdonians ; on the 

 contrary, I am willing to allow, that, in this department, they 

 are rather behind some of their neighbours. 



