ae) ahi han MEAs iN bY iy vt x % M - east ph eGek - : rience ra fi) We. DW [ N B 4. Se 4 : ; kee Mey aie % Mg! 3 Wye , gi Q asd ey “ Hate ; ag Weta, 4 , AY \. an’ a ie i WAL) a) tt ae : a : 4 Wi bah 6 Hrae ¥ : ’ Re ey ae “ae me ‘ Se 7 re ; % uy Rial rate ae Hh AN may) eae hy CRC Roy : v4 4 ereeine i », is eo ie ¥) t: ( age thet » it ht Wat f in Rs eC UI AMM a: YTS al Dt x eX Pa? fib | Menta A RCRA manne H . " ai cf Ah ie aN byrny! eony ry vie wk Giaeheh ah As MA ‘i alee vn + ih iN ist , * rey HA av) $ - aoe aS i t ry +i Weal (s Ho shit , tues a ont Ch bal ens Mi » Lay sy ak nes ans Ou 5 nN 4 Stas “4 Y ai sah oh Oe OLRM MMOs ks A tN nya ahnie Miele se iy Sieh chy erties oy os 3 ae . At ae 4, A t LIBRARY NEW YOR™ ROTA AL GARDEN [LIBRARY NEW YORK BOT.*> ICAL GARDEN TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCLETY. Eireur-CoOLoNneEL F. BALLEY, F.R.S.E, HONORARY EDITOR, A. D. RICHARDSON, ASSISTANT EDITOR. ROBERT GALLOWAY, S3.C., SECRETARY AND TREASURER. VOL. XIX. E DIN BU-RG H.: PRINTED FOR: THE SOOLETY. SOLD BY DOUGLAS & FOULIS, CASTLE STREET. 1906, “LIBRARY NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN Vite Le i gf i : _ + . 3 * CONTENTS OF VOL. XIX, The Society does not hold itself responsible for the statements or views expressed by the authors of papers. PAGE I. Timber: Its Strength and How to Test It. By T. Hupson Beare, M.Inst.C.E., Regius Professor of Engineering in the University of Edinburgh, . | : ‘ : : : : 1 II. Concerning Natural Regeneration in general, together with Special Details regarding a typical example of Natural Regeneration of the Scots Pine at Beauly, Inverness-shire (with Photographs). By Gitsert Brown, Beaufort Cottage, Kiltarlity, Inverness- shire, . s : ; : & ; 2 17 III. The Prospects of growing Timber for Profit in the United Kingdom. By ArcuiBpaLpD E. Morran, Land Agent, Palmerston House, Portumna, Co. Galway, . : : : s : 25 IV. The Laying-out of a Mixed Plantation, and its Maintenance for the first Twenty-five Years. By Donatp M. Macponatp, Assistant Forester, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, x 32 VY. The Laying-out of a Mixed Plantation, and its Maintenance for the first Twenty-five Years. By Joun M. Murray, Assistant Forester, Murthly, Perthshire, . : 4 ; 4 44 VI. Megastigmus spermotrophus, Wachtl, as an Enemy of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga Douglasii), with two Plates. By R. Srrwarr MacDouecat., M.A., D.Se., F.R.S.E., Hon. Consulting Ento- mologist to the Society, ‘ . A : ‘ 52 VII. Some Notes on the Home Timber-Trade in the East of Scotland. By ApAm Spiers, Timber Merchant, Edinburgh, x - 66 VIII. Notes on the Rate of Growth of Mature Timber-Crops in Eastern Perthshire. By the Hon. Epiror, F : : : 70 IX. Note on ‘‘ The Railway Fires Act, 1905.” By the Hon. Epiror, 73 X. On some Japanese and North American Trees suitable for growing in British Woodlands. By H. J. Evwss, F.R.S., Colesborne, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, . : 4 : : 76 XI. Working-Plan for the Alice Holt Forest. By Dr W. Scuticu, assisted in the Field-Work by Mr W. F, PERREE, " : 83 iv XIII. XIV. Ve XVI. XVII. XVIII. CONTENTS. . The Conversion of Stored Coppice into Highwood, and how I became converted to the latter System of Sylviculture. By _H. J. MARSHALL, Gayton Hall, Ross, Hereford, The Destruction of Rabbits Injurious to Woodlands and Fields. By the Hon. Epiror, The Training of Probationers for the Indian Forest Service. By the Hon. Epiror, The Chief Timber-Trees of India. By the Hon. Eprror, Notes on Indian Forestry in 1905. By the Hon. Epiror, Some Recent Developments in Swedish Forestry. By Jigmiastare Eis Nitson, Kolleberga, Ljungbyhed, Sweden, a Belgian Forestry in some of its Aspects (with Photographs). By A. T. GILLANDERS, Forester, Alnwick Castle, Northumber- land, . The Town- Woods of Carlsbad (Bohemia). By the Hon. Epiror, . Notes on Continental Forestry in 1905. By the Hon. Epiror, . . The Twenty-eighth Annual Excursion—Argyll, Ayr, and Renfrew, 5th to 8th July 1905. By the Assisranr Epiror, . Forestry Exhibition at the Highland and Agricultural Society’s Show at Glasgow, July 1905. By the Assisranr Eprror, REPORTS BY THE HonorARY SCIENTISTS— Report by A. W. Borruwick, D.Sc., Honorary Consulting Cryptogamist, - 4 ; : : Report by R. Srewart MacDoveatt, M.A., D.Se., F.R.S.E., Honorary Consulting Entomologist, . Norges AND QuERIES:—A Note upon Dr Nisbet’s Criticism of the Report of the Departmental Committee on Forestry in the Preface to The Forester, and his Reply thereto—The Decline in the Value of Coppice- Woods—The Prices of Timber in the South of England in 1904 and 1905—Profits from Timber-Growing in Hampshire—Rooks Feeding on Pine Beetles —The Birch and Alder Saw-Fly—Experiment with Lime and Arseniate of Soda for Protection against the Pine Weevil—A Fine Larch—Russian Larch—Hungarian Ash—A New Tas- manian Wood—Tupelo Wood—Hickory Becoming Scaree— Water in Creosote for Timber Preserving—A Gigantie Cedar of Lebanon—Trees at Auchincruive, Ayrshire—Forestry in Japan—Mexican Forestry—Artificially Coloured Wood—The Seasoning of Timber—What is a Load of Timber ?—Weight of Timber—The Royal English Arboricultural Society—Appoint- ment to Forestry Lectureship—Imports of Timber into the United Kingdom, 1905, PAGE 99 104 107 111 128 136 139 150 161 180 190 195 196 199 . } ‘ ; CONTENTS. REVIEWS AND Norices or Books— The Forester: A Practical Treatise on British Forestry and Arboriculture for Landowners, Land Agents, and Foresters. By Joun Nisper, D.dic., formerly Conservator of Forests, Burma, Author of ‘Burma under British Rule,’ ‘ British Forest Trees,’ ‘Studies in Forestry,’ ‘Our Forests and Wood- lands,’ etc., and Editor of the Sixth Edition of ‘ The Forester’ by the late James Brown, LL.D., Elementary Forestry. By CHaruss EH. Curtis, F.S.L., The New Forestry, or the Continental System adapted to British Woodlands and Game Preservation. By Joun Simpson, Future Forest Trees. The Importance of the German Experi- ments in the Introduction of North-American Trees. By A. Haroup Unwin, D.Cic., . The Estate Nursery. By Jonn Simpson, Vocabulaire Forestiere: Francais—Anglais—Allemand. By J. Gerschel, Agrégé de l'Université, Professeur d’Anglais et d’ Allemand a l’Kcole nationale des Eaux et Foréts de Nancy, Manual of the Trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico). By CHARLES SPRAGUE SARGENT, Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, The Royal Forests of England, By J, Cuartes Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., ; : ; : i Webster’s Practical Forestry: A Popular Handbook on the Rearing and Growth of Trees for Profit or Ornament. By A. D. WEBSTER, Osiruary Norices:—Patrick Neill Fraser—David Pringle Laird —Alexander Pitcaithley—Robert Baxter, PROCEEDINGS OF THE RoyAL ScorrisH ARBORICULTURAL Socigery, 1905. XXIII. The Possibilities of Artificial Manures in Forestry. By A. W. Bortruwick, D.Se., Honorary Consulting Crypto- gamist to the Society, : : XXIV. The Planting of Waste Land for Profit. By Joun NIsser, D.e., : - : 2 XXV. On the Advantages of Growing Pit-wood Timber. By W. Marrnanp Stewart, Edinburgh, : XXVI. Protection of Young Spruce from Frost. By Gero. U. Macponatp, Forester, Raith, Fifeshire, . : : XXVII. Profitable Co-operative Timber- Growing. By Roserr GaLLoway, 8.S.C., Edinburgh, : ‘ : PAGE 219 229 231 232 234 235 236 238 240 241 245 259 282 287 291 vi CONTENTS. XXVIII. Notes on a Visit to Switzerland and Germany, 1905. By JoHN J. R. MeErkLEJOHN, Novar, Evanton, Ross-shire, XXIX. Example Plots or Forest Gardens. By Lieut.-Colonel F. BAtey, . . c ; ; : XXX. Training of Foresters. By J. Parry, M.Inst.C.E., . XXXI. Deputation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. By the PRESIDENT, ; i XXXII. The Irish Forestry Society, . 5 : c 2 XXXIII. Memorandum as to the Law relating to Trees, Woods, and Plantations in Scotland. By Roperr Ganttoway, S.S.C., Edinburgh, . XXXIV. Anticipated Curtailment of Timber Supplies from Sweden. By Lieut.-Colonel F, BArLey, : : : . XXXV. The Novar System of Combating Larch Disease, XXXVI. Supply of Telegraph Poles to the Post Office. By Lieut. - Colonel F. Battery, ' . 3 5 XXXVII. Area of Woodlands in Great Britain, . XXXVIII. The Society’s Register of Foresters and other Estate-men. By the SEcRErARY, : ; ; 5 . Nores AND QUERIES :—Appeal by the Honorary Editor for Contributions—Diploma in Forestry at Oxford—South African School of Forestry—Sir Herbert Maxwell on Neglected Woodlands—A Tree-Strangling Fungus—A Conifer Disease—Forestry in Kiao-chau—Aleohol from Sawdust—Note on Review of The Forester—Aberdeen Branch of the Society, REVIEWS AND Norices or Booxs— Fremdlindische Wald-und-Parkbiume fiir Europa. By Hernrich Mayr, Dr. philos. et eoc. publ., 0. 6 Pro- fessor der forstlichen Produktionslehre an der k. Univer- sitit zu Miinchen, Kiinstliche Diingung im Forstlichen Betriebe. Von Dr Fr. GIERSBERG, : ; : ; : - OsituARry, Norick:—Earl of Mansfield, ex-President of the Society, ee OF THE RoyaL ScorrisH ARBORICULTURAL Soctgery, 1906. PAGE 308 317 320 323 327 332 337 339 343 347 350 353 363 365 367 TRANSACTIONS OF THI ROYAL ; SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. — | VOL. XIX. PAR T. | g JOHN NISBET, D.(c, | HONORARY EDITOR. | | A. D. RICHARDSON, } ASSISTANT EDITOR. . ROBERT GALLOWAY, 8.8.C., ‘| SECRETARY AND TREASURER. 2 Gg | @g | | : 8 SF PEALE PALA EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY. SOLD BY DOUGLAS & FOULIS, CASTLE STREET. MCMVI., oR ERD A mF ; Price to Non-Members, = LIBRARY ie Si- NEW YORK : BOTANICAL -_ CARNMNENI ae ele SF eee ee, ADVERTISEMENTS. DOUGLAS & FOULIS BOOKSELLERS anv LIBRARIANS STANDARD WORKS ON FORESTRY Priced List Free on Application An extensive Stock of New Books in all Classes of Literature at the usual Discount Prices also Books for Presentation in handsome Bindings Catalogues of Surplus Library Books at greatly Reduced Prices issued at Intervals. Gratis and Post free to any address 9 CASTLE STREET, EDINBURGH ADAM WILSON & SONS, bome Timber Merchants and SawzMillers, AUCHINLE@CK, AYRSHIRE. Every description of Round and Cut up Home Timber supplied for Collieries, Cartwrights, Coachbuilders, Boatbuilders, &c, Branches: TROON AND DAILLY, AYRSHIRE. Telegraphic Address: Telephone No. ‘“WILSONS, AUCHINLECK.” 0200 CATRINE. THE NEW FORESTRY; © the Continental System adapted to British Woodlands and Game Preservation. Copiously Illustrated. By Joun Simpson, lately Head Forester to the Right Hon. the late Earl of Wharncliffe. SECOND EDITION, Price 15s. net. Postage 4d. extra. Also QUICK FRUIT CULTURE. New methods for Gardens great or small. By JoHNn Simpson, Author of “The New Forestry.” Price 7s. 6d. net. Postage 4d. extra. PAWSON & BRAILSFORD, Publishers and Printers, SHEFFIELD. a ADVERTISEMENTS. SBy Special Appointment to this Majesty the ting. Telephone— Teleqrams— Central No. 2674. ¢ : Edinburgh Central No. 2675. ‘‘Treibhaus, London.” s i, a Glasgow— ‘Hothouse’ or “‘Iron, Gorbals No. 446, National. Edinburgh. Lonaotee No. 2117 P.O. Hampstead. MACKENZIE & MONCUR, LTD. Hothouse Builders, Heating, Ventilating, & Electrical Engineers, and Ironfounders. LONDON: 8 CAMDEN ROAD, N.W. GLASGOW: 443 EGLINTON STREET. Registered Office, . BALCARRES STREET. EDINBURGH, Works, . - “ : Do. Foundry, . - . SLATEFORD ROAD. Forest, Fruit <%.4'" Trees & Plants. EVERGREENS, ROSES, DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. Herbaceous Plants. STOVE anp GREENHOUSE PLANTS, SEEDS ror FARM anp GARDEN. JOHN DOWNIE, foacAND // SHANDWICK PLACE, EDINBURGH. Nurseries: Beechhill, Murrayfield, and Belgrave Park, Corstorphine. Telegraphic Address—‘‘ DOWNIE, EDINBURGH.” Telephone, 2155. Established 1801. SEEDLING AND TRANSPLANTED FOREST TREES, A Large Stock of = ORNAMENTAL TREES and SHRUBS, ROSES and FRUIT TREES. Special Prices for Larye Quantities, and Estimates given for Planting. JAMES DICKSON & SONS, 46 HANOVER STREET and INVERLEITH ROW, Een UR GE CATALOGUES FREE ON APPLICATION. SPECIAL AWARD For Exhibit of CHOICE CONIFERS ———— —— at the SCOTTISH HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW in Waverley Market, Edinburgh, November 1904 and 1905. ADVERTISEMENTS. DAVID W. THOMSON’S Forest Trees. An extensive Collection of Seedling and Transplanted Forest Trees, comprising SCOTS FIR, LARCH FIR (Native and Japanese), SPRUCE FIR, SILVER FIR, ABIES DOUGLASII, LARICIO and AUSTRIACA, aud other trees in great variety, and in good condition for Removal. ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS and TREES in all Sizes. Rhododendrons, Ponticums, and Hybrids, ALSO FINEST NAMED SORTS. HOLLIES, YEWS, LAURELS, PRIVEE and other Game-Cover Plants all recently transplanted. GATALOGUES FREE ON APPLICATION. CHOICE VEGETABLE SEEDS AND CHOICE FLOWER SEEDS. See Catalogue of Selected Seeds for 1906, Post Free on application. Wurseries— WINDLESTRAWLEE, GRANTON ROAD and BOSWELL ROAD. Seed Warebouse— 113 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH. Telegraphic Address—‘‘ LARCH, EDINBURGH.” Telephone, 2034. a ADVERTISEMENTS. The West of Scotland Agricultural College, 6 BLYTHSWOOD SQUARE, GLASGOW. es FORESTRY DEPARTMENT. Day and Evening Classes are held in the College for the purpose of preparing Students for the Certificate of the College, for the Certificate in Forestry of the Highland and Agricultural Society, and for the Examinations in connection with the Surveyor’s Institute. A Special Month’s Course of Instruction for Foresters is given in October of each year. Subjects of Instruction :— Forestry, ; : . W.F. A. Hupson, M.A., P.A.S.I1. Soils and Manures, . Professor WRIGHT. Forest Entomology, > JAMES |]. 2. OS SKiInc, FEBS: Chemistry and Physics, Professor BERRY. Prospectus of the Day and Evening Classes and of the Special Class for Foresters may be had on application to the Secretary. SWEDISH FOREST SEEDS OF ANY KIND JAGMASTARE ELIS NILSON, LJUNGBYHED, SWEDEN. FOREST AND HEDGE PLANTS Seedlings and Transplanted. MI/LLIONS of Alnus, Acer, Betula, Corylus, Crataegus, Fagus, Fraxinus, Ligustrum, Populus, Quercus, Tilia, Ulmus; Abies balsamea, concolor, pectinata, DOUGLASII; LARIX EUROPAA and LEPTOLEPIS; Picea excelsa, pungens, Sitkaensis; Pinus Banksiana, Strobus, sylvestris, etc., ete. Briars, Fruit Plants, etc., from sandy soil with excellent roots. Best Shipping opportunities 77a Hamburg at lowest freight. Catalogue free on application. Nurseries 300 acres, the Greatest in Germany. Shipments of 150 Millions of Plants ‘annually. J. HEINS’ SONS, Halstenbek, Near Hamburg, GERMANY. ADVERTISEMENTS. THE NEW LARCH. No Planter can afford to overlook Larix leptolepis, the Japanese Larch. ITS ADVANTAGES: Rapidity of Growth. Hardiness. Immunity from disease and the ravages of Insects. Adaptability to almost any situation. Rapidity with which it recovers from an injury. Highly ornamental appearance. Quality of Timber. DICKSONS & CO.. Che King’s WMurserymen, 1 Waterloo Piace, EDINBURGH, Hold the finest stock of it in Europe, and invite correspondence. FOREST TREES, FRUIT TREES, SHRUBS, ROSES, &c., Grown in a most exposed situation on Heavy Soils, therefore the hardiest procurable. Every Requisite for Forest, Farm, and GaRpDeEN. Estimates for Planting by Contract furnished. CATALOGUES ON APPLICATION. W. & T. SAMSON, KILMARNOCK. ESTABLISHED 1759. EDINBURGH AND EAST OF SCOTLAND COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, 13 GEORGE SQUARE, EDINBURGH. The Cenrrat Cxiasses in Edinburgh afford Complete Courses of Instruction in AGRICULTURE AND Forestry, and qualify for all the Higher Examinations. SESSION, - - OCTOBER to MARCH. Prospectus may be had on application to W. Scorr Stevenson, Secy. ADVERTISEMENTS. KEITH & CO. a-n.scnvo.ue, ADVERTISING AGENTS, 43 George Street, EDINBURGH. ADVERTISEMENTS inserted in the Edinburgh, London, and Provincial Newspapers and Periodicals; also in all Colonial and Foreign Publications. A single copy of an Advertisement sent to Keith & Co. ensures immediate insertion, without further trouble to the Advertiser, in any number of newspapers, and at an expense not greater than would have been incurred if the Advertisement or Notice had been forwarded to each Newspaper direct. A SPECIALITY is made of ESTATE and AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISEMENTS, such as FARMS, GRASS PARKS, MANSION HOUSES, &c., to Let, ESTATES for SALE, TIMBER for SALE, AGRICULTURAL SHOWS, &c.; and Messrs J. M. Munro, Lrp., having been appointed Official Advertising Agents to the SCOTTISH ESTATE FACTORS’ SOCIETY, and to the HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, Agents and Factors can have every confidence in placing their Advertising in the hands of the firm. REGISTRY for Servants (Male and Female) of all Classes. KEITH & CO., 43 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH. Telegrams—‘‘ PROMOTE, EDINBURGH.” Telephone No. 316. ADVERTISEMENTS. HARDY FOREST TREES FROM THE DEESIDE HIGHLANDS. Best for planting im cold and exposed sttuations. SPECIAL PRICES FOR LARGE QUANTITIES. CATALOGUES POST FREE. BEN. REID & CO., LTD., Nurserymen and Seedsmen to the King, + ABERDEEN. +> A. & G. PATERSON, LIMITED. HEAD OFFICE: ST ROLLOX, GLASGOW. Branches at ABERDEEN, BANCHORY, INVERGORDON, etc. Buyers of Scotch Growing Woods. Sellers of Larch Fencing of all descriptions, JAMES JONES & SONS, LTD., LARBERT SAWMILLS, j= LARBERT, N.B. All kinds of HOME TIMBER in the Round or Sawn-up, SUITABLE FOR RAILWAYS, SHIPBUILDERS, COLLIERIES, CONTRACTORS, COACHBUILDERS, CARTWRIGHTS, &c., &c. ADVERTISEMENTS. ane °C.G.A.” Directors. WILLIAM SELBY LownDEs, Jun., Esq., Selby House, Bletchley, Bucks. JOHN Henry ARTHUR WHITLEY, Esq., Bourton, Much Wenlock, Salop. WILLIAM BROOMHALL, Managing Director. THE COUNTRY GENTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION, LTD., Popularly known as the ‘‘C.G.A.,” is a society of Landowners, Land Agents, Farmers, and others interested in the land, numbering many thousands, and residing i in all parts of the kingdom. Its work is divided into the following departments :— THE COUNTRY CLUB, The object of which is to provide comfortable, homelike accommodation for Members whilst in London, and a centre for the discussion of all matters affecting the landed interest. The subscription to country Members is £3, 3s. per annum, which includes Membership in the ‘‘C.G.A.” EXPERT ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE. Professional expert advice provided for Members on all subjects connected with estate management. MANAGEMENT OF SMALL ESTATES. Properties, however small, are managed by the “‘C.G.A.,” in conjunction with Land Agent Members resident in all parts of the country. SALE AND LETTING OF ESTATES AND FARMS. The ‘‘C.G.A.,” in conjunction with affiliated firms in all parts of the kingdom, transacts business in the sale and letting of property for its Members. SALE OF LIVE STOCK, TIMBER, AND OTHER PRODUCE. Markets are found, when possible, for produce of all kinds. EMPLOYMENT REGISTER. Very complete registers are kept of situations vacant and wanted, and intro- ductions between employer and employed are frequently brought about. PURCHASE AND SUPPLY OF ESTATE REQUISITES. The ‘‘C.G.A.” forms a centre for the combined purchase, on wholesale terms, of all kinds of estate requisites for building, farming, gardening, water supply, fencing, etc. Members by purchasing in this way obtain the lowest possible terms, and protect themselves against adulteration and other frauds. PUBLISHING. “THE COUNTRY GENTLEMEN'S EstaTE Book” (annually), and ‘‘THE EsTATE MaGaZInE” (monthly), form the official publications of the ‘‘C.G.A.” In addition, other books on estate matters are issued from time to time in the Estate Library Series. DISTRICT SECRETARIES. Gentlemen representing the interests of the ‘‘C.G.A.” are appointed in all districts throughout the United Kingdom. There are a few vacancies yet to be filled, and applications are invited. DEPOSIT ACCOUNTS. Deposit accounts are opened with Members and others upon very favourable terms as to withdrawal and interest (which at the present rate is 5 per cent. per annum), particulars of which will be sent on application. MEMBERSHIP. The subscription for Membership is 10s. 6d. per annum, which includes the official publications and all Members’ privileges with the exception of the Club. There is no further liability. Members may also become shareholders with limited liability. Applications for Membership and all Correspondence should be addressed to— THE ‘‘C.G,A.,’’ 2 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, S.W. Telephone—984 Central. Telegrams—‘‘ Ruralness,” London. b ADVERTISEMENTS. Telegrams : Telephones . ‘“ROBINSONS, GLASGOW.” National, No. 3 PARTICK. Corporation, No. W333. ROBINSON, DUNN & GO, Timber Importers, Partick Sawmills, GLASGOW. Sawing, Planing, and Moulding Mills at PARTICK and TEMPLE. Creosoting Works at TEMPLE. Dedicated by Special Permission to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Che Handy Roval Atlas OF Modern Geoaraphv. A Uniform Series of 52 Accurate Maps, accompanied by a Complete Index of up- wards of 78,000 Places contained in the Atlas, and referred to by Initial Letters. PRICES.