March  i,  1893.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
57i 
TREE  PLANTING  ON  TEA  ESTATES. 
{By  Old  Colonist .) 
Your  leading  article  m the  Observer  of  the  5th  ult 
on  “The  Great  Tea  Planting  Industry”  strikes  a key 
which  I trust  will  be  taken  up  all  over  the  planting 
districts.  Por,  unquestionably,  the  planting  and 
cultivation  of  useful  trees  for  fuel,  timber  and 
shelter,  is  a matter  of  vital  interest  to  the  proprietors 
of  tea  estates.  Nothing  could  improve  the  beauty 
and  amenities  of  these  properties  so  much,  and 
nothing  at  so  little  cost  could  add  so  much  to 
their  value  or  tend  to  their  duration.  The  planter 
who  neglects  this  important  duty  is  less  than  half  a 
planter, — merely  a “ tea  tota  karum"  ! Indeed,  the 
cautioD  and  advice  has  equal  force  for  agriculturists 
in  every  part  of  the  world,  particularly  where  the 
cultivation  of  any  one  plant  predominates  ; and 
nowhere  is  it  more  necessary  than  in  our  own 
beloved  Sootland. 
A few  days  ago  I had  to  notice  a work  on 
forestry  (as  under),  and  in  today’s  Aberdeen  Free 
Press  I am  glad  to  note  our  distinguished  neighbour, 
Sir  Arthur  Grant  of  Monymuek,  in  leading  type 
reviewing  the  reviewer  very  appreciatively  says  “the 
example  of  financial  success  you  give  which  attended 
a plantation  in  Athole,  is,  1 believe,  quite  true,” 
but  pests  have  ir, creased  since  then.  He  adds  that 
he  himself  “plants  from  300,000  to  half  a million 
trees  every  year,”  ohiefly  to  give  shelter  and  im- 
prove the  climate,  though  he  has  four  enemies  to 
contend  with,  viz.,  “rabbits,  squirrels,  larch  disease 
and  luoifer  matohes.” 
The  review  referred  to  is  as  follows  : — 
TREE-PLANTING  IN  SCOTLAND. 
The  Journal  of  thb  Royal  Horticultural  So- 
ciety. Edited  by  Rev.  W.  Wilks  and  Mr.  John 
Weathers.  Offices:  117,  Victoria  Street,  S.  W. 
To  all  who  love  the  “good  green  woods”— and  who 
does  not  ? — the  goodly  volume  of  58S  pages,  demy  8vo. 
constituting  the  “Journal  of  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Society,”  ought  to  prove  interesting  reading:,  and 
as  a work  of  reference  on  itB  special  subject  it  de- 
serves a place  in  every  Public  Library. 
The  specialty  of  this  volume  (XIV)  is  a report  on 
the  Conifer  Conference  held  at  the  Chiswick  Gardens, 
October  7th  and  8th,  1891,  but  unlike  most  books, 
it  is  more  than  it  professes  to  be,  containing,  as  it 
does  very  valuable  papers  by  Dr.  Maxwell  T.  Masters 
and  Professor  Carl  Hansen,  of  Copenhagen,  which 
they  had  carefully  recast  at  their  leisure,  since  the 
Conference  was  held.  Both  are  reliable  authorities  on 
coniters,  a subject  a more  intimate  knowledge  of  which 
would  be  of  the  greatest  importance  to  us  in  this 
country. 
We  well  remember,  6ome  twenty  years  ago, 
our  late  keenly-intelligent  townsman,  Mr.  George 
Reid,  endeavouring  to  impress  upon  proprietors 
tbe  advautaga  of  planting  up  waste  lands  with 
conifers,  inskad  of  reclaiming  th>  m wi  h the 
vain  hope  of  prifitably  growing  core.  He  also  ad- 
dressed a ct  mmunieatioo  on  the  subject  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  day  without  elicitiug  any  favourable 
response.  He  next  addressed  himself  to  ihe  President 
of  tie  United  St-tts,  backing  up  his  lecommf  udation 
by  the  offer  of  a largo  consignment  of  suitable  plan's 
gratis,  an  offer  which  was  at  once  accept!  d,  and 
for  which  he  received  the  cordial  acknowledgments 
and  thanks  cf  the  United  States  Ministers. 
Mr.  Reid’s  theory,  as  applied  to  Scotland,  was  that 
average  moorlai  d at  a moderate  alti'ude  would,  it 
planted,  improve  in  value  at  the  rate  of  at  out  20< 
per  acre  per  annum  up  to  60  years,  when  the  timber 
would  be  worth  from  £60  to  £70  per  acie.  That  ibis 
was  a moderate  estimate  has  already  been  incontest- 
ably proved  in  many  instances,  one  of  which  we  might 
quote : — 
Oa  Athole  estate  some  bleak  hillsides  were 
planted  up,  which  uever  yielded  2s  6d  an  acre 
in  rent.  There  was  of  course,  little  return  for 
the  first  25  years,  but  after  this  period  the  plantations 
yielded  in  thinnings  sufficient  to  cover  cost  of  planting 
and  interest;  and  when  80  years  old  the  timber  was 
sold  for  £130  per  acre,  which  sum,  capitalised  and 
invested  at  31  per  cent.,  would  give  a perpetual  rent 
of  £4  4s  per  acre,  in  place  of  the  half-crown  for  which 
it  was  formerly  rented  by  a grazing  tenant  1 Nor  is 
this  all  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  planting.  The 
shelter  to  cattle  and  amelioration  of  climate  locally, 
have  helped  as  much  as  anything  to  the  improvement 
of  our  stock. 
There  is  still  an  absurd  notion  abroad,  that  the  land 
and  climate  of  Scotland  are  uusuited  for  timber- 
growing ou  an  extensive  and  profitable  scale,  the  fact 
being,  that — notwithstanding  the  dictum  of  Dr. 
Johnson — there  are  few  countries  in  the  world  more 
suitable  for  the  growth  ot  conifers.  Let  anyone  who 
now  doubts  this  libten  to  the  chairman  of  the  Con- 
ference in  his  opening  address  on  the  8th  OctcbBr 
1891. 
Anyone,  said  Mr.  Tbiselton  Dyer,  c.m.g.,  who  had 
not  travelled  in  Scotland  could  form  no  idea  of  the 
extent  of  which  rare  conifers  were  cultivated  in 
that  country,  and  the  splendid  development  which 
they  attained Magnificent  examples,  70, 
80,  and  100  teet  high,  were  to  be  met  with.  Such 
trees  could  only  be  seen  in  Scotland,  and  were  the 
result  of  a peculiar  association  of  physical  conditions. 
In  thesouth-west  of  Eoglaui  it  was  impossible  to  find 
a parallel,  though  even  on  the  sunbnrnt  soil  of  Kew 
good  specimens  of  the  pines  were  occasionally  to  be 
seen.  With  regard  to  the  abies,  however— that  section 
ot  conifers  of  which  the  spruces  may  be  taken  as  a 
type— a state  of  things  prevailed  in  Scotland  which 
could  not  be  rivalled  in  England. 
We  might  also  quote  other  sources— the  opinion  of 
M.  Boppc,  Inspector  of  French  Forests,  who  visited 
ana  reported  on  the  forests  of  Scotland  on  behalf  of 
his  Government.  “ North,"  he  say  s,  “ of  a line  drawn 
from  Perth  to  Greenock  there  are  5,000,000  acres 
regarding  as  waste  which  are  capable  of  furnishing 
valuable  timber  forests.  Everywhere,  both  at  a few 
feet  above  sea-level  and  on  the  6ides  of  mountain  at 
an  altitude  of  2500  Let,  in  the  sands  of  Forres  and  in 
the  schists,  sandstoces,  granite,  aDd  gneiss  of  the 
interior,  we  were  struck  by  the  wonderful  aptitude  of 
the  soil  to  forest  vegetations,  favoured,  as  it  is,  by  a 
regular  climate  and  the  constant  humidity  of  the 
atmosphere. 
There  is,  it  seems,  no  country  in  the  world  of  the 
same  limited  area  where  so  many  exotic  species  ot 
coniferse  grow  and  thrive,  and  yet  we  cannot  claim 
but  3 out  of  the  250  dow  cultivated  as  natives  of 
Scotland,  viz  : — Our  Scotch  pine,  juniper,  and  the 
common  3 ew. 
As  to  the  quality  of  the  timber  of  our  Scotch  pine 
we  would,  by  the  way,  differ  in  toto  from  one  of  the 
speakers — Mr.  A.  D.  Webster — who  declared  that 
“ the  almost  valueless  timbers  of  this  tree  will  always 
be  a si  rious  draw-back.”  This  is  entirely  opposed 
to  our  own  experience,  and  we  venture  to  thma  to 
that  of  most  others.  The  celebrated  engineer  Brind- 
ley declaied  it  to  be  “ as  durable  as  the  cak  ; beams 
winch  had  been  built  in  old  c.stles  in  the  Highlands 
were  found  qui'e  freeh  and  sound  after  300 
3 ears,”  while  another  equally  good  authority  save, 
“ the  economic  value  ot  the  Scotch  pine  as  a timber 
trie  is  proha. ly  not  surpassed  in  the  aggregate  by 
i hat  of  any  other  ties  known.” 
Many  who  have  not  hitherto  paid  much  attention  to 
this  subject  must  marvel  at  the  variety  and  number  cf 
species  which  have  here  been  called  from  every 
corner  of  the  earth.  From  our  own  noble  fir — (Pinus 
Silvestns),  and  a native  of  Upper  Detside,  to  the 
to  mtilu,  celt  ry -topped  pine  {Phylloeladus  rhvrnhoiualis), 
which  adorns  the  moist  mountoin-ianges  ot  Tasmania  ; 
fr-  nu  the  mammoth  tree  of  California  ( Wellingtonia , 
gigantea ) to  the  Lilliputian  junipers  of  Siberia,  what  a 
Wealth  of  woods  aud  interesting  sylvan  territory  is 
represented  ! But  the  important  lesson  for  us  to 
learn  from  the  report  of  this  Uouterence  is  how  to  seleo$ 