—Strongly bound in Rexine (Imitation Leather), Gilt Titles, £1, 5s. Neatly Bound Half Morocco, Gilt Titles and Edges, £1, 17s. 6d. Imperial 4to (15 by 11 inches; Maps, 184 by 14% inches). DETAILED PROSPECTUS ON APPLICATION. W. & A. K. JOHNSTON, Ltd., Edina Works, Easter Road, and 20 South St. Andrew Street, EDINBURGH ; 7 Paternoster Square, LONDON, E.C. ADVERTISEMENTS. “EUREKA.” a The Weed Killer that Kills Weeds. Cheapest and Best. Ask for this Make. Prices and Proofs on Application. ALSO FU REKATI N E A SAFE TOBACCO 5 INSECT KILLER. Bordeaux Mixture, Summer Shade, Lawn Sand, etc. WRITE FOR LIST. TOMLINSON & HAYWARD, Ltd., LINCOLN. M‘FARLANE & ERSKINE bithoetapnic < .- - ) HaYWARDS » Three-Colour Printers BLACK AND COLOURED PLATES FOR SCIENTIFIC WORKS - - - PLANS OF ESTATES, ETC. COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SEEDSMEN BOOKS, MAGAZINES, CATALOGUES, PRICE LISTS, CIRCULARS, - - AND EVERY DESCRIPTION OF PRINTED FORMS ww 14 and 19 St James Square EDINBURGH Notices to Members. SUBSCRIPTIONS. Subscriptions for 1906 became due on Ist January. Members who have not yet remitted will greatly oblige by doing so now. FORESTRY EXHIBITION AT PEEBLES. (17th to 2oth July.) Applications for Space and Offers of Exhibits should reach the Secretary not later than Saturday, 12th May. ESSAYS. Competitors are reminded that Essays, &c., should reach the Secretary not later than Saturday, 12th May. EXCURSION. The Annual Excursion will be held in the Counties of Northumberland and Durham. The dates provisionally fixed are 31st July and Ist, 2nd, and 3rd August. Full particulars will, as usual, be sent when ready. ROBERT GALLOWAY 3a Secretary and Treasurer. 1g CASTLE STREET, EDINBURGH, Afrzl 1906. Ropal Scottish Arboricultural Society. INSTITUTED 1854. Patron—HIS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY THE KING, Permission to assume the title ‘‘ Royal” was granted by Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1887. 54-56. JAMES Brown, Wood Commissioner to the Earl of Seafield. The Right Hon. THe Haru or Duct. The Right Hon. THE Fart or Sratr. Sir Joun HAut, Bart. of Dunglass. His Grace TH& DUKE oF ATHOLL. JoHN I. CHaumeErs of Aldbar. The Right Hon. THe EARL oF AIRLIE. The Right Hon. T. F. Kennepy. . Ropert HurcuHison of Carlowrie, F.R.S.E. Hues CiecHorn, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E., of Stravithie. . JOAN Hutton BaurFour, M.D., M.A., F.R.SS.L. & E., Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. adam, M.P. Place, Edinburgh. fHOMAS GIBSON CARMICHAEL, Bart. of Castle Craig, falleny House, Balerno. ES COOK, Land Steward, Arniston, Gorebridge. RGE U. MACDONALD, Forester, Raith, Kirkcaldy. LIAM MACKINNON, Nurseryman, 75 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh. . MATHER, Nurseryman, Kelso. M SPIERS, Timber Merchant, Warriston Saw-mills, Edin- urgh. IN oF BAILEY, 7 Drummond Place, Edinburgh. N ANNAND, Overseer, Haystoun Estate, Woodbine Cot- age, Peebles. i. W. BORTHWICK, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. ES JOHNSTONE, F.S.1., Factor, Alloway Cottage, Ayr. RGE LEVEN, Forester, Auchencruive, St Quivox, Ayr. FORMER PRESIDENTS. | } | . The Right Hon. W. P. ApAm of Blair- | 1898. | \ 1879-81. The Most Hon. Loruian, K.T. THE MAraQuis oF 1882. ALEXANDER Dickson, M.D., F.R.S.E., of Hartree, Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. 1883-85. Hucu CLecuorn, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E., of Stravithie. 1886-87. The Right Hon. Sir Hersert Evsracr MAxwett, Bart. of Monreith. 1888-89. The Most Hon. Tok Marquis oF LINLITHGOW. 1890-93. IsAAc BayLEY Batrour, M.D., Se.D., F.R.S., LL.D., Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. 1894-97. R. C. Munro Fereuson, M.P. Colonel F. Battry, R.E. 1899-02. The Right Hon. THE EARL oF MANSFIELD. OFFICE-BEARERS FOR 1906. President. W. STEUART FOTHRINGHAM of Murthly, Perthshire. Vice=Presidents, NETH J. MACKENZIE, Bart. of Gairloch, 10 Moray|JOHN W. M‘HATTIE, Superintendent of City Parks, City Chambers, Edinburgh. Rieut Hoy. THE EARL OF MANSFIELD, Scone Palace,|D. F. MACKENZIE, F.S.I., Estate Office, Mortonhall, Mid- Perth. lothian. JOHN STIRLING-MAXWELL, Bart. of Pollok, Pollok- haws. Council. JOHN METHVEN, Nurseryman, 15 Princes Street, Edinburgh. JOHN SCRIMGEOUR, Overseer, Doune Lodge, Doune. DAVID W. THOMSON, Nurseryman, 113 George Street, Edinburgh. JOHN BOYD, Forester, Pollok Estate, Pollokshaws, Glasgow. A. T. GILLANDERS, F.E.S., Forester, Alnwick Castle, Nor- thumberland. W. H. MASSIE, Nurseryman, 1 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh. CHARLES BUCHANAN, Overseer, Penicuik Estate, Penicuik. JOHN D. CROZIER, Forester, Durris Estate, Drumoak, Aberdeenshire. W. A. RAE, Factor, Murthly, Perthshire, JAMES WHITTON, Superintendent of City Parks, City Chambers, Glasgow. Hon. Editor. CoLonEL F, BAILEY, 7 Drummond Place, Edinburgh. Assistant Editor. A. D. RICHARDSON, 1 West Brighton Crescent, Portobello. Auditor. JOHN T. WATSON, 16 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh. Hon, Secretary. R. C. MUNRO FERGUSON, M.P., of Raith and Novar, Raith House, Kirkcaldy. Secretary and Treasurer. ROBERT GALLOWAY, S.S.C., 19 Castle Street, Edinburgh. Membership. HE Roll contains the names of over to00 Members, compris- ing Landowners, Factors, Foresters, Nurserymen, Gardeners, Land Stewards, Wood Merchants, and others interested in Forestry, many of whom reside in England, Ireland, the British Colonies, and India. Members are elected by the Council. The Terms of Subscription will be found on the back of the Form of Proposal for Membership which accompanies this Memorandum. The Principal Objects of the Society, and the nature of its work, will be gathered from the following paragraphs :— Meetings. The Society holds periodical Meetings for the transaction of business, the reading and discussion of Papers, the exhibition of new Inventions, specimens of Forest Products and other articles of special interest to the Members, and for the advancement of Forestry in all its branches. Meetings of the Council are held every alternate month, and at other times when business requires attention; and Committees of the Council meet frequently to arrange and carry out the work of the Society. Prizes and Medals. With the view of encouraging young Foresters to study, and to train themselves in habits of careful and accurate observation, the Society offers Annual Prizes and Medals for essays on practical subjects, and for inventions connected with appliances used in Forestry. Such awards have been granted continuously since 1855 up to the present time, and have yielded satisfactory results. Medals and Prizes are also awarded in connection with the Exhibitions aftermentioned. School of Forestry. Being convinced of the necessity for bringing within the reach of young Foresters, and others interested in the Profession, a regular systematic course of Instruction, such as is provided in Germany, France, and other European countries, the Society, in 1882, strongly urged the creation of a British School of Forestry ; and with a view of stimulating public interest in the matter, a Forestry Exhibition, chiefly organised by the Council, was held in Edinburgh in 1884. As a further step towards the end in view, the Society, in 1890, instituted a Fund for the purpose of establishing a Chair of Forestry at the University of Edinburgh, and a sum of 3 . 4,584, 3s. rod. has since been raised by the Society and handed over to the University. Aided by an annual subsidy from the Board of Agriculture, which the Society was mainly instrumental in obtaining, a Course of Lectures at the University has been delivered without interruption since 1889. It is recognised, how- ever, that a School of Forestry is incomplete without a practical training-ground attached to it, which would be available, not only for purposes of instruction but also as a Station for Research and Experiment, and as a Model Forest, by which Landowners and Foresters throughout the country might benefit. The Society has accordingly drawn up a Scheme for the Establishment of a State Model Forest for Scotland which might serve the above- named objects. Copies of this Scheme were laid before the recent Departmental Committee on British Forestry, and in their Report the Committee have recommended the establishment of a Demonstration Area and the provision of other educational facilities in Scotland. Meantime Mr Munro Ferguson, M.P., for a part of whose woods at Raith a Working-Plan has been prepared, and is now in operation, has very kindly agreed to allow Students to visit them. Excursions. During the past twenty-seven years, well-organised Excursions, numerously attended by Members of the Society, have been made annually to various parts of Scotland, England, and Ireland. In 1895, a Tour extending over twelve days was made through the Forests of Northern Germany, in 1902 a Tour extending over seventeen days was made in Sweden, and during the summer of 1904 the Forest School at Nancy and Forests in the north of France were visited. These Excursions enable Members whose occupations necessarily confine them chiefly to a single locality to study the conditions and methods prevailing elsewhere; and the Council propose to extend the Tours during the next few years to other parts of the Continent. They venture to express the hope that Landowners may be induced to afford facilities to their Foresters for participation in these Tours, the instructive nature of which renders them well worth the moderate expenditure of time and money that they involve. Exhibitions. A Forestry Exhibition is annually organised in connection with the Highland and Agricultural Society’s Show, in which are exhibited specimens illustrating the rate of growth of trees, different kinds of wood, pit-wood and railway timber, insect pests and samples of the damage done by them, tools and implements, manufactured articles peculiar to the district where the Exhibition is held, and other objects of interest relating to Forestry. Prizes and Medals are also offered for Special Exhibits. ry 4 The Society’s Transactions. The Zyvransactions of the Society are published annually, and issued gratis to Members. A large number of the Prize Essays and other valuable Papers, and reports of the Annual Excursions, have appeared in them, and have thus become available to Students as well as to those actively engaged in the Profession of Forestry. Copies of the Zransactions, which now extend to eighteen volumes, are to be found in the principal Libraries of the United Kingdom, as well as in those of the British Colonies and of America, Honorary Consulting Scientists. Members have the privilege of obtaining information gratuitously upon subjects connected with Forestry from the following Honorary Scientists appointed by the Society. Consulting Botanist.—ISAAC BAYLEY BALFOUR, LL.D., M.D., Sc.D., Professor of Botany, University of Edinburgh, and Regius Keeper, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Consulting Chemist.—ALEXANDER LAUDER, D.Sc., 13 George Square, Edinburgh. Consulting Cryptogamist.—A. W. BORTHWICK, D.Sc., Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Consulting Entomologist.—ROBERT STEWART MacDoucGat1, M.A., D.Sc., Professor of Entomology, etc., 13 Archibald Place, Edinburgh. Consulting Geologist. JOHN SMITH FLETT, M.A., B.Sc., M.B., C.M., Geological Survey, 28 Jermyn Street, London, S.W. Consulting Meteorologist.—ROBERT COCKBURN MossMANn, F.R.S.E., F.R. Met.Soc., 10 Blacket Place, Edinburgh. Local Secretaries. The Society is represented throughout Scotland, England, and Ireland by the Local Secretaries whose names are given below. They are ready to afford any additional information that may be desired regarding the Conditions of Membership and the work of the Society. Register of Foresters, Etc. A Register of Foresters and others desirous of obtaining situations is now in operation. Schedules of application and other particulars may be obtained from the Local Secretaries in the various districts, or direct from the Secretary. It is hoped that Proprietors and others requiring Estate men will avail themselves of the Society’s Register. Counties. ~ Aberdeen, Argyle, . Ayr, Banff, Berwick, Bute, Clackmannan, . Dumbarton, Dumfries, East Lothian, . Fife, Forfar, . Inverness, Kincardine, Kinross, Lanark, . Moray, Perth, Renfrew, Ross, Roxburgh, Sutherland, Wigtown, LOCAL SECRETARIES. Scotland, JOHN CLARK, Forester, Haddo House, Aberdeen. JoHN Micure, Factor, Balmoral, Ballater. WALTER E.tiot, Manager, Ardtornish. JoHuN D. SUTHERLAND, Estate Agent, Oban. ANDREW D. Paces, Overseer, Culzean, Maybole. A. B. Rozpertson, Forester, The Dean, Kilmarnock. JOHN Brypon, Forester, Rothes, Elgin. Wo. MItne, Foulden Newton, Berwick-on-Tweed. Wo. Ineuts, Forester, Cladoch, Brodick. JAMES Kay, Forester, Bute Estate, Rothesay. Ropert Forses, Estate Office, Kennet, Alloa. Rozert Brown, Forester, Boiden, Luss. D. CrasseE, Forester, Byreburnfoot, Canonbie. Joun Hayes, Dormont Grange, Lockerbie. W. S. Curr, Factor, Ninewar, Prestonkirk. Wo. Gitcurist, Timber Merchant, Ladybank. EpMunND SANG, Nurseryman, Kirkcaldy. JAMES CRABBE, Forester, Glamis. JAMES ROBERTSON, Forester, Panmure, Carnoustie. James A. Gossip, Nurseryman, Inverness. JoHN Hart, Estates Office, Cowie, Stonehaven. JAMES TERRIS, Factor, Dullomuir, Blairadam. JOHN Davipson, Forester, Dalzell, Motherwell. JAMES WHITTON, Superintendent of Parks, City Chambers, Glasgow. D. Scorr, Forester, Darnaway Castle, Forres. W. Harrower, Forester, Tomnacroich, Garth, Aberfeldy, JoHN ScrimGeEouR, Doune Lodge, Doune. S. MacBgan, Overseer, Erskine, Glasgow. JoHN J. R. MEIKLEJOHN, Factor, Novar, Evanton. Miss AMy Frances YULE, Tarradale House, Muir of Ord. JouN LEISHMAN, Manager, Cavers Estate, Hawick. R. V. Maruer, Nurseryman, Kelso. Donatp Roserrson, Forester, Dunrobin, Golspie. JAMEs Hocarru, Forester, Culhorn, Stranraer. H. H. Waker, Monreith Estate Office, Whauphill. Counties. Beds, Berks, Cheshire, Devon, Durham, Hants, Herts, Kent, Lancashire, Leicester, Lincoln, Middlesex, England. JoHN ALEXANDER, 46 Clarendon Road, Bedford. FrAncis MircHeEwt, Forester, Woburn. W. Sroriz, Whitway House, Newbury. Wm. Exper, Cholmondeley Park, near Malpas. JAMES BARRIE, Forester, Stevenstone Estate, Torrington. A. C. Fores, Professor of Forestry, Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne. W. R. Browy, Forester, Park Cottage, Heckfield, Winchfield. JAMES BARTON, Forester, Hatfield. Tuomas SMITH, Overseer, Tring Park, Wigginton, Tring. R. W. Cowrer, Gortanore, Sittingbourne. D. C. Hamitton, Forester, Knowsley, Presevt James Martin, The Reservoir, Knipton, Grantham. W. B. Havetock, The Nurseries, Brocklesby Park. Professor BouteErR, 11 Onslow Road, Richmond Hill, London, 8. W. Northumberland,Jounxn Davrpson, Secretary, Royal English Arboricultural Notts, Salop, Suffolk, . Surrey, . Warwick, York, Dublin, . Galway, . Kilkenny, King’s County, Tipperary, Wicklow, Society, Haydon-Bridge-on-Tyne. W. Micutz, Forester, Welbeck, Worksop. Witson ToMLInson, Forester, Clumber Park, Worksop. Frank Hutt, Forester, Lillieshall, Newport. ANDREW Boa, Agent, Great Thurlow. Grorck Hannan, The Folly, Ampton Park, Bury St Edmunds. ANpDREW PEEBLES, Estate Office, Albury, Guildford. A. D. Curistiz, Warriage Hill Farm, Bidford. AbAM MAtn, Forester, Rose Cottage, Loftus. D. Tatt, Estate Bailiff, Owston Park, Doncaster. Treland, JameEs WILSON, B.Sc., Royal College of Science, Dublin. THoMAS RoBERTSON, Forester and Bailiff, Woodlawn. Auex. M‘RaAkg, Forester, Castlecomer. Wma. Henperson, Forester, Clonad Cottage, Tullamore. Davin G. Cross, Forester, Kylisk, Nenagh. ADAM JOHNSTONE, Forester, Coollattin, Shillelagh. Ropal Scottish Arboricultural Society. FORM OF PROPOSAL FOR MEMBERSHIP. To be signed by the Candidate, his Proposer and Seconder, and returned to ROBERT GALLOWAY, S&.S.C., SHCRETARY, Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, 19 Castle Street, Edinburgh. LGU IRIVLTITC NL ena ee AR Oe HRS Re CR SS Designation, LON SCIDS CLI aay, Sepa AP eREP ro POCO R EEE LEEPER oP a LEE DEC EER ere a EOE pe ae Candidate's 4 Address, Re At : Sad A mrsachenae a Bae dun caved tecdachaadven’ sapennviamuieenaas Life, or Ordinary Member, Signature, E iH aa OPPO rere eer o ties es pe areas ene deni wku sidoces dcapduoneswdnes eis suaecun tans amaeemay Signature, . Seconder’s Address, . . eM yet, eee ti Signature, . Proposer s Address, . {CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP, see Over. CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP (excerpted from the Laws). III. Any person interested in Forestry, and desirous of pro- moting the objects of the Society, is eligible for election as an Ordinary Member in one of the following Classes :— I. Proprietors the valuation of whose land exceeds £500 per annum, and others, subscribing annually - . One Guinea. 2. Proprietors the valuation of whose land does not exceed 4500 per annum, Factors, Nurserymen, and others, subscribing annually . : ; 5 . Half-a-Guinea. 3. Foresters, Gardeners, Land-Stewards, and others, sub- scribing annually ; . : . . Six Shillings. 4. Assistant-Foresters, Assistant-Gardeners, and others, sub- scribing annually - ; : F . Four Shillings. IV. Subscriptions are due on the lst of January in each year, and shall be payable in advance. A new Member's Subscription is due on the day of election. V. Members in arrear shall not receive the Zransactions. Any Member whose Annual Subscription remains ugpaid for three years shall cease to be a Member of the Society, and no such Member shall be eligible for re-election till all his arrears are paid up. VI. Any eligible person may become a Zzfe Member of the Society, on payment, according to class, of the following sums :— 1. Large Proprietors of land, and others, ; : . 10°10! '° 2. Small Proprietors, Factors, Nurserymen, and others, . iets) 0 3. Foresters, Gardeners, Land-Stewards, and others, . : Z: 2:gO VII. Any Ordinary Member of Classes 1, 2, and 3, who has paid Five Annual Subscriptions, may become a Zz/e Member on payment of Two-thirds of the sum payable by xezw Life Members. XII. Every Proposal for Membership shall be made on the Form provided for the purpose, which must be signed by two Members of the Society as Proposer and Seconder, and delivered to the Secretary to be laid before the next meeting of the Council. The Proposal shall lie on the table till the following meeting of the Council, when it shall be accepted or otherwise dealt with, as the Council may deem best in the interests of the Society. The Proposer and Seconder shall be responsible for payment of the new Member’s first Subscription. CONTENTS. The Society does not hold itself responsible for the statements or views expressed by the authors of papers. PAGE I. Timber: Its Strength and How to Test It. By T. Hupson Brarg, M. Inst.C.E., Regius Professor of Engineering in the University of Edinburgh, . : : - : . : 1 II. Concerning Natural Regeneration in general, together with Special Details regarding a typical example of Natural Regeneration of the Scots Pine at Beauly, Inverness-shire (with Photographs). By GILBERT Brown, Beaufort Cottage, Kiltarlity, Inverness- shires. 2 : : : : : : 17 III. The Prospects of growing Timber for Profit in the United Kingdom. By ArcuispaLD E. MorrAn, Land Agent, Palmerston House, Portumna, Co. Galway, . : : : : : 25 IV. The Laying-out of a Mixed Plantation, and its Maintenance for the first Twenty-five Years. By Donatp M. MAcpoNnaLp, Assistant Forester, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, s 32 V. The Laying-out of a Mixed Plantation, and its Maintenance for the first Twenty-five Years. By Jonn M. Murray, Assistant Forester, Murthly, Perthshire, . P j ‘ : 44 VI. Megastigmus spermotrophus, Wachtl, as an Enemy of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga Douglasti), with two Plates. By R. Sr—EwArtT MacDovuea tt, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., Hon. Consulting Ento- mologist to the Society, 3 : 5 ; : 52 VII. Some Notes on the Home Timber-Trade in the East of Scotland. By ApAmM Spiers, Timber Merchant, Edinburgh, - : 66 VIII. Notes on the Rate of Growth of Mature Timber-Crops in Eastern Perthshire. By the Hon. Epiror, ; : F - 70 1X. Note on ‘‘ The Railway Fires Act, 1905.” By the Hon. Epiror, 73 X. On some Japanese and North American Trees suitable for growing ‘in British Woodlands. By H. J. Exwes, F.R.S., Colesborne, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, . F ‘ ' . 76 XI. Working-Plan for the Alice Holt Forest. By Dr W. Scurica, assisted in the Field-Work by Mr W. F. PERREE, d 83 a 7 li XII. XIII. XIV. KY XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. CONTENTS. The Conversion of Stored Coppice into Highwood, and how I became converted to the latter System of Sylviculture. By H. J. MARSHALL, Gayton Hall, Ross, Hereford, ‘ The Destruction of Rabbits Injurious to Woodlands and Fields. By the Hon. Eptror, The Training of Probationers for the Indian Forest Service. By the Hon. EpirTor, The Chief Timber-Trees of India. By the Hon. Eprror, Notes on Indian Forestry in 1905. By the Hon. Epiror, Some Recent Developments in Swedish Forestry. By Jagmistare Euis Niuson, Kolleberga, Ljungbyhed, Sweden, Belgian Forestry in some of its Aspects (with Photographs). By A. T. GILLANDERS, Forester, Alnwick Castle, Northumber- land, The Town- Woods of Carlsbad (Bohemia). By the Hon. Epiror, Notes on Continental Forestry in 1905. By the Hon. Eprror, . The Twenty-eighth Annual Excursion—Argyll, Ayr, and Renfrew, 5th to 8th July 1905. By the Assisranr EpIToR, Forestry Exhibition at the Highland and Agricultural Society’s Show at Glasgow, July 1905. By the AssisrAnT EpITor, REPORTS BY THE HoNoRARY SCIENTISTS— Report by A. W. Borruwick, D.Sc., Honorary Consulting Cryptogamist, - : Report by R. Stewart MacDoveat.., M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., Honorary Consulting Entomologist, . NoTres AND QuUERIES:—A Note upon Dr Nisbet’s Criticism of the Report of the Departmental Committee on Forestry in the Preface to The Forester, and his Reply thereto—The Decline in the Value of Coppice- Woods—The Prices of Timber in the South of England in 1904: and 1905—Profits from Timber-Growing in Hampshire—Rooks Feeding on Pine Beetles —The Birch and Alder Saw-Fly—Experiment with Lime and Arseniate of Soda for Protection against the Pine Weevil—A Fine Larch—Russian Larch—Hungarian Ash—A New Tas- manian Wood—Tupelo Wood—Hickory Becoming Scarce— Water in Creosote for Timber Preserving—A Gigantic Cedar of Lebanon—Trees at Auchincruive, Ayrshire—Forestry in Japan—Mexican Forestry—Artificially Coloured Wood—The Seasoning of Timber—What is a Load of Timber ?—Weight of Timber—The Royal English Arboricultural Society—Appoint- ment to Forestry Lectureship—Imports of Timber into the United Kingdom, 1905, PAGE 99 104 107 111 128 136 139 150 161 180 190 195 196 199 CONTENTS. REVIEWS AND Norices or Books— The Forester: A Practical Treatise on British Forestry and Arboriculture for Landowners, Land Agents, and Foresters. By JouNn Nisser, D.(c., formerly Conservator of Forests, Burma, Author of ‘Burma under British Rule,’ ‘ British Forest Trees,’ ‘Studies in Forestry,’ ‘Our Forests and Wood- lands,’ ete., and Editor of the Sixth Edition of ‘ The Forester ’ by the late James Brown, LL.D., Elementary Forestry. By CHaAr.es E. Curtis, F.S.I., The New forestry, or the Continental System adapted to British Woodlands and Game Preservation. By JoHN Simpson, Future Forest Trees. The Importance of the German Experi- ments in the Introduction of North-American Trees. By A. Harotp Unwin, D.(Cc., . The Estate Nursery. By JoHN Simpson, Vocabulaire Forestiere: Frangais—Anglais—Allemand. By J. Gerschel, Agrégé de l'Université, Professeur d’Anglais et d’Allemand a l’Ecole nationale des Eaux et Foréts de Nancy, Manual of the Trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico). By CHARLES SPRAGUE SARGENT, Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, The Royal Forests of England, By J. CHartes Cox, LL.D., EE Seale : : ‘ F : Webster’s Practical Forestry: A Popular Handbook on the Rearing and Growth of Trees for Profit or Ornament. By A. D. WEBSTER, Osituary Norices:—Patrick Neill Fraser—David Pringle Laird —Alexander Pitcaithley—Robert Baxter, PROCEEDINGS OF THE RoyaL ScorrisH ARBORICULTURAL Socrery, 1905. ili PAGE 219 229 231 232 234 235 236 238 240 241 | Oe 7 a eee * te PUAN MAIS ME b> olak oy Dud wr etait) Ye eee dts Peart is ary) eat ee sane bat bleh? 3 Wwatan jit ‘ fice are, vu ft = ‘ i i ‘ “I j i = bi 4 i Tek ; “i : ‘ ‘ F, \ | ' ‘ , » fee a iy * F ce i yay : a bpd a + rr a oe ——— == = - ~~" TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. I. Zimber: Its Strength, and How to Test [t+ By T. Hupson Beare, M.Inst.C.E., Regius Professor of Engineering in the University of Edinburgh. A very large number of experimental observations on the strength and other properties of the various kinds of timber which are used by engineers, architects, and builders has been published in the proceedings of various technical societies, in technical journals, and in text-books. Unfortunately, many of these older tests are unreliable, and if the data deduced from them are employed in calculations, considerable judgment is needed before such data can be adopted with safety. Justifica- tion for such a statement is to be found in the following facts :— 1. In no case, so far as I know, in these older experiments was any attempt made to determine the moisture present in the timber at the time the test was carried out, and in very few cases were data given as to the time of felling, the length of time during which the timber had been seasoned, etc.; now the amount of sap or moisture present in timber is a very vital factor in determining its mechanical properties. 2. Owing to the fact that the apparatus at the disposal of the experimenters was not sufficiently powerful to make any other method possible, the tests were mainly made upon very small specimens, usually selected with great care on account of their freedom from knots and other blemishes; the results are, therefore, not really representative of the average quality of the particular kind of timber the specimens were supposed to represent. Tc the late Professor Bauschinger is due the credit of institut- ing a really scientific method of carrying out tests of timber, 1 Lecture delivered before the Dundee Institute of Engineers, November 17, 1904. VOL. XIX. PART I. A 2 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. in which careful records were kept not only of the moisture conditions, but of the previous history of the wood from which the specimens were prepared. Professor Bauschinger carried out at Munich, in 1883 and in 1887, two classical researches upon this subject, and the results obtained were published in Mittheilungen aus dem Mechanisch-Technischen Laboratorium der K. Technischen Hochschule in Miinchen, in 1883 and 1887. These original publications should be consulted by anyone anxious to learn the exact way in which these experiments were conducted, but the substance of the results obtained is given in Professor Unwin’s work on the Testing of Materials of Construction. One of the earliest points in the research was the determina- tion of the influence of the moisture present in the sample of timber upon its compressive and bending strength. The method adopted by Bauschinger for determining the dryness of his specimens was as follows :—sawdust, or small chips from the actual specimen, was carefully dried in a current of warm air kept at a temperature of about 212° F., and maintained for about eight hours: the sample of sawdust or chips was weighed carefully before subjection to this drying current, and immedi- ately afterwards; the difference of weight in the two weighings gave, therefore, the amount of moisture present, and therefore its percentage in terms of the dry weight of the sample. In his later research Bauschinger adopted, in preference to this plan, the method of drying the whole tested specimen for a period of from two to four days in an oven, where the air temperature was maintained at 212° F., as in the previous method, and again the difference between the weighings before and after the specimen had been placed in the oven gave the total moisture present in the entire specimen. This second method is no doubt a better plan, because any local differences in the moisture present in the specimen are eliminated, but it is a little more difficult to ensure uniformity of dryness throughout the whole specimen, unless the specimen is kept in the hot- air oven for a considerable length of time. I may point out here that timber thus artificially dried very rapidly reabsorbs moisture from the air, and, in fact, timber which has been used and kept in a well-warmed, dry house for a long period of time would probably have as much as Io per cent. of moisture present in it. It is, therefore, not TIMBER: ITS STRENGTH, AND HOW TO TEST IT. 3 possible to carry out the actual tests on perfectly dry specimens, since, if the specimens were perfectly dry. before the tests began, they would rapidly reabsorb moisture during the time the experiment was being carried out. In order to be able to compare results of different tests, it is desirable that a standard of dryness should be adopted, and Bauschinger, as the result of his research, recommended that all tests upon timber should be reduced to a standard of 15 per cent. dryness. L8S 10 000 i 1 { & 000 : $ fo FIG.1 YW , Q 6000 > ix iC) z R kK 1) ts 4,000 s y y & Q 5 uv 2,000 MOISTURE IN W008, PER CENT ° 70 20 30 40 50% To reduce results to such a standard, it is clear that we must have for each quality of timber a definite numerical law, connecting together the mechanical strength and the percentage of moisture present. This law can be experimentally determined by making tests of a number of samples of the same quality of timber with different percentages of moisture in the different specimens. Fig. 1 shows the plotted results of such an experiment 4 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. carried out in America on specimens of short-leaf, or yellow, pine (Pinus echinata, Mill.) sap-wood. The vertical ordinates give the crushing strength in lbs. per square inch, and the horizontal abscisse give the percentage of moisture in the different specimens. It will be observed that the strength falls off exceedingly rapidly in the same quality of timber as the percentage of moisture increases ; and further, it is interesting to note an important point in connection with this law of variation of strength with variation of moisture. When the moisture reaches about 4o per cent., any further increase appears to have but small influence upon the strength of the wood; this is due to the fact that any increase in the moisture present beyond about 4o per cent. merely fills up the empty cell-spaces with moisture, and this does not affect in any way the strength; it is the wetting of the cell-walls by the first portion of the moisture absorbed which is injurious and reduces the strength of the timber. The equation to the curve shown in Fig. 1 at once enables the strength at 15 per cent. moisture to be calculated, when the strength at some other percentage of moisture has been experimentally determined. Another good series of thoroughly scientific tests upon timber was that carried out on behalf of the Forest Department of the Board of Agriculture of the United States, between the years 1891 and 1895. In this great series of tests the mechanical experiments were carried out mainly by Professor Johnson of Washington University, St Louis, U.S.A.; while the microscopic and other examination of the cellular structure of the woods was carried out at Washington itself. The experiments were carried out on wood specimens prepared from about three hundred trees, embracing about ten different kinds of pine or needle-leaf trees, that is, soft woods, and about five different kinds of broad-leaf trees, or hard woods, of the United States; and when each tree was felled, an accurate record was kept as to the condition of the soil in which the tree grew, the climatic conditions of the district in which it grew, the size of the tree, the conditions of its growth, the age of the tree, and the date of felling. You will see, therefore, that most careful records were kept not only of what happened during the actual tests, but of the previous life-history, so to speak, of the trees from which the samples were prepared, and, unless such a record is kept, the value of the research, from the TIMBER: ITS STRENGTH, AND HOW TO TEST IT. 5 point of view of forestry, is almost entirely lost. It is only by such elaborate records that those responsible for the upkeep and the maintenance of State forests can obtain data upon which they can work in the management and treatment of the trees in the forest, and of course it is equally important to the engineer and to the architect to know, when he has the data of the tests before him, what was the previous history of the timber from which the specimens were prepared. As in Bauschinger’s tests, so also in those of the American Board of Agriculture, careful determinations were made of the moisture conditions of the tested bars. The plan adopted by the American observers was to cut a thin disc across the whole section of the tested bar, as close up to the point of fracture as possible; these thin discs were then at once weighed, and immediately placed for a number of hours in a warm current of air, maintained at a temperature of 220° F.; they were then re-weighed when perfectly dry, and the difference between the two weighings gave the total moisture present, and the ratio of this difference to the dry weight was the percentage of moisture present. A reference again to Fig. 1, which shows this law of variation of strength with variation of moisture, brings out clearly the interesting fact that the maximum strength is not reached when the timber is perfectly dry, but when there is about 3 per cent. or 4 per cent. of moisture present in it. It is rather a difficult piece of experimental work, however, to determine this point very accurately, because, as I have already mentioned, when timber is dried below ro per cent. of moisture, it tends to reabsorb moisture from the air extraordinarily rapidly. In connection with this question of the influence of moisture upon the strength, the American experimenters investigated whether or not moisture reabsorbed into a specimen which had been dried had the same weakening effect. as the original sap of the tree, and this was found to be the case. The two curves in Fig. 2 represent (1) a series of tests with timber which was dried by gradually driving off the natural sap, and (2) a series of tests with very dry timber which was gradually allowed to reabsorb moisture, and you will notice that the two curves practically coincide. This is a matter of considerable practical importance in the case of timber used in underground situations, or in water itself, or in a water-logged 6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. soil, where, unless special means are taken to prevent the absorption of water, the timber rapidly becomes very wet. The American experimenters suggested a standard of dryness of 12 per cent. for comparing different sets of observations, and they found in their experiments that timber in such a condition of dryness was on an average about 75 per cent. stronger than timber which was quite “green,” that is, filled with the natural sap. 485 40,000 8.000 Fil Ge) 6000 FULL LINE, TIMBER UNDERGOING DRYING CONPRESSION STRENGTH PER SQ. (NCH 7 DOTTED LINE, TINBER RE -ABSORBING (MO/STUPRE MOISTURE IN WOOD, PER CENT O° to 20 30 40 50% Before leaving this question of the influence of sap or moisture on the strength of wood, I may mention that the American research dealt also with the effect of “bleeding,” as it is called, or tapping the long-leaf (pitch) pine (Pinus palustris, Mill.) for its turpentine. It was commonly held that this process con- siderably weakened the timber, and also affected its durability. The investigation conducted by the Forest Department of the United States, with a very large number of tests, showed, fairly conclusively, that there was no marked effect produced by previous “bleeding” of the tree on the mechanical properties TIMBER: ITS STRENGTH, AND HOW TO TEST IT. if of the timber, and similarly, apparently no effect upon these properties, or no marked effect, was produced by the modern system of rapid artificial seasoning of wood, as usually carried out by currents of hot air. Whether or not the durability may be affected is another matter, and that it was impossible to determine in an investigation of this nature. Of the mechanical tests made upon specimens of timber, there are practically four of importance—tensile tests, compressive tests, cross-bending tests, and shearing tests. I will now deal briefly with each of these in order. TENSION EXPERIMENTS. Tension experiments are difficult to carry out, owing to the fact that, unless the specimens are prepared with very great care, it is almost impossible to ensure a pure tensile fracture. Most wood has little power to resist shear stress along the grain, or, in other words, the lateral adhesion of the longitudinal FIG. 3. fibres to one another is very slight, hence shear very easily takes place along this line of weakness, and, therefore, unless the longitudinal fibres run perfectly truly through the specimen, which it is very difficult to ensure, a shear fracture very often occurs long before the real tensile strength of the material has been developed. For the purpose of this lecture, I made a series of experiments on four different kinds of home-grown timber, viz., ash, beech, birch, and oak, and on hickory and mahogany, and the results that I have obtained are represented in the attached Tables. One set of specimens was flat (see Fig. 3), carved so that in the centre the cross section was rectangular, 1} inches wide and 4 inch thick; the ends were left very much larger in section, and 8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. were held by means of wedges in the dies of the testing machine. All the six specimens prepared in this manner broke fairly well in tension, except the fourth, the specimen of hickory; the results obtained are shown in Table I. Of course, I do not for a TABLE I. Zension Tests of Timber. Fiat Bars (Cross Section }” x 13”). Tensile | 2 of | Kind of Wood. Stress at Specimen. Fracture. Tons persq. in. 6796 | Ash, : 5 ; 4°08 6797 | Beech, . ; : Zim | Gros | Biren, | 6799 Higees +i {ian sl a eeneeel | 6800 | Mahogany, . : 5:9 | 6801 Oak, : ; é 4°97 moment wish to assert that the actual tensile stresses obtained in these few tests are a fair measure of the tensile strength of these different kinds of wood; my object, in these particular experi- ments, was more to bring out the extreme difficulty of carrying out satisfactorily tensile tests. FIG. 4. Two other sets of specimens were prepared, which were turned in the lathe into a cylindrical form (see Fig. 4), the ends being left enlarged, so that they could be held securely in the testing machine, and pulled from the shoulders thus formed. TIMBER: ITS STRENGTH, AND HOW TO TEST IT. 9 One of these sets of round specimens was turned down to such a diameter in the centre as to give a tensile cross-sectional area of only about ? square inch, and the other set so as to have a very much larger cross-sectional area, of about 1? square inches. The first series of these round bars had ends so heavy and strong that, in order to shear the ends off, a shear area of 134 square inches had to be destroyed, while in the second series the ends were reduced in size so as to give only about 9g square inches of shear area. The results of these two sets of tests are given in Tables IT. and III. TABLE II. Zenston Tests of Timber. Rounp Bars (see Fig. 4). Mumbercl | Kind of Wood. Strssar Sh" SESS| atethod of Fracture maaan pet adn. fa pears ia 6780 Ash, : , 6°62 0°37 Sheared at head. 6781 Beech, . : 6°93 A Tension. 6782 Birch, |: on a ae Se | Bs 6783 | Hickory, . : 6°30 | 0°37 | Sheared at head. 6784 | Mahogany, ; Arg | SOr25" 1?" 99 >» 6785 Oak, ; ; 2°95 | ap | Tension. / TaBLeE III. Zenston Tests of Timber. Rounp Bars (see Fig. 4). Bamber of | Kind of Wood. Suess a | Shear Stress | Method of Fracture. Tons per sq. in. Tons per sq. in. 6786 Ash, : : 2°22 0°45 Sheared at head. 6787 Beech; | );. - 2°37 | 0°50 ” » 6788 Birch, 4 : 2°39 0743 | 9 ” 6789 Hickory, . : 2°06 0°40 » ” 6790 Mahogany, . 0°76 | Ov15 Tension inside head. 6791 Oak, : : 1°92 | 9°40 Sheared at head. IO TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. You will observe that in the case of the first set, those with a small tensile area and a very large shear area, no less than three of them sheared at the head instead of breaking in fair tension, and you will notice how very low the shear strength per square inch is, as compared with the tensile strength, in these specimens. On the other hand, the tensile strength of those specimens which did give way in tension appears to be rather greater in the form of a flat specimen than in the form of a round specimen. From Table III., which gives the results of the bigger round specimens, you will see that they practically all went by shearing at the head, though one would have been inclined to believe (in view of the fact that the shearing area was so large), had one not made the experiment, that there was abundant strength in the head to prevent any action of this kind taking place. These few tests show then, first, that it is extremely difficult to get accurate and reliable tensile tests, and secondly, that in designing any part of a structure in which timber is subjected to a direct tension, the utmost care must be taken to see that it is strong enough in its various parts to resist the possible shear stresses which may be set up. Other experimenters have found exactly the same difficulty. Professor Lanza, who made a series of tension tests on large specimens, stated that, in his opinion, tie bars in constructional work will always give way in some other manner than by direct tearing, for instance, by tearing out the fastenings, by shearing, and by splitting the timber. Professor Johnson, in his research, meeting with the same difficulty, decided to abandon tensile tests, on the ground that timber would never fail in pure tension in practice. Bauschinger, in his research, found that the elastic limit in tension practically was of the same value as the ultimate breaking strength, that is to say, that there is no marked limit of elasticity in timber when tested in tension; and he also found that the influence of the time of felling upon the strength in tension very soon disappeared. I give in a Table some figures taken from Bauschinger’s first research, in order to show the great difference between the strength in tension of the living sap-wood and the dead heart- wood. The figures in the Table represent the mean of eight tests TIMBER: ITS STRENGTH, AND HOW TO TEST IT. II of the sap-wood and four tests of the heart-wood, and they include both summer-felled and winter-felled specimens. Comparison of Strength of Heart-Wood and Sap- Wood in Tension, and of Summer and Winter Felling. Tenacity in lbs. per square inch. Summer felled. Winter felled. Kind of Wood. | Sap-Wood. | Heart-Wood.| Sap-Wood. | Heart-Wood.) Scots Pine, ‘ : : 14,940 3,270 10,660 4,120 Norway Spruce, : : 13,790 4,413 17,630 4,905 COMPRESSION TESTS. It is a much easier matter to carry out crushing or compressive tests of timber, that is, it is much easier to make our specimens, and, as a rule, the results obtained are much more concordant among themselves. I shall deal here with only the more modern results, in which records have been kept of the moisture condi- tions at the time of the tests. As a result of his investigation, Bauschinger was of opinion that when the point which it was desired to elucidate was the average quality of any given sample of timber, then compression tests were the best. For example, if it was desired to investigate for a particular kind of wood, say Scots pine, the influence of the time of felling upon the mechanical strength, then it could best be carried out by a series of compressive tests. Bauschinger’s plan was to cut a disc out of each end, and from the centre of each log, then to slice these discs into four sections, and from each of these sections to trim out a square prism with its length about one and a half times its cross sectional dimension. Further, he decided that these specimens (twelve of them) should then be brought to a state of dryness such that the moisture was about 15 per cent., the density being determined by careful weighing and measurement. In his investigation into pine wood, Bauschinger found that the strength of short columns of this nature varied directly as the density of the wood. I2 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. I give below, in a Table, Bauschinger’s results, reduced to a ro per cent. dryness, for the same qualities of timber as those for which I have given the tensile results. Summer felled. Scots Pine, . : ‘ 5310 lbs. per square inch. Norway Spruce, . : A779: 9 - Winter felled. scots Pine,.. ; : 7167 lbs. per square inch. Norway Spruce, . : 5600 ,, ss ” Professor Lanza made an exhaustive investigation into the strength of a large number of full-sized specimens of American timber, from 7 inches to ro inches in diameter, and about 12 feet long ; these all collapsed by pure compression, and the average results are given in the Table below :— Max. Min. Mean. Yellow Pine(Pinus echinata), 4720 3920 4370lbs. persquareinch. Old and seasoned White \ 5197 3065 4480 Oak (Quercus alba), : 7 @ 5. Professor Johnson, in the experiments for the American Forest Board, used compressive specimens 8 inches long and 4 inches square in cross section, these specimens being cut from the ends of other specimens, which had been used as beams. For the purpose of this lecture, I tested a couple of specimens, one of beech and one of white (Weymouth) pine (Pinus Strobus). In all such tests there is a tendency to give way by shear, especially near one end, that is to say, the direct compressive force when resolved on a plane inclined to the axis of the specimen, produces a shear in this plane which soon exceeds the maximum shearing strength of the material, and thus a short strut in wood tends rather to give way by shear than by direct compression. The white (Weymouth) pine specimens only carried 2°31 tons per square inch of direct compression when shear set in. Professor Johnson also agreed with Bauschinger that com- pression experiments were easier to carry out, and were the most valuable of all tests; he advised a factor of safety of 8 for dry timber and of 5 for green timber, when designing timber struts. TIMBER: ITS STRENGTH, AND HOW TO TEST IT. 13 So far I have been considering merely compression applied endwise and with the grain, that is, compression upon the column of wood as it would ordinarily be used when built into a structure, but it frequently enough happens in actual practice that a piece of vertical timber stands or rests upon a horizontal piece, and transmits a crushing load to this horizontal piece, and the horizontal piece is, therefore, subjected to a crushing across the grain. Only comparatively few experiments have been made to determine what is the strength of wood under such conditions. Tredgold many years ago found in his experiments that rooo Ibs. per square inch was sufficient, when applied in this way, to distinctly indent Memel fir, while about 1400 lbs. per square inch was required in the case of good English oak. Of course it is very much a matter of judgment as to what constitutes the limiting crushing load in such a case, that is, what amount of indentation shall be considered to be the limit which can be allowed. Some authorities give ,,th inch in depth of indentation. Professor Johnson took 3 per cent. compression as a working limit, which would amount to an indentation of 2 inch in a beam 1 foot thick, and 15 per cent. as a destructive indenta- tion, which would amount to about 1? inches in a 12-inch bar. He experimented with specimens 2 inches and 4 inches thick, and he found in the case of pines or soft woods that the com- pressive strength, when dealing with this cross grain compression, was only about one-fifth of that which could be developed when the compression was applied along the grain, and in the case of American oak it was about one-third. I made a couple of tests for this lecture; for the white (Wey- mouth) pine I found a compressive strength across the grain of only 0°79 ton, as compared with 2°31 tons when tested in direct compression along the grain, that is, the strength was about one-third, and this, too, when the direct compression strut was a fairly long one. I have said enough to indicate the importance of considering this matter of strength across the grain when designing structures in which timber is used in this way. Cross-BENDING TESTS. Tests of timber beams are a very favourite method of determin- ing the mechanical properties of any specimen of timber, partly because large pieces can be used, and the loads are not excessive, 14 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. if the span is a big one, and secondly, because it is a kind of test which can be carried out quite readily on the works, with a fair degree of accuracy, without any elaborate apparatus. Two knife- edges, or supports, for the ends of the beam, a cradle to sling from the centre, in which pig-iron or any other convenient kind of heavy weight can be placed, a stretched cord, and a 2-foot rule, are practically all that is needed to give fairly good tests when this description of stress and strain is adopted. I give again ina Table some of Bauschinger’s results, made on beams 74 inches by 74 inches, with a span of 98 inches. Kind of Wood. | eiatiety. | Blastienty.| Surease | Density: | Percent i | Scots Pine— Ibs. sq. in. |Ibs. sq. in. | Ibs. sq. in. | Summer, . : - | 1,535,000 |) 2,867" |) 6.720 | 0°50 23 Winter, . : . | 1,465,000 | 3,136 6,405 0°55 | 33 Norway Spruce— | Summer, . : . | 1,563,000 | 3,247 | 5,957 0°45 | 29 Winter, . , . | 1,650,000 | 3,719 6,406 0°45 27 It is desirable that I should point out at once that the calculated stresses produced in the outer fibres of a beam when it is subjected to cross bending, as determined by the ordinary formula employed for that purpose, are only reliable, and only represent the real condition of affairs when the stress does not exceed the elastic limit, because beyond that elastic limit the assumptions upon which the ordinary beam formule are based do not in the least apply; hence the figures given in the above Table, under the heading “ Breaking stress in lbs. per square inch,” are not really actual stresses at that instant, but they are figures useful enough for comparison purposes. In the following Table, results are given which were obtained by Professor Lanza in a number of experiments on American timbers, and in this case I have given the maximum, minimum, and mean results obtained for each quality of timber, in order to show the very great variation there is in the strength of timber of apparently the same quality. TIMBER: ITS STRENGTH, AND HOW TO TEST IT. 15 Cross Breaking Stress per square inch, tn lbs. : Mean . Kind of Wood. Maximum. Minimum. Mean. Modulus of Elasticity. | | Spruce, . , : Sa et a | 2, 88 I, 330,000 Mien eA 75 994 4,093 339; Yellow Pine, . : : = PLEE;300 | | “3,962 7,239 | 1,744,000 (Pinus echinata). | | Oaks. : ; 2 ; 7,660 4,985 | 6.074 | 1,292,000 | (Quercus alba). | White Pine, . ‘ : silk Ja25o 3437 4,807 | 1,080,000 (Pinus Strotus). Professor Johnson’s experiments upon cross bending for the Forest Department research were made upon beams 4 inches square, and tested upon a 6 foot span; and, in his investigation, great care was taken to arrange the load in such a way that it increased gradually, and increased the deflection gradually, at a rate of about + inch per minute, until the final rupture point. There is no doubt whatever that different results can be obtained in cross-bending tests of timber by varying the rate at which the load is applied. This is a fact well known, of course, to all experimenters, and is true not only of timber, but of all other materials. The next Table gives the results obtained by Professor Johnson, and I have collected into this Table not only the cross-bending stresses, but the crushing strength, both endwise and across the grain, and also the shearing strength of the timber. Cross Breaking Stress per Crushing >tress Sh Weight square inch. Lbs. persq in. Lbs. Ena Kind of Wood. Sp. gr. | Pei. ] in Ibs. | foot. | Limit of | Final | Modulus of | End- | 4.0... | POS? Elasticity.| Load. Elasticity. | wise 5 : 4 | Ibs. Long-leaf Pine, .| o61 38 10,000 | 12,600 | 2,070,000 | 8,000 | 1,260} 835 (Pinus palustris). Red Pine, . =| O750,| 31 7,700 | 9,100 | 1,620,000 | 6,700} 1,000} 500 (Pinus resinosa). White Oak, . . | 0°80 | 50 9,600 | 13,100 2,090,000 | 8,500 | 2,200 | 1,000 (Quercus alba). White Elm, . IMO s4cl 34 7,300 | 10,300 | 1,540,000 | 6,500} 1,200| 800 (Ulmus americana).| All these results have been reduced to 12 per cent. moisture conditions. In order to give some idea of the great variation in the strength of timber, I may say that in these tests, out of one hundred samples of the same kind of timber, 54 per cent. of 16 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. them gave results within ro per cent. of the mean, while 96 per cent. of them came within 25 per cent. of the mean. It is well to state here that in all these researches with which I have been dealing, only absolutely bad stuff was rejected for testing ; no attempt was made to pick specially good specimens. One important result brought out in Bauschinger’s research, and confirmed in that of Johnson, was that the mechanical strength of timber is considerably affected by the ratio of the summer, or solid, growth to the spring, or open, growth in each annual ring; or, in other words, that the density or specific gravity is a very important factor. It was also proved, in this investigation, that there was a definite relation between the modulus of elasticity, as determined in the bending tests, and the crushing strength and bending strength, as determined in tests of the same timber. SHEAR TESTS. In testing timber beams, I frequently find that the beam gives way, not by tearing across, but by shearing along the neutral axis, and other experimenters have found exactly the same condition of things. For example, in Professor Lanza’s tests of beams, no less than eleven gave way in this fashion, the shear stress at the time when the rupture took place along the neutral plane being, in the case of spruce, only 191 lbs. per square inch, and in the case of yellow pine, 248 lbs. per square inch, and, by calculation, he showed that this was also about the intensity of the shearing stress, in a vertical plane, in the case of those beams which did | give way by actually tearing across. There has not been a very large number of direct shearing tests. The round tensile specimens which I prepared for this lecture, with intentionally small heads, act very satisfactorily as shear specimens, and the results given in Tables II. and III. give very accurately the shear strength of these different kinds of wood. In the Watertown experiments, the results obtained in direct shear tests were somewhat higher than those in the case of the beams which gave way by shear; this effect is due largely to the following cause—in a special shear test one fixes, by the form of the specimen, the particular plane at which shear shall take place; on the other hand, in the case of the beam, the shear takes place along the plane weakest to resist shear near to the neutral axis, and therefore one gets a lower shear strength. CONCERNING NATURAL REGENERATION IN GENERAL, 17 II. Concerning Natural Regeneration in general, together with Special Details regarding a typical example of Natural Regeneration of the Scots Pine at Beauly, Inverness-shire (with Photographs). By GILpert Brown, Beaufort Cottage, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire. In natural forests a process is continually going on which ensures their perpetuation from one generation to another; and “natural regeneration” is the formation of a new wood by the natural fall of seed from the mother-trees, which germinates and develops into a crop of seedlings. This term distinguishes such a process from “ artificial sowing or planting” in the nursery or forest, otherwise the methods involved are as natural in the one as in the other. In forests of vast extent, in which regeneration has taken place, the preponderance of a very few species is usually a character- istic feature, and the nature of the climate and the composition of the soil determine in great measure what this species shall be. Throughout America and parts of the Continent of Europe, pure coniferous forests are often found resulting from natural regeneration, because, when any particular tree is specially favoured by the soil, situation, or climate, it propagates itself readily, to the more or less complete exclusion of others. Thus, on a fine, deep soil several different species may be found grow- ing side by side, while on rocky, bare ground only a few hardy trees, endowed with special qualities, are to be found, and on a swamp, alder or poplar. These are extreme examples, but the more similar the nature of the trees, the keener and the more prolonged will be the struggle, though the result will ultimately be the same. This may also occur in woods under careful management, owing to such reasons as a desire for uniformity of appearance, or for the easy management of the woods, because, wherever a system in any way favours one kind of tree, it is placed in a more advantageous position than other kinds, with the ultimate result that these latter become greatly diminished in number. When it is desired to restock a wood with young seedlings after the old crop has reached maturity, three conditions are essential, viz.—(1) Presence of seed-bearing trees; (2) soil suitable Jor the germination of the seed and the growth of the plant; (3) ¢émely removal of the old trees. VOL. XIX. PART I. B 18 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1. PRESENCE OF SEED-BEARING TREES. In order to eliminate the chances of failure, and to benefit the production of seed, the crowns of the old trees ought to be well exposed to sunlight, so as to stimulate the production of flowers and fruit. When coniferous trees are crowded together, the cones are invariably small, and the germinative power of the seed is weak. Therefore a few of the most vigorous trees, or at least such a number as may be necessary, should be carefully isolated a few years before the main crop is cut. When thinning is required, the first aim is to remove all such trees as are not desired to reproduce themselves, such as birch, which springs up like a weed whenever an opening occurs, and which, if left alone, will overrun the ground and check other species. Partly suppressed trees are next removed, and those with wide-spreading crowns occupying an unduly large growing-space. ‘The extent to which a wood should be thinned when approaching maturity depends, of course, on the density of the crop, and while the thick parts may perhaps have to be thinned freely, the thin parts may sometimes remain almost untouched, or possibly the whole may be left until seed-production. 2. SOIL SUITABLE FOR THE GERMINATION OF THE SEED AND THE GROWTH OF THE PLANT. The average Scottish woods, being usually rather thinly stocked, are often more or less over-grown with weeds, such as rough heather, bramble, bracken, bilberry, and thick masses of wire-grass and moss. The first three are not generally difficult to dispose of. Heather, when very dry, can be destroyed by burning against the wind, so as to keep the fire partly in check and to burn closely. After burning, however, the soil is seldom in a fit state to receive seed, and soil-preparation has to be resorted to, as will be dealt with later on. Brambles can be cut or grubbed up, the latter being by far the preferable method, as it also serves to loosen the soil and make it more suitable as a seed-bed. The heads of bracken are easily nipped off when they begin to form; and, generally, wherever bracken is growing, low weeds are kept so much in check that the mineral soil is usually to be seen, which forms a good seed-bed. The other weeds are not so easy to cope with. Where Jdz/berry exists in masses, natural regeneration is well-nigh impossible, as it forms such a CONCERNING NATURAL REGENERATION IN GENERAL. 19 thick net-work of roots that no seed gets near the mineral soil. The bilberry also exhausts and dries the surface-soil so much, that very few seeds can germinate owing to the dry, dead nature of the ground. In planting it is quite useless to put in plants with the T-notch unless the bilberry is first cut away, and the roots and dead surface removed; and if this is im- perative before artificially-inserted plants can thrive successfully, neglect of it gives little hope for successful natural regenera- tion. Where a combination of wére-grass and moss exists, the case is equally difficult. In woods with such a soil-covering, it is a difficult matter to determine how to clear the ground. Tearing up the moss in strips yields fair results, but is expensive; burning, when very dry, reduces the moss to a slight degree, but generally leaves a layer of moss and grass-roots which no radicle can push through, and in such cases it is useless to trust to natural regeneration. The rational method of treating woods is to keep the trees in close canopy throughout the entire life-period of the crop, so that the shade prevents the growth of surface-weeds. To keep a wood in such a manner is difficult, because, generally, as a wood grows older it gets more open, and especially if formed of light-demanding trees without any shade-bearer having been introduced to help to maintain close canopy, and thus protect the soil. In plantations of hardwoods (and especially of beech) with a dense leaf-canopy, the fallen foliage and other débris usually accumulate at a more rapid rate than decomposition proceeds, with the result that a mass of leaves and dead branches (raw humus) covers the ground. When such is the case, the seed is not likely to germinate to any great extent, and the ultimate result is that the seedlings damp off in a few weeks. This is easily remedied by raking the leaves together when dry, and burning them, nothing else being required to make the mould below a good seed-bed. But though the supply of seed may be abundant, and its quality good, the seedlings have little chance of establishing themselves unless the surface is comparatively free from weeds and rubbish, and is in a loose friable condition. 3. REMOVAL OF SEED-BEARING TREES. The proper time for the removal of seed-bearing trees depends mainly on the light or shade required by the young seedlings. Some kinds of young growth are more liable to be injured by 20 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. late frosts than others; and although old trees do not prevent this altogether, yet the shelter afforded by the crowns lessens the danger considerably. Again, if the parent trees are allowed to stand too long, they have a deteriorating effect on the young seedlings, by checking their growth or causing them to grow up weak and crooked. On ground stocked with light-demanding species, the old trees, and especially oak, may be dispensed with early. The removal and cutting of old standards on a regenerated area is always a matter of difficulty, as a certain amount of damage cannot be avoided. But if the trees have been carefully selected, and only those with narrow crowns left, the damage is not so serious as one would expect. Young trees quickly replace a broken leader, and if the crop is thick a few are never missed. In removing the trees, it is a wise policy only to use a janker, as the logs can then be lifted and taken out easily with little damage, because the tramping and moving about of men and horses necessary for loading on an ordinary cart often causes more damage than the fall of the trees. As regards coniferous woods, the two principal factors which determine the success or failure of natural regeneration are the surface-weeds, and the annual fall of dead needles. As to the former, much depends on the leaf-canopy. Shade-bearing, heavily-foliaged trees, such as spruce or silver fir, check under- growth much more effectually than the majority of pines, which allow more light to penetrate through their crowns. But a great deal also depends on the density of the crop. As the majority of Scots pine-woods are too open, undergrowth of a varied character is then always to be found. Open woods are un- doubtedly more pleasing to the eye than close canopy with comparatively bare poles; and the prospect of a quick return from early thinnings may induce over-thinning, present require- ments being considered before future advantages. In over-thinned woods the thick undergrowth not only retards the germination of seed, but also uses up a great deal of plant- food otherwise available for the growth of the crop. In woods covered with weeds, seedlings may often be found wherever the mineral soil has been laid bare, ¢.g., as where wood has been dragged. Hardwood seedlings, being stronger and more robust than those of conifers, are able to push their radicle through the roots of the grass to the soil beneath; but seedlings of conifers CONCERNING NATURAL REGENERATION IN GENERAL, 21 are less successful in doing this, and therefore soon die for want of sustenance. And as the seeds of most hardwoods are heavier than those of conifers, this also gives them a better chance of getting into contact with the soil. A light soil-covering of heather is not altogether a drawback, as it affords some shelter to young seedlings; but in sheltered positions good moss often grows thickly about its roots, and intercepts the seed as it falls, while seeds which may happen to germinate soon damp off, as they do on a grassy surface. Before attempting natural regeneration, therefore, it is import- ant that the ground should be fairly clear of weeds, though their subjugation is often impossible. Where heather abounds along with moss, burning has on certain kinds of soil the drawback that it leaves a hard surface, owing to the fire eating into the fibrous layer. The weeds ought therefore to be burned before the trees are felled, for in quick burning no harm is done to the standing trees, while dragging and removing the felled timber break up the crust thus formed, and allow the seed to fall at once on loose soil. : In many Scots pine-woods the lack of young seedlings is often attributed to the shade of the old trees, but this is not the sole cause. Around Scots pine-trees there is invariably a mass of needles, the decomposition of which is assisted by saprophytic fungi (chiefly Botrytis cinerea, the common grape-mould), whose mycelium permeates the layer of fallen needles; and as seedlings germinate there, they push their tender radicle into this fungous mass and are killed. That this damping off is due to fungous infection, and not to atmospheric conditions, is probable from the fact that when part of the dead leaves has been re- moved, artificially or otherwise, young seedlings spring up and thrive on these disturbed parts, if not checked by other agencies ; whereas, on the adjoining parts where the leaves are lying, plants are either entirely wanting, or are exceptionally rare of any large size. It may be that the lack of nourishment in this layer leads to the damping off of young seedlings, but it is certain that on ground covered with a close mass of weeds or leaves one cannot trust to natural regeneration without artificial assistance. In the unassisted natural regeneration of Scots pine-woods, the process is, of course, one of natural selection. Nature’s method, however, is not the selection of trees to be ¢aken out, 22 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. but the selection of trees fo remain as seed-bearers, owing to their superiority over the other trees that have been growing around them. A process which includes the gradual decay, as well as the gradual growth, of every tree in the forest must be subject to a very radical alteration when felling (ze., artificial selection) takes the place of decay in effecting natural regenera- tion. Such alteration consists in an artificial process of destruc-: tion by felling. There are different methods of effecting this, but those which appear to be most suitable to Scots pine are the “Selection” and “Strip” systems. In the former, from 12 to 15 trees per acre are selected for seed-production. They ought to be distributed over the area in such a manner that some should stand as near to the windward edge as possible, so that every advantage may be gained in spreading the seed. Such seed-producing standard trees should be selected before the final felling, and should be healthy trees with crowns of medium breadth. It may happen, however, that from such trees having been partly sheltered while the whole crop was standing, the root-system is so weak as to make them liable to be blown down if exposed, hence it is wise to leave a good shelter-belt to windward, or to select more than the 12 to 15 standards to the acre needed for seed-production. In the second or “Strip” system, however, the regenerative process is not conducted uniformly over the whole area, but the wood is divided into strips, which are then taken in hand one by one, and thinned out so as to prepare the trees for seed- production. As soon as one strip is naturally regenerated, the adjoining strip is cut out, and the next two thinned; and so on, until the whole area is regenerated. This method is satisfactory in forests of large extent, and where a long strip can be cut, so that a large lot of trees can be sold at once, for a big fall always commands a higher price than a small lot. In regard to the width of the strips, no fixed rule can be laid down; they ought not, however, to be too wide. The best examples of natural regeneration of Scots pine are perhaps to be found in the north of Scotland. Balblair Wood, Beauly, forms a very typical and successful example, so far as it produced an excellent crop of young plants. The “Selection” system was adopted throughout, no definite rotation being observed, but trees being felled when required, until the CONCERNING NATURAL REGENERATION IN GENERAL. 23 final cutting. The number of acres naturally regenerated is about 130. This is practically divided into two different com- partments, the first (104 acres) having trees of about 45 years of age, and the second (26 acres) having trees of about 35 years of age, with old standards. The photographs at the end of this article show the trees in these two compartments. No. 1 shows trees of 45 years of age, and Nos. 2 and 3 the younger crop, 35 years of age, taken at different points, while Nos. 4 and 5 show the position the old standards occupy amongst the young crop (No. 4 showing principally the head of an old standard, and No. 5 the bole). In the older compartment felling occurred about fifty years ago, and standards with straight boles and narrow-shaped crowns were left to the number of about 30 to the acre. Owing to the surface of the ground being greatly broken up by men, horses, and carts during the removal of the timber, and to the soil being friable and only slightly covered with moss, young plants came up very soon after the fall. These conditions favouring natural regeneration in this case, the young crop came up so thick that it had to be thinned early; and it was undoubtedly a little over-thinned up to about 30 years of age, as at the present time the crop, now about 45 years old, only consists of from 390 to 430 trees per acre. ‘This leaves very few to come out in case of accidents, such as wind-blows or deaths by natural causes, and unless now treated carefully the final crop will be small. The trees throughout have grown well, and are well developed and clear of branches to about 20 feet; but as the subsoil is of a hard nature, the growth of the trees is now very slow, and they are throwing out large side-branches. The second and younger compartment forms something like a two-storied crop, being composed of old standards and poles of about 35 years of age. This part was also cut over preparatory to natural regeneration, selected standards to the number of about 30 trees to the acre being left as seed- trees, which yielded a heavy crop of seed almost at once. Photograph No. 4 shows that the old standards were growing openly, as the side-branches can be seen mixing with the crowns of the trees forming the young crop. The boles are short, but large in cubic contents, which shows that the trees have had 24 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. a free-growing space at an early age. The surface being only lightly covered with moss, through which the mineral soil could be seen, and the soil itself being loose, young seedlings at once sprang up so numerously that they had even to be freely cut out in bunches when about seven years old, leaving plants about 3 feet apart. The plantation remained untouched till about twelve to fifteen years old, when light props were taken out, leaving the poles standing from about 5 to 6 feet apart. A few of the double-headed and backgoing poles have been thinned out since, leaving about 1000 trees per acre. Owing to a hard substratum, they have not grown so rapidly as during the first fifteen years; but they form a nice crop of clean well-formed poles. The system of leaving the old standards until the leading- shoots and branches are in touch with the lateral branches (as in this case) is one that cannot be recommended, as a certain number of the young crop must inevitably be sacrificed, unless an extra amount of trouble be bestowed on the felling. Had the old trees been cut out when the young growth was a few years old, the few of the latter that would have been destroyed could have been cut out without any damage to the crop. Although the methods adopted in the above two cases were far from being perfect, yet the results show an exceptionally fine young crop, which required no artificial assistance in the way of filling up gaps. [It will afford the 7yamsactions Committee much pleasure if foresters kindly favour them with practical details such as those contained in the last two pages. —Hon. Ep. ] a ee SE NET ees. eRe eed “rw ny — acm 4 : rae omar eK ae ° : Pe : HATS “er == see O. 4. N No. 5. a “7 * GROWING TIMBER FOR PROFIT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 25 III. Zhe Prospects of growing Timber for Profit in the United Kingdom. By ARCHIBALD E. Moeran, Land Agent, Palmerston House, Portumna, Co. Galway. The subject about to be discussed can be considered from two points of view—(1) What are the prospects that timber can be grown in the United Kingdom at a profit? and (2) What may such profits, if any, be expected to amount to? A difficulty presents itself at the outset. We have evidently to deal more with future operations than with past results. I think it may be taken for granted that future work in the United Kingdom will be much more influenced by Continental lessons than has been the case in the past, and that the hope of profit lies in the skilful adaptation of Continental methods to our home conditions. The natural course to take, therefore, is to describe the French and German methods of management, to quote from the accurately kept statistics of their Forestry Departments, and to argue from analogy that our woods should, and could, yield like results if treated similarly. Here, however, we are to confine ourselves to British data, although these foreign yield-tables are, after all, the most solid facts we possess upon which to base our calculations. And though to leave them out makes the subject more difficult to handle, it certainly makes it more interesting; and it covers ground which has been but lightly passed over by most writers. In any business enterprise dealing with the production of a marketable material, there are three factors which govern the amount of profit that can be made, and all efforts towards increased profits must deal with one or other of these, namely,— (1) Cost of production; (2) amount of material produced; and (3) marketable value of this material. Any improvement that can be accomplished in one or other of these factors must result in increased financial returns, presuming, of course, that the other two remain constant. Progress may be possible in two, or in all three issues at the same time, and would then prove all the more remunerative. Now, the growing of timber for profit is essentially a business enterprise, which will prove successful in proportion as it is in the hands of men who are not only skilled in their profession, but are also keen men of business ; and any lack of ability or inattention to detail on the 26 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. part of the management will be followed by the results which attend such faults in the commercial world. Let us therefore, very briefly, take each of these factors in turn, and see what possibilities of improvement there may be in the future. 1. Cost OF PRODUCTION. It seems probable that we shall have to face a somewhat increased rate of wages in rural districts in the near future. Where cleared areas are being replanted, as a rule there is neither fencing nor draining to be done, and the labour-bill is only for the actual planting of the trees. |. When much labour is necessary in draining or reclaiming, any addition to the rate of wages may become serious. However, the fact that such work can be done during winter, when other work is slackest, will usually secure a sufficient number of men at reasonable wages. The chief way in which we may expect to reduce the cost of production is in more methodical expenditure, that is to say, in avoiding the expense of all unproductive work; and we must look to an im- proved knowledge of forestry, in its widest sense, to aid us in this. Theoretically, every item of expenditure should yield its share of profit ; but we all know of numbers of cases in which money has been freely expended on work never likely to prove profitable. It is this ‘““knowledge before the event” which we must hope to see more general. The cost of plants of the commoner kinds of forest trees may be counted on as remaining much on the average of the last ten years, but there can be no doubt whatever that the prices of what are called “ the rarer conifers” will, within the next few years, be reduced to about the price of larch. The large nursery-firms on the Continent have recognised that such kinds as Pseudotsuga Douglasii, Picea sitchensis, Tsuga Mertensiana, Thuya gigantea, and Pinus Strobus are trees which are to be planted by the thousands and by the tens of thousands; and they are at present offering them at prices not greatly in excess of quotations for larch. Given a sufficient demand, our home nurserymen will have no difficulty in also supplying any of the > at prices which will admit of planting them on a large scale. The saving that can be effected by planting large areas is not generally appreciated. In the fencing this is very marked ; because, GROWING TIMBER FOR PROFIT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 27 if t acre costs £8 o o toa fence, then 4 acres will cost £4 © o per acre,! RG tee Seg DA et as cameo) “ 64 ” ” ” L lo Le, ” 1024 5, oF) ee: Ao au es) ” All economies are more easily carried out on large areas than on small ones, and the results are also more marked. Better men can be employed, and a good system is more feasible. Good roads can be constructed or tram-lines laid down, enhancing the price of the produce, with many other things which smaller areas would not warrant, but which tend (though perhaps in- directly) to cheapen the cost of production. 2. AMOUNT OF MATERIAL PRODUCED. We have, I think, every reason to feel confident that it is possible to make good progress in this direction. Without going into the history of British forestry, it is enough to say that it is now generally admitted that our foresters were, up to very recent years, taught to over-thin woods at all stages of their growth, but especially during the first thirty years, to an extent that has caused great loss, not only to the owners of the woods upon which they operated, but to the cause of sylviculture generally. Little distinction was made in the treatment of shade-bearers, such as beech, silver fir, and spruce, and light- demanding trees, such as larch. The fact that a certain kind of tree was a strong shade-bearer, was looked upon as a draw- back, as it would not clear its lower branches satisfactorily in the open woods of carefully-spaced standards, which were looked upon as the szze gua non of correct forestry. It does not seem to have occurred to these men, clever foresters though they were, that shade-bearing attributes are one of the highest qualifications a tree can possess, as the stronger its powers are in this respect, the heavier is the crop that can be produced per acre. Furthermore, when the object aimed at is the production of the greatest quantity of saleable timber, this attribute is of two-fold value, as, to secure long, clean timber, a thick crop must be grown (there is no other way of cleaning the stems), and, conversely, if you aim at the heaviest obtainable crop, you 1 This presumes, of course, that all such different areas fenced are in squares, or in similarly-shaped rectangles, in each case.—HONn, ED. 28 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. are bound also to have clean, marketable timber; and these things are only now beginning to be understood and acted on by foresters. I knew a pure spruce wood about 55 years old, skirting a public road, in which the trees stood about 420 to the acre. Local popular opinion pronounced this so thick that the wood was considered ruined beyond hope, and was regarded as the sylvicultural scandal of the neighbourhood. Even the owner spoke in apologetic terms of this blot upon his estate, yet, as a matter of fact, the highest British forestry authorities will now say that 450 spruce to the acre at 55 years is a very thin crop indeed, except on land of exceptionally good quality for spruce. Unfortunately, this wood was entirely blown down in the storm of February 1903, and a timber merchant has a saw-mill now in the middle of the débris. The timber is cutting out very clean, and he is not at all inclined to criticise the owner harshly for his neglect of thinning. I am dealing at present altogether with shade-bearing kinds of trees, for reasons which I will give later; and with such the amount of yield per acre, and the quality of the yield, bear so strongly upon each other, that it is difficult to separate the subjects. I shall therefore include the third factor in the question of profit. 3. MARKETABLE VALUE OF THE PRODUCE. When dealing with the prices of young trees, I mentioned some of the rarer conifers. In my opinion, some of these species are destined to play a part in British forestry that is not yet at all realised. The quality of the timber they produce in their native woods is known. It is the best timber from the most wonderful timber-producing region in the world. That they will produce a heavy yield per acre, no one who has travelled through those regions will deny. After a forest fire the seedlings come up almost as close as heather over the charred ground. The common mixture in some of the finest timber districts is red fir (Pseudotsuga Douglastt), western hemlock (Zsuga Mertensiana), and red cedar (Zhuya gigantea). On the burned area the young red fir takes the lead and keeps it. It will stand plenty of side-crushing, but requires overhead light and a free head. For the first 80 years it will average quite 2 feet growth in height per annum; and at 80 years the average circumference is from GROWING TIMBER FOR PROFIT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 29 4 to 5 feet at breast-height. In rate of growth, as to both height and girth, the hemlock and cedar are left behind, but they are patient shade-bearers, and creep steadily up, forming perhaps the densest forests in the world. If a red fir dies, or is cut or blown down, the increase of light brings up the waiting hemlock or cedar, like a soldier stepping into the place of a fallen comrade, so that the overhead roof remains unbroken. Several big lumber companies are now going back on land which was cut over or burned fifty or sixty years ago, and are cutting therefrom marketable natural second-growth timber. This seems an encouragement to us who have to begin at the beginning. While the admittedly splendid timber from these regions was being cut from giants 300 to 400 and 500 years old, it required some courage to advocate planting these species on our own hill-sides. Now, however, with the knowledge we are collecting of the timber as actually produced in Great Britain and Ireland, our confidence should increase. I have described these trees in their far-off home for a purpose. We have brought them from a climate very similar to our own,! with a rainfall of 50 to 70 inches brought up by the wet west winds from the Pacific. They have proved that they grow and thrive under favourable circumstances in this country, and there is every reason to believe that they will produce good timber 7 ¢hey are grown under suitable conditions; and this is what I want to emphasise. Already there has been a great deal of money wasted in planting these kinds of trees under conditions which have produced handsome trees, but poor in quality as timber. The United States Bureau of Forestry has carried out exhaustive tests with most of the native-grown timbers. It reports that, after testing a great number of specimens of red fir, or Oregon pine, ranging from 28 to 4 annual rings to the inch, it has been found that about 20 rings to the inch gives the best results; that from 12 to 15 rings to the inch may be called timber of good quality, suitable for ordinary building require- ments, but that the quality of the timber deteriorates in direct proportion as the rings gets wider; and, further, that all the timber with 7 rings or less to the inch has been found to be blemished with knots, which to a certain extent impair its 1Ts such actually the case? Is not the summer-warmth much greater there ? And is not the intensity of the sunlight there also much greater throughout the annual period of vegetation ?>— Hon. ED. 30 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. strength. We have, unfortunately, no Forestry Department of our own where tests might be carried out with home-grown specimens,! but these figures of the U.S. Bureau of Forestry furnish evidence that, so far as regards rate of growth in girth, we ought to be able to grow these kinds of trees so as to produce timber of first-rate quality. SUMMARY. The reason why I have taken this group of shade-bearers and dealt almost entirely with them is that it is quite too large a subject to discuss in detail for each kind of tree and for each mixture by itself. Looking at the question broadly, I eliminated the hardwood ‘trees, not because they cannot be grown at a profit (as I am aware that on occasions they have proved most remunerative), but because, as a rule, they must be grown on land of fairly good quality. They are not generally suitable for planting on waste land of any description. They are usually planted in the interior of landed estates, and here they are subject to so many outside influences (for the purpose of game, ornament, or shelter) that they cannot be, and as a matter of fact are not, looked upon as plantations made for profit. I was left, therefore, to deal with the coniferous trees on land of medium to poor quality. Much of this is suitable for larch, but I need not go into the reasons why extensive larch planta- tions have become a hazardous class of speculation. In any case, what we want is to produce timber that will supply in part the enormous demand for building and joinery purposes. The price of larch is kept up by the great quantities used in the collieries. It is quite conceivable that within the next fifty years some substitute may be found for this, and in such case the price of larch would probably fall considerably.? The demand for timber for constructive and general indoor 1 An article by Professor T. Hudson Beare on ‘‘ Timber: Its Strength, and How to Test It,” in which some home-grown timbers are dealt with, occurs at page I of this volume of the Zvansacttons.—HON. ED. ? With creosoting, naphthalining, and saccharising at 3d. to 4d. per cubic ‘ foot, softwoods of all sorts that readily take antiseptics become more durable (so far as the action of damp and warmth, fungi, insects, etc., are concerned —apart from the action of strains and other mechanical effects) than the best larch or oak. This fact is bound to produce its natural economic results wherever planting for profit is being considered henceforthk— Hon. ED. GROWING TIMBER FOR PROFIT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 31 work must always continue, and there is every probability that the price of this class of wood will continue to rise steadily, as it has been doing in the last ten years, owing to the gradual shortage of supply and the increased demand in other countries as well as our own. As regards our older conifers, Norway spruce, silver fir, and Scots pine, I must admit that I am not a great believer in the common or Norway spruce (Picea excelsa). It does not yield timber of first-rate quality, and there is no reason why we should blindly stick to it if we can find other trees which promise better results. Silver fir I believe to be a more profitable tree than Norway spruce; but it will not succeed on many kinds of soil, and its timber is, at the best, not of sufficiently good quality to warrant its general use. With regard to Scots pine, I do not wish to depreciate the good qualities of this tree, which will probably always continue to be the backbone of all planting operations on land of poor quality. Its good qualities are too well known to require enumeration, but, at the same time, it has a great proportion of sap-wood, worthless for all except the cheapest purposes, which it carries up to at any rate eighty years of age.! Another drawback, and a very serious one, is that after about fifty years pure Scots pine opens out overhead, and thereafter fails to protect the soil. That is to say, it is not, during the latter part of its life-period, a good shade-bearer. Looking at the whole situation broadly, therefore, it seems to me that if we can procure a class of trees suitable to different elevations, soils, etc., and capable of being grown satisfactorily in mixed woods formed for purposes of experiment, then no one will deny that the introduction of such trees on an extensive scale into Great Britain and Ireland would hold out a fair promise for the profitable growing of timber in this country ; and the timber-producing districts of Western Washington and Oregon in the United States, and of British Columbia in Canada, seem those most likely to supply the class of trees we require. 1 Creosoting, naphthalining, and saccharising have entirely altered this, because the soft sap-wood is that part which absorbs the antiseptic substances most readily and in largest quantity. —Hon. Ep. 32 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. IV. Zhe Laying-out of a Mixed Plantation, and its Main- tenance for the first Twenty-five Years. By DonaLtp M. MacpDoNnaLp, Assistant Forester, Alnwick Castle, Northum- berland. The reasons for mixing different kinds of trees in woods are that this secures— 1. Protection against fungi, insects, etc. 2. Introduces trees which are perhaps more valuable as thinnings than the principal species. 3. Reduces the cost of planting by using cheap trees, which act as nurses to the more expensive ones forming the bulk of the plantation. 4. If one species fails, another is there to take its place. 5. The condition of the soil is improved by interplanting heavy-foliaged trees along with thin-foliaged ones. Against the above advantages, reasons might be given in favour of growing woods pure; but, with several classes of trees, mixed planting is the proper course to adopt in starting them. I shall therefore consider the subject from the following points of view :— 1. Formation of Mixed Woods.—(1) Fencing; (2) draining; (3) cleaning the ground; (4) laying out roads and rides; (5) treatment of the plants in the nursery; (6) planting; (7) kinds of trees suitable for mixing; (8) system of mixing; (g) shelter- belts. 2. Maintenance for Twenty-five Years after FPlanting.—(1) Beating-up and cleaning; (2) protection against game, vermin, and fungous diseases; (3) thinning. I. FORMATION. 1. Fencing.—The first step to be taken in the formation of any plantation is to erect suitable fences to protect the trees against the inroads of sheep, cattle, and vermin. (a) Fences against Sheep and Cattle—There are many different styles of erecting post-and-wire fences, but the most effective and cheapest in the long run is one consisting of either creosoted pine-wood, larch, or oak straining-posts 7 ft. 6 ins. x 6 ins. x 6 ins. THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 33 sunk about 3 ft. 9 ins. into the ground, with a sole dogged on to the ends, and with winding-brackets on each side every 100 yards or so, if the fence runs in a straight line. When the fence takes a bend or dip into a hollow, it is necessary to have intermediate straining-posts well stayed back on the inside. The posts should be about 6 ft. x 4 ins. x 3 ins., pointed and creosoted, and driven into the ground till they stand about 3 ft. 9 ins. above it. It is not necessary to put these in every 6 feet, especially if the fence is erected on the top of a bank. Every 8 or g feet is close enough when the fence runs in a straight line, but they can be put closer at curves. Six wires should be used, the top one being either galvanised steel or barbed. The bottom wires should be placed closer, to make certain that sheep will be excluded. Such a fence, when properly put up, the wood being well treated with preservatives, and the wires tightened from time to time, will stand twenty years. Another fence quite capable of keeping stock out of the woods is the “dropper.” The straining-posts and wires are the same as above, but the posts are put in at every 12 or 16 feet, with two droppers 3 ft. 6 ins. x 14 ins. x 2 ins. between. This class of fence is cheaper than the former, and if well constructed is almost as effective. Live-fences may consist either of thorn- or beech-hedges. Both are satisfactory. They are sometimes planted in two rows g inches apart. After the young plants become thoroughly established, they are cut over, about an inch or so above the soil, and this causes the young shoots to spring up thick and strong. It is advisable to switch them yearly into a wedge-shape until they are 4 or 5 feet high. Thorn-hedges, if properly managed, will last one hundred years or upwards, and are very effective against the inroads of both sheep and cattle. To get a hedge to grow quickly for immediate effect, it is better to trench and manure the ground well before planting. The strip trenched need not be more than 4 feet wide. Only on very stiff or wet soil is it necessary to plant the hedge on a mound. On dry, loose soil, when a bank is made, the earth crumbles away, and this, together with the burrowing of rabbits, exposes the roots, and eventually makes the hedge become full of gaps and in- effective. (b) Fences against Rabbits—Wire-netting is the most effective method of protecting young plantations against such vermin. VOL. XIX. PART I. Cc 34 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. When rabbits abound in any great numbers, their destruction within or near the young woods is necessary to insure the welfare of the young plants. This can best be secured by enclosing the area to be planted with a wire-netting fence, and all the rabbits inside should be killed before planting takes place. When there is no permanent fence, it is necessary to erect the netting on posts driven into the ground, and to fix it on a wire stretched along the top. The netting should not be less than 1} inch mesh, nor less than 48 inches wide, and it is best let 6 inches into the ground, to keep the rabbits from burrowing underneath. It is a good plan to let the netting lean well outwards, as this prevents climbing over the top. 2. Draining—When necessary, as on deep, stiff soil, and also where stagnant surface-water exists, drains should be cut. In the formation of mixed woods, the number of these drains, and their distance apart, depends on the nature of the soil, and, to some extent, on the kinds of trees to be planted, so that no hard or fast rules can be laid down. The man on the spot is the best judge, as thorough draining may dwarf or kill one kind of tree, while it may be beneficial to another. When drains are opened on loose soil, it is necessary to cut them with sloping sides, narrowing from about 2 feet at the top to g inches at the bottom. On stiff and retentive soil, however, this sloping is not necessary. ‘The soil thrown out in making the drains should be spread over the ground. 3. Cleaning the Ground.—Before the actual planting commences, it is advisable to get rid of all surface-weeds, such as broom, gorse, bracken, heather, bramble, briars, or other strong growth injurious to the young crop. Their presence would harm the plants, by robbing the soil of valuable plant-food, and most of them would not only hinder the proper development of the plants, but also endanger their existence, by smothering and killing them. Broom and Gorse are the most troublesome to deal with. Burning them over is no use, as this only encourages them to spring from the roots thicker and more luxuriantly than ever. It is therefore best to grub out the roots in the spring, when the shoots are beginning to grow. ‘Then the planting can take place in the following winter, as this gives the young crop a chance of getting established before any roots left in the ground can recover and make new growth injurious to the young trees, THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 35 Bracken can be considerably checked by repeated cutting during the two preceding seasons. Heather is not so troublesome, because it can be effectively checked by burning two seasons before the ground is planted, so that the bare and caked condition of the soil will have dis- appeared. Brambles and Briars can be got rid of by grubbing. They are not very troublesome to the young plants if cut back for two or three seasons. On ground where there is a thick, grassy turf, it is often a good plan to break it up by ploughing. One plough should skim off the surface growth and turn it into the bottom of the furrow. Another plough, following in the same track, should turn over the fresh soil on the top of the turf. A crop of oats may be grown, and then the ground planted in the spring. This plan is very expensive, but it often pays, as, when the turf is 6 inches or so in thickness, the plants put in without any prepara- tion stand a poor chance of growing well, the tree being practi- cally starved before its roots can penetrate to the good soil beneath. 4. Roads and Rides.—It is necessary to mark off, before planting operations are begun, the roads and rides which are to intersect the woods. Cross-rides need not be more than 12 feet wide at time of planting and main roads 24 feet, with not more than 200 yards between them, as dragging trees for a greater distance than too yards to the nearest ride is somewhat expensive. 5. Treatment of Plants in Nursery.—It is very generally the custom, and a good one, to buy plants from public nurserymen as one- or two-year seedlings. When transplants are bought, the root-system is often found to be much deformed. But, by buying one-year seedlings and planting them in a home or temporary nursery, near the area to be planted, strong and healthy plants are obtained with a good root-system. Such seedlings should be planted in something like the following way :—Dig two or three spadings, as the case may be, across the break, and level evenly down with the back of the spade. Then set the line 15 inches in the case of hardwoods, and 12 inches for conifer seedlings, from the preceding row—and plant twelve or fifteen to the yard. The most important part of the operation is to cut the trench deep enough, and with a 36 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. straight vertical edge, so that when the seedlings are placed in position, they stand perfectly upright, and with their roots straight down, not bent round as would be the case if the cut were sloped. The roots should be well covered with soil and manure spread along the line, which should then be covered with a spading of soil, after which the seedlings should be firmed, the soil carefully levelled down, and the next row commenced. When lifted at the end of their period in the nursery, such plants will be found to have a natural root- system, well furnished with rootlets on all sides. This enables them to stand transplanting to the woods, generally to inferior soil, and perhaps also a severe exposure; whereas poor seedlings with twisted roots and bent rootlets are not able to make proper growth, and may perhaps never form a normal root-system. 6. Planting—Two methods are extensively used in this country for planting trees, called (a) Slitting or Notching, and (6) Pit-planting. Slit-Planting.—On bare hillsides or moorlands, at a fairly high altitude, where the soil is scanty, poor, and stony, and where there is only a surface-covering of short heath or grass, slit-planting is easy, cheap, and effective. The best size of plant to use is one- or two-year-old stout and strong seedlings of larch, Corsican pine, oak, Douglas fir, and ash, while slower- growing kinds, such as beech, spruce, and silver fir should be three or four years old before being transplanted to the woods, as this enables them to be tall enough to compete successfully with the surface-growth. Notching or slit-planting consists in making two cuts at right angles to each other, in the shape of the letters L or T, and bending the spade down, which lifts the turf, when the plant is placed in the cut underneath the spade, and on this being smartly removed, the plant is firmly trodden in. To notch successfully, it is necessary to make a perpendicular cut, so that when the plant is trodden in it may remain upright. The cut should also be deep enough to ensure that the seedling lies with its roots perpendicular between the two surfaces of the cut, and not bent or twisted round in any way. Pit-Planting.—On good, strong, deep, low-lying soil, with a rich surface of natural herbage, which grows 2 or 3 feet in one season, it is necessary to use large plants, tall enough, at the beginning, to compete successfully with the surface-growth; and, THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. a7 as these big plants cannot be trodden in, or firmed to withstand the force of gales if slit-planted, it is best under such conditions to plant them in pits. This operation consists in making a hole about a foot square, according to the size of the plant, then insert- ing and holding this in position while returning the soil. It is best to place the richest soil next the roots, and all stones and coarse soil should be put at the top, when the plant should be firmly trodden in. On stiff clay soil it is usually the custom to dig the holes in autumn. This allows the removed soil, and that on the sides of the pit, to get acted on by the atmosphere. Should, however, there be any danger of the holes getting filled with water, the pitting should be left over until spring. On open, loose, porous soil, it is better to defer opening the pits till the time of planting arrives, as such soil is apt to get dried up, or washed away with heavy rains. The chief point which should be attended to in pit-planting is to make the hole deep enough to allow the roots to hang down perpendicularly, so that none of them are bent round at the bottom of the pit; because, when twisted, they very often, especially on hard soil, get water- logged, which interferes with their growth. The size of plants suitable for pit-planting varies greatly, according to the nature of the surface-growth and the exposure, but sturdy transplants of about 2 or 3 feet in height, in the case of quick-growing kinds, is a good size. On fairly good soil, where pit-planting is adopted, the trees should stand about 4 feet apart, but on poor soil, when slit-planting is practised, the young plants may stand closer. 7. Kinds of Trees suitable for Mixing.—The kinds of trees which usually give the best results in mixed woods are oak, ash, beech, larch, Spanish chestnut, spruce, silver fir, Douglas fir, and Corsican pine. Oak.—On deep, moist, loamy soil, at a low elevation, oak is almost sure to succeed, but at a high and exposed elevation it is useless to plant it. It has a decided objection to chalk, and does not like too much clay; a mixture of sand, gravel, and clay suits it well. The oak is a deep-rooted tree, its tap-roots penetrating a good way into the soil, and therefore the advantage of planting it on deep soil is manifest. It is always advisable to have oak mixed with beech (see below). Beech.—The beech is grown more for the benefit of other 38 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. trees, and for improving the soil, than for the value of its timber. It grows well, and to a great size, and lives to a long age on chalk, limestone, and oolite soil. The fact of its being a shade-bearer makes it one of the best trees for mixing with others. Its great density of foliage kills off side-branches, and draws up the other kinds into clean, straight trees. It annually casts off a heavy fall of leaves, the decomposition of which greatly improves the condition of the soil. It is very suitable for mixing with oak and larch. The former benefits greatly by the beech killing off lower branches, which, if allowed to grow, would check the growth at middle age. When beech is mixed with larch, this keeps more healthy than when grown pure or with other trees. Ash.— When grown for small timber, it is advisable to plant ash in a mixed plantation; but, when heavy timber is wanted, it requires a great deal more head-room, in its later stages of life, than can be profitably given in a mixed wood. ‘“Coppice- with-standards” is therefore the best system for growing big ash timber. Deep, strong, moist soil, found in the bottoms of valleys and ravines, will grow ash of superior quality, and secure for it a great rapidity of growth, while dry shallow soil or peaty ground is unsuitable. Spanish Chestnut.—This tree can be mixed profitably with other fast-growing trees, such as Douglas fir, larch, or Corsican pine. It has a very heavy annual fall of leaves, which does much to keep the soil moist, and it yields timber of high quality, little inferior to oak. But the quality of the timber deteriorates in large trees, and it is therefore necessary to cut it out as thinnings, when it is about thirty or forty years, and before it gets twisted and shaky. The best soil for Spanish chestnut is a deep well-drained loam, and deep sand or gravel. Wet or limy soil, cold and bleak situations, and frosty hollows, - are all unsuitable for it. Larch.—The larch, one of the most profitable timber-trees, is almost invariably planted in our woods. Its toughness and durability, even when comparatively young, and its clean cylindrical bole make it a great favourite for fencing, pit- props, etc. Where there is the slightest doubt as to its successful growth, it should be planted in admixture with other trees. The failure of the larch during the earlier stages of growth does not then necessarily destroy the future of the THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 39 plantation, as the other trees are there to take its place as the dominant or main crop. When the larch is to form the bulk of the plantation, the most suitable trees to mix with it are spruce on damp soil, and Spanish chestnut or beech on ordinary soil. The first is used in short rotations of thirty to forty years, and the beech in longer rotations of fifty or more years, as its timber is of little use before that time. Corsican pine and silver fir are also suitable trees to mix with larch. The larch should usually form about three-fourths of the crop, the other fourth being of one or other of the species named.! It is by no means easy to state definitely the soil best suited for growing sound larch. Being a _ shallow-rooted tree,? it prefers soil with a loose surface, and free from heavy surface- growth, but containing enough moisture to meet the require- ments of the tree during dry summers. It is therefore on slopes of hill ranges, and in valleys where the soil consists mostly of gravel or sandy loam, loose and porous, with sufficient surface moisture, that the larch thrives best. Flat ground, where the water accumulates on the surface and becomes stagnant, is not at all suited to its growth. It should not be planted on soil too dry on the one hand, or too stiff and wet on the other; yet it is difficult to say where, at times, it will not succeed. Spruce is suitable for being mixed with almost any other species, and it can be advantageously grown along with light-demanding trees of quicker growth. One great advantage is its ability to produce heavy timber on shallow soil with a rather moist subsoil, or on moor or heath-land, where no other tree can grow to maturity. The situation should be well sheltered, as, being a shallow-rooted tree, it is very liable to wind-fall. Hollows or valleys where there is abundant moisture suit it well. Silver Fir is very useful in thickening up a light-demanding wood of long rotation, as it is one of the best shade-bearing trees we have. It is also useful in forming shelter. Silver fir is very apt to grow rough and knotty, which reduces the value of the timber; but, where big timber is aimed at, this is a good tree to 1 The proper proportion in any mixture depends mainly upon local circum- stances. Where thecanker-disease is prevalent, no three-fourth larch admixture would likely be of much use in protecting it against infection. —Hon. Ep 2 Larch is naturally a deep-rooting tree, though it can accommodate itself to stony parts of rocky hill-sides, etc.—Hon. Ep. 40 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. plant. It does well on damp and exposed situations, but is very sensitive to spring frosts. Douglas Fir has come rapidly into favour within recent years, on account of its very rapid growth and the high quality of its timber. On account of the high price of the young plants, it is mixed with other species, such as spruce, silver fir, and larch, which help to check the side-branches in the early stages of its growth. On no account should the Douglas fir be put more than 12 feet apart, with the internal space filled up till the species just named stand 3 feet apart.' When Douglas fir is planted in this fashion, using cheaper plants to fill up the intervals, it helps greatly towards cheapening the cost of planting. Owing to the shade-bearing properties of this tree, the side-branches develop to an undesirable extent, and the chief object, if clean timber be desired, is to get it close enough to crush out these lateral branches, and so form the stem into a clean, cylindrical bole. Owing to the rapid growth of this tree, the leading-shoots are very liable to be broken and damaged by the wind in exposed situations or on high-lying ground, the tree thus becoming crooked and stag-headed. Its proper place is on low-lying ground and in sheltered valleys, away from dangerous winds. The soil best suited for its growth is deep, moist, sandy gravel, and loam of a fair depth. It does not grow well on chalk, lime, or stiff clay. Corsican Pine can be grown either pure or mixed with larch, spruce, or silver fir, which can be taken out as thinnings; and it can be planted on something like the system recommended for Douglas fir. Plants can be put about 12 feet apart, and the intervals filled up with the subordinate species. The quality of its timber is sometimes almost equal to that of Scots pine. It has a straight, clean stem when grown close, and it grows much faster during its early years than Scots pine. It is, however, very difficult to transplant, as it has so few fibrous roots that there is often a considerable percentage of deaths, unless it is lifted very carefully. It is best to transplant it in early autumn or late in spring, and care should be taken, during the operation, that the roots are exposed as little as possible to the effects of wind or sun. The best timber is produced on soil suitable for the growth of Scots pine, such as moist, fresh gravel, although it ' Such close planting seems unnecessary on any class of land where Douglas fir is likely to be planted. —Hon. Ep. i THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 4!I does well also on chalk, clay, or peaty soil. It stands exposure well. 8. System of Mixing.—As the various kinds of mixtures are so numerous, no general rules apply to all of them, so only those above mentioned as species suitable for mixtures will here be dealt with. When Qaé is to form the main crop, it is best to plant it every 12 feet, so that there will be plenty to choose from when, after repeated thinnings, only the straightest, healthiest, and best trees are left to form the final crop. The distance between the oak should be filled up to about 4 feet intervals with fast-growing kinds, such as larch, spruce, ash, and Spanish chestnut, which are all able to develop into something useful by the time they are thinned out. These subordinate trees realise more money as thinnings than oak of small diameter would. Larch should always form one of the subordinate species, as its thinnings are the most valuable. Although not of much value as thinnings, beech is another tree which should be mixed with oak, to improve the soil and clean the oak stems into straight, valuable timber. When it is intended to form the main crop, Beech should, like - the oak, be mixed with other species more valuable as thinnings, such as larch, silver fir, ash, and Spanish chestnut. When Douglas Fir is intended for the main crop, it should be planted every 12 feet, and the spaces between filled up with larch, spruce, silver fir, and Corsican pine. The Douglas grows the cleanest timber when planted pure, but in the meantime the young plants are so expensive that it is advisable to plant them mixed at this distance, and filled in with cheaper plants. Corsican Pine, when intended to form the main crop, may be dealt with similarly to Douglas fir. Mixing is most successful when Zarch is intended to form the main crop, and when it is mixed with spruce, silver fir, Corsican pine, Spanish chestnut, or beech. But the last named should always (on suitable soil) form one of the subordinate species, because of its heavy fall of leaves being so beneficial. One of the best ways of planting mixed woods is to peg off the ground into strips. Thus, if twelve men were holing or planting at 4 feet apart, that would mean every strip would be 16 yards wide. Sticks could be set up at that distance, as this would greatly help to keep the men right, and secure that the proper number of plants should be set to the acre. When slit- 42 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. planting, each man should plant at most only two species. This saves confusion, as each man knows exactly where each particular kind of tree should be put. When pit-planting is being carried on, if the holes are opened beforehand, the foreman should lay the different kinds in the holes in advance of the planters. 9. Shelter-Belts—When forming large plantations, a belt of strong, deep-rooting, wind-resisting trees should always be planted round the margin of the wood. This, should the plantation consist principally of shallow-rooted conifers, will provide it with shelter from severe gales, which play havoc with exposed woods. The breadth of the belt should be about 12 yards, and it should be planted on the outside with beech, hornbeam, Corsican pine, and on the inside with silver fir, oak, and sycamore. These belts should always be well thinned to allow individual trees to develop branches over the greater part of the stem. When planted a few years in advance, these belts form, of course, a better protection for the young plants needing shelter. II. MAINTENANCE FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER PLANTING. 1. Beating-up and Cleaning.—During the second season the plantation should be gone over and all blanks filled. For two or three years after planting, all surface-growth, such as bracken, brambles, gorse, broom, grass, etc., should be cut back once or sometimes twice in the season. 2. Protection against Game, Vermin, and Fungous Diseases.— [The remarks under this head are here omitted, as merely being generalities, to be found in any text-book on Forestry, about rabbits, hares, and squirrels ; the pine-weevil, the pine-beetle, the oak-tortrix, and the spruce-bark beetle ; the larch-canker, the pine-rot, the common agaric, and the canker of broad- leaved trees. No attempt has been made to give special details for any given case, or to describe anything in the nature of practical work, as is especially desired in this class of essay. —Hon. Eb. ] 3. Thinning.—The first thinning may require to be done from about the tenth to the fifteenth year after planting, according to the growth of the trees and the composition of the plantation. It should simply consist in going over the woods and taking out suppressed, diseased, or dead trees; but when larch has been mixed with oak or other slow-growing hardwoods, it requires to be gone over about the tenth year, in order to prevent the latter THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 43 being overdrawn and weakened. All rubbish and small suppressed trees which have been overtopped should be taken out. The hardwood rows should be gone along, and all oak, beech, etc., relieved from over-pressure of larch, spruce, etc., by cutting these back with a sharp knife. All double-leaders and strong side-branches should be cut off, so as to encourage the oak to grow up with a straight single stem. This thinning and pruning is quite sufficient to carry the plantation on for another five years or so, till the plants are about 20 feet in height. Then the first heavy thinning of the larch is made. This consists in taking out all the larches in the oak rows, leaving the oaks entirely alone. Most of the larch trees on either side are also taken out. The ash and larch rows should also be thinned, leaving altogether about a thousand trees per acre. With shade-bearers, such as spruce, beech, silver fir, and fast- growing trees like the Corsican pine and Douglas fir, the thinning of the larch should be confined to suppressed and dead trees, as the former will suffer no injury from being in the shade, and the other will soon overtop and crush out the larch. These thinnings are quite sufficient to carry the plantation on to the twenty-fifth year. 44 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. V. The Laying-out of a Mixed Plantation, and its Maintenance Jor the first Twenty-five Years. By JoHN M. Murray, Assistant Forester, Murthly, Perthshire. In planting trees, the planter looks for results, which may greatly depend upon the manner in which the work is performed at first. Most trees take a long time to attain maturity, and it is necessary for their healthy development that the work of planting should be carried out on sound practical principles, and on a soil and situation suited to the trees forming the crops. The boundaries for a new plantation will often depend on local circumstances, and the planter has not always the option of forming them on the most approved principles. The natural conformation of the ground, and the direction of the prevailing winds, as also the places where shelter is very much wanted, should be well studied. Where this can be done, it is advisable to give the most exposed side a convex form, as this tends to moderate the force of the wind; but, in forming a convex, it is often difficult to avoid having also a concave, and unless this concave is in a naturally sheltered situation, such an outline should be avoided. Much can be done by a proper selection of the trees forming the margins. The chief aim in this will be the hardiness of the species, and their natural suitability to the situation. What- ever the selection may be, the plants used ought to be well- grown and well-rooted, so as to withstand severe exposure. They should always be openly grown, so that each plant will have ample room to develop strong roots and side-branches, and thus produce shelter to the plantation. If this is fully attained, the interior will be preserved, and there will be more chance of producing the best quality of timber the ground is capable of yielding. The production of revenue, when forming plantations, should always be kept in view. As the larch is one of our most valuable trees, arriving sooner at a saleable size than most others, preference should be given to its cultivation on all situations suitable to its growth. THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 45 Waste lands suitable for planting are to be found to a greater or less extent on almost every estate, and plantations will seldom be formed on fertile soil. Indeed, with the exception of some hardwoods, such soil would not produce the best quality of timber; while the loss of rent as pasture would much exceed that of many of our hill-sides, where plantations can be raised equally well, and may even produce timber of superior quality. Timber will therefore usually be grown for profit on mountain sides or heathy moorlands, and, on a smaller scale, along the sloping banks of water-courses and in natural hollows. The commercial value of plantations at different stages of growth may often vary considerably in different localities, according to local demand. In localities where pit-wood or other small-sized wood is in demand, it may pay best to clear the crop at, say, from thirty to forty years of age, or as soon as they attain the size best supplying the local market. Many situations suitable for the growth of larch and other valuable trees are not sufficiently accessible for the removal of heavy timber, and then it may be more profitable to clear the crop when it is of handy pit-wood size, and replant. In this way two crops of timber may be grown in the time taken to grow one of heavy matured timber, which would lock up more capital meanwhile. These are, however, matters only for local con- sideration. Fencing.—Before commencing to plant any piece of ground, it must be securely fenced against the inroads of stock or game. The manner of enclosing plantations varies, and often depends on local facilities. Where suitable stones abound, no more lasting fence can be erected than a dry-stone dyke, built to the height of 3 feet, and surmounted with iron standards placed at g feet apart, using three lines of wires placed at 7, 8, and 9 inches apart. Where the fence is a straight line, these standards may be placed at 18 feet apart, using two droppers at 6 feet apart. Corrimony fencing is efficient, cheap, durable, easily erected, and therefore suitable for hill-ground and places difficult of access. Straining and tie-pillars should be of good malleable iron, 14 inch square, placed not more than 150 yards apart. These should be fitted with stays in line of fence, and also with iron plate ratchets. The intermediate posts should be of T iron, 1} in. x 14 in. x } in, placed at 18 feet apart, using two droppers between at 6 feet apart. Strainers and T irons to be 46 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. sunk full 4 inches into sufficiently large stones, and fixed with melted sulphur. No proper fence to resist sheep or cattle can be made with less than six lines of wire, which should be either of best galvanised strand or solid. There are also many forms of wire-fences erected on wooden posts, which can be erected and kept in repair conveniently and at small cost. Where rabbits and hares abound, it is necessary to attach rabbit-proof wire-netting. This adds to the cost of fencing ; but, with wire-netting, two at least of the six lines of wire can be dispensed with. Draining.—Next comes the draining of the ground. Although a certain amount of moisture is necessary for the healthy produc- tion of forest trees, yet excess of water is highly detrimental, and must be removed by drainage. On wet, marshy land, where water lies and turns sour and foetid, drainage must be resorted to, as land surcharged with stagnant water does not promote the healthy growth and develop- ment of plants. Drainage should there be carried out at least two years before planting, in order to promote aeration and permit rain-water to penetrate into the soil and fertilise it. When freely admitted, air and rain-water promote decomposition of the mineral and organic substances in the soil, and render them fit to be absorbed by the plant-roots. There are usually many parts that, with a proper selection of the plants, will not require drainage. But where there is an excess of moisture, more especially where the ground is flat, the water then becomes stagnant and must be removed. In laying out the drains, advantage ought to be taken of existing water-courses. As these generally follow the lowest parts of the ground, they form, if properly scoured, the best leaders or mains. ‘The smaller drains may be led into these at any angle, provided the fall is not so rapid as to cause the drains to get cut up, as is more especially the case if the ground is gravelly. It is impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast rule as to the number, depth, and division of the drains, as this must altogether depend on the nature of the soil and the amount of water to be carried off. When ground is rendered wet by an excess of water coming from a higher source, much benefit can often be derived by a THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 47 system of catch-water drains. If these are properly arranged, whole tracts of ground formerly wet can often be rendered sufficiently dry for the production of a timber-crop. The usual size of plantation-drains on the Murthly estate (Perthshire) is 36 inches wide at the top and 24 inches deep. The width at the bottom is not more than the breadth of a common spade. Whatever depth the drains are cut, the sides should be allowed an easy slope so as to prevent their falling in, and to allow of easy cleaning when necessary. Roadways.—Good roadways will always add to the value of plantations. Though it may not at first be necessary to have them permanently laid down, their lines ought, however, to be fixed previous to planting, as at this stage the best direction can be easily determined. Their further construction can be done at any time previous to the removal of timber. It may, however, be advisable to cut a ditch along each side of the roadways, as this will keep them at all times in a moderately dry condition. An advantage of roadways or open lines is the facilities they afford for battue-shooting. Planting.—The ground being laid out, fenced and drained, the next matter of importance is the selection of suitable kinds of trees for the given soil and situation. Climate, soil, and shelter may vary considerably in different localities, hence the necessity of having a proper selection of suitable species for the various soils, altitudes, and exposures to be met with. To plant with success, many difficulties have to be contended with. The destruction by game on many estates is very dis- couraging. Although rabbits and hares may be excluded, in some localities blackgame and capercailzie often do much damage to pine by picking out the leading buds, and thus causing stunted and misshapen trees. Another difficulty with which one has often to contend, owing to our extensive sea-board, is the particles of sea-salt, particularly injurious to evergreen trees and shrubs, that are carried by the wind and deposited on leaves and branches. By a proper selection of the species for seaside planting this danger may be partially overcome, as some trees have the power of resisting the injurious effect of sea-salt on their growth. The selection of the best kinds of trees for the various soils and situations is, of course, a matter of the first moment, yet there is 48 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. no error more commonly made than the indiscriminate distribution of the different kinds. To this error much of the unhealthiness of some plantations is due, and then the young trees soon become diseased and die off rapidly. When the natural peculiarities of the plants and the. causes of disease are properly understood, the plantations will be healthier and more profitable than if formed merely in a hap-hazard fashion. But almost equally important is the planting of trees that will produce timber saleable in the locality; and the planter should consider beforehand at what age the crop can prob- ably be most profitably cleared, in order that he may adopt a system of management well suited to the circumstances. Deep heathy soil is usually best suited for the Scots pine, and low-lying and moist situations for spruce and other firs. Probably the Douglas fir will be considered the most valuable of these. It is certainly a free grower, and forms a large quantity of timber in a short time. It will thrive on a great variety of soil, and should generally form one of the trees in a mixed fir plantation. Many kinds of pine may be planted with confidence on soil not sufficiently good for the production of valuable deciduous trees. In Britain it has often been found difficult to form plantations on ground that has previously grown a timber-crop, and especially when old stumps afford breeding-places for injurious insects. In such cases it is better to defer planting for some years after the ground has been cleared. In a well-mixed plantation the trees comprising it do not all extract their food from the same distance below the surface of the soil. As is well known, the roots of some trees penetrate deeply, while others have their roots near the surface; and by a proper selection the soil is thus more completely utilised. Deciduous trees gain by having evergreen conifers intermixed with them, the shelter thus produced being beneficial in protecting the soil, while the side-shade tends to prevent any extensive formation of side-branches, and has thus the direct effect of rendering pruning unnecessary, and of producing long, clean, valuable timber. As the influence of different altitudes is always evident in the growth of trees, the situation must be considered as well as the soil. The oak will generally succeed best on deep and somewhat stiff clay soil. Ash will grow most freely on a deep loamy soil, on steep declivities, or in deep ravines. A dry and THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 49 moderately fertile soil will best suit the elm; and from its straggling habit of growth it may require considerable attention in a mixed plantation. Beech thrives on any moderately dry land, and is not particular as to soil or situation: it forms one of the best mixtures along with either oak, ash, Scots pine, or larch. Sycamore will thrive on any soil not wet or boggy,and may be planted with beech, spruce, or Weymouth pine. The Spanish chestnut thrives best in rich dry soil, and grows much quicker than most of the other kinds of trees. The banks of streams or water-courses, and moderately damp situations, are suitable for common spruce, alder, poplars, and willows. Of the newer Coniferz suitable for mixed plantations, perhaps none is better than the Douglas fir; and in favourable situations such kinds as Tsuga Mertensiana, Cupressus Lawsoniana, Thuya gigantea (Lobbit), Larix leptolepis, and Abies grandis may be planted. In planting for profit, large plantations should be made, as they can usually be formed and managed at less cost proportionally than small areas, and also produce finer timber. On light land suitable for notching, from 3500 to 4800 plants should be used to the imperial acre.1 The usual method of notching should be adopted where plants are of a suitable size, care being taken that the slits into which the plants are inserted are firmly closed. Where plants of large size are used, including all hardwoods, pits may be made for their reception. The extent of the roots will determine the size of the holes to be made, an allowance being made of a few inches beyond the extreme points of the roots. The success of the plantation will depend on the skill exercised at this stage. All kinds of trees must be planted with care, on soils and situations suited to their growth, without regard to regularity. Light-demanding kinds should be mixed with shade- bearers of less rapid growth, or should be planted in advance. In addition to our ordinary woodland trees in Britain, Zsuga Mertensiana, Cupressus Lawsoniana, Thuya gigantea (Lobbit), Abies grandis, Picea sitchensis, and Larix leptolepis may also be planted 1 That is, from 3 to 34 feet apart. Except where the land is suitable for notching, or unless there are special reasons for close planting, it will seldom pay best to plant closer than 4 feet (2722 per acre)—and that, too, even in localities where there may be a fair demand for early thinnings. But we have, un- fortunately, as yet no statistics for comparison of actual results in Britain. —Hon. Ep. VOL. XIX. PART I. D 50 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. as subordinate species on suitable land. These are valuable timber-trees, which deserve a trial, and many often prove profitable additions to the crop. Maintenance for Twenty-five Years.—¥or several years after planting, the plants may require to be kept free from weeds of all sorts, and failures will have to be replaced. For this latter purpose, where the situation is at all suitable, perhaps nothing will succeed better than Douglas fir and sycamore, which are of rapid growth, and can stand side-shade. The fencing should also be frequently inspected, to prevent damage by stock or game. All open drains or water-courses should be seen to, so that no obstruction interferes with the free motion of water. Damage by ground-game should be carefully looked for, and exterminative measures promptly taken in hand. All plants, especially the hardwoods, should be looked after for a number of years, and double-leaders and disproportionate branches cut back. Double-leaders in conifers, when within reach, may be checked by nipping out the side-buds. Thinning constitutes the next operation. If the plantation has been judiciously formed and well attended to hitherto, the manner in which thinning is performed will greatly influence the future value of the produce. There is no definite age when thinning should become necessary, nor can any distance be laid down as that at which the trees should stand apart. This depends on the increase in height, and the individual growing-space required by each kind of tree, while soil, altitude, and exposure also occasion inequalities in the growth, and exert their own special influence affecting thinning. A certain proportion of healthy foliage is at all stages of growth necessary for the production of a sound and valuable crop of timber. But, on the other hand, if the trees stand too. wide apart, or thinning be commenced too early, thus allowing the branches of each tree to become strong and spreading, the timber produced will be coarse and open in the grain, and full of large knots or even black holes. In thinning, the principal object ought always to be to assist nature to produce the best. class of tall, clean, and well-formed timber, with few branches, by keeping the trees close enough to check the growth of unnecessary side-branches. The lower branches will then grad- ually die and fall off, and when the mature timber is cut up, it will be found to be clean and close-grained. THE LAYING-OUT OF A MIXED PLANTATION. 51 As most of our forest trees are liable to accidents and diseases, it is necessary, when thinning, to remove those of poor growth, or showing signs of premature decay. Those left should be the largest and most promising trees, and though they may not stand at regular distances apart, this can be rectified during successive thinnings. When trees have stood long enough in close canopy to be drawn up tall, clean, and straight, it will then be advantageous to thin gradually, before they become too tall and slender in proportion to their girth. The intervals at which thinnings should take place depends on the kinds of trees, closeness of planting, soil, and situation. Trees differ in their requirements for growing-space, and other factors also exert their own special influence. Care should be taken not to interrupt close canopy unnecessarily by removing too many trees at one time, and thus unduly exposing the soil to the effects of wind and sun. In timber-crops grown for profit, the thinnings should be made so as to benefit the most promising trees, because excessive thinning at this stage often means future loss on the mature crop. When our timber is by chance or good management grown in close canopy, it is equal in quality to imported timber, and can be applied to much wider uses than at present. The first thinning of hardwoods mixed with conifers is a simple operation, consisting principally in the removal of some of the conifers. As fast-grown hardwoods are much more profit- able than slow-grown, their growth should be encouraged by Opening out the crop as soon as, and so far as, this can be done, while still keeping the formation of unnecessary side-branches in check; but, of course, healthy conifers should be retained where the hardwoods show signs of failing health. The margins of plantations require different treatment as to thinning, as the trees are here intended to form a barrier to the wind, and give shelter. It will therefore be necessary to thin before the trees get crowded and lose their side-branches, because these should be preserved and encouraged from the very earliest stages, so as to provide shelter to the interior of the plantation. When margins are formed of hardy trees, clothed to the ground with healthy, well-balanced branches, they resist violent gales, and prevent the wind from sweeping underneath, carrying away the dead leaves, and depriving the crop of nourishment. 52 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. VI. Megastigmus spermotrophus, Wachtl, as an Enemy of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga Douglasii), with two Plates. By R. Stewart MacDovuca.i, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., Hon. Consulting Entomologist to the Society. In the month of May 1905 I received a number of seeds of the Douglas fir that had been sent by Mr John Crozier, Forester, Durris, Aberdeenshire. Accompanying the seeds were some insects that had issued from them. The insects, on examina- tion, proved to be Jegastigmus spermotrophus. From these seeds and from others I bred out a number of males and females of this species. The infested seed had been rendered useless by the destructive work of the JZegastigmus larve. In the letter containing the request for determination of the insect and how to combat its ravages, Mr Crozier wrote: ‘The insect has, for some years back, been causing a serious loss to our stock of Douglas fir seed. I noticed its presence on coming here nine years ago, but it had no doubt been in the estate before that time. Seed was plentiful, however, and as the damage was comparatively trifling, I did not pay much attention to the fact. Now, however, it has assumed a more serious aspect, as the seed on many of the older trees from which I formerly collected my supply, in good years amounting to over 300 bushels, is not worth the trouble of gathering. I have raised some millions of plants on this estate, but unless this pest can be kept in check, it will be impossible to keep up the stock from home-grown supplies.” A number of points render this communication of Mr Crozier’s interesting. In the first place, this is the first record of the insect in our country. Mr W. F. Kirby very kindly wrote me to say that while two other species, Megastigmus collaris, and the large Californian species, MJegastigmus pinus, were in the Collection at the Natural History Museum, the present species, JZ. spermotrophus, was not represented. The insect occurs, too, as an enemy on a tree of great value, both for ornament and for timber, and justly regarded as one of the most important trees introduced in the last century. Although introduced into Britain only seventy-eight years ago, there is a specimen in our country 130 feet in height, and thick MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACHTL. 53 in proportion. Again, Megastigmus spermotrophus belongs to a family of Hymenopterous insects, the Chalcididae, the larve of which, in the great majority of cases, are not feeders on plants, but are parasitic on other insects. Further, while it is admitted that some species of Chalcids are feeders on plants (phytophagic), it has been denied by such an excellent authority as Dr L. O. Howard, of the United States, that species of the genus Megastigmus are phytophagic in habit. We believe that the record of this infestation at Durris should go far, in view of previous evidence, to settle the controversy. This insect, Megastigmus spermotrophus, was first received by Wachtl, of Vienna, in 1893, and was described by him as a new species. In the spring of 1893 Wachtl got some specimens of Megastigmus insects that had issued from the seeds of the Douglas fir. From these specimens Wachtl described the male and female of the species, which description I now give, in translation, from Wachtl’s paper.! “The female is loam-yellow ; the vertex of the head and the forehead to the base of the antennz are red-brown; the central part of the face (epistome), the inner edges of the eyes and the palpi, yellow ; the ocelli red-brown, each edged with black and sometimes connected with one another by means of black lines ; never, however, is the entire inner surface of the ocellar-triangle dark coloured ; the eyes during life are shining coral red, after death red-brown; antennz blackish-brown, the scape, and the part between the scape and the flagellum, reddish-yellow; the pronotum with a more or less broad yellow band at the hind edge; the scutum of the mesonotum generally red-brown; the outer side of the shoulders and the furrows of the parrapsides? yellow ; the surroundings of the bases of the wings to a slight extent black; the diaphanous wings finely black-haired; the knob or club of the ramus-stigmaticus* longer than broad, 1 Zin neuer Megastigmus als Samenverwiister von Pseudotsuga Douglastz, Carr., Wiener Entomol. Zeitung, 1893. 2The scutum or disc of the metathorax is, in the order Hymenoptera, divided into three parts by longitudinal sutures or furrows. The name parrapsides is applied to the side parts separated from each other by the middle portion.—R. S, M. 3’ The ramus-stigmaticus is the small branch (see Figure) which is given off from the part of the vein that runs along the front edge of the fore-wing. Its varying size and shape in different species are made use of in classification. —R.S.M. 54 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. elliptical and black; the coxe of the fore-legs yellow; the pulvillus on all the legs black ; the compressed abdomen reddish- brown on the upper side, with a larger or smaller black-brown or black spot at the base of the first segment, and becoming paler at the edges—this spot is sometimes wanting; on the other hand, the end of the body and the under-surface of the abdomen are somewhat light coloured; the sheath of the ovipositor is intense black. “ All the flagellum joints of the thirteen-jointed antennz are longer than thick, and become gradually a little less thick to- wards the apex of the antennz; the first joint is the longest, the others practically agree in length; the three-jointed club is egg- shaped, and as long as the two foregoing joints taken together. The central part of the face is obliquely wrinkled, the forehead longitudinally wrinkled ; the vertex of the head, the prothorax, the mesothorax, and the scutellum are transversely wrinkled ; the post-scutellum, outlined by a fine deep line, is glossy and smooth, except at the base and along the longitudinal middle line, where it is finely punctured; the metanotum is finely punctured, with a prominent longitudinal keel in the middle, and, in the case of most examples, with a transverse ledge at the limit of its front third; the hind margin is glossy smooth, without sculpture. The face, mesonotum, all the coxa, the tibize and tarsi of the forelegs, and the middle and hind legs, are white- haired ; the vertex of the head and the forehead, the thorax, especially both sides of the furrows of the parrapsides, the scutellum other than the post-scutellum, the femora of the fore- legs, and the hind edges of the segments of the abdomen, are beset with longer or shorter black bristles. The ovipositor is as long as the body. The body-length of the female measures from 3°25 mm. to 3‘5 mm. (=roughly } to + of an inch). “The male is orange-yellow; antennz, reddish-brown; the pronotum has, in the middle of the front edge, a black transverse patch, which is somewhat elongated behind, in streak-like fashion, in the direction of the middle line, sometimes resolved into two spots or reduced to two points; the scutum of the mesonotum is reddish-yellow, and provided in front with a black- brown spot, paler behind, which sometimes only shows through the hind end of the pronotum more or less clearly ; the bases of the wings and the metanotum are black; the tarsi of the fore- legs, as well as the middle and hind legs, are reddish-yellow ; MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACHTL. 55 the strongly compressed abdomen is brownish-red above, with a black longitudinal patch at its base, gradually narrowing behind and becoming paler at the edges. Sculpture, hairing, etc., as in the female. The body-length of the male measures from 2°75 mm. to 3 mm.” (= to 3 of an inch). So far as I know, the larva has not till now been described. It is whitish in colour, and legless. The segments are well marked, and, indeed, the general appearance, including the wrinkled and curled form, is strongly reminiscent of a weevil grub. The marked horny head of the weevil grub, however, is absent. Instead, in the Megastigmus larva, each of the two chitinised gnawing jaws is somewhat sickle-shaped, the two jaws together reminding one of a pair of calipers. The apex of each jaw is pointed, and on the concave side is provided with marked teeth. These gnawing mouth-parts are red or yellow-brown in colour. Those shown in Figure e were drawn under a magnification of about 750. Lire-HISTORY. The flight time of Megastigmus spermotrophus, under normal conditions, is, in Scotland, from May onwards. The females that have issued proceed to their egg-laying in the young Douglas fir cones. ‘The insects may be seen at this time on the Douglas fir trees, as also on the top of the seed-beds, some time after sow- ing, these last having most likely issued from seed which had been sown. ; Each infested seed of the Douglas contains only one larva, which nourishes itself on the reserve contained in the seed. The seed bears no external mark of the internal presence of the Megastigmus \arva. Pupation takes place in the seed, there being no cocoon. In a number of the seeds which I dissected, and from which Megastigmus adults had issued, the contents of the seed had been devoured, and only the outer brown testa or seed-coat remained surrounding the inner white-coloured peri- sperm sheath. In other seeds, on dissection, I found the larva, and, where it was full-grown and the seed contents destroyed, the white-coloured perisperm-sheath surrounding the larva bore a close resemblance to a cocoon. Starting from the first laid eggs of the spring brood of Mega- stigmus, the generation, probably, can be reckoned as an annual one. From Douglas fir seeds received in May, I bred out males 56 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. and females during May and June. Seeds of the same age dis- sected then also revealed larva. In dissection of seed during July, August, September, and October, I never failed to find healthy larve, and now in November I can still get larve, and all this with seed-material from Douglas fir cones harvested in October 1904, and having their seed extracted in spring 1905. This can probably be accounted for partly by the considerable irregularities in time of hatching of eggs and coming to maturity known to occur in other insects with eggs laid at or about the same time, partly perhaps by the life of the individual J/ega- stigmus being somewhat extended, or perhaps also by the over- lapping of generations, with issue of adults at different times during the summer. An endeavour will be made in 1906 to clear up some of these points in the biology. Wachtl, in Central Europe, bred out, in 1893, from seeds of the Douglas fir, from March 30 to May 4, a large number of Megastigmus spermotrophus of both sexes, the females predominating. Mr Crozier got in ten days, from seed blown through the fan in dressing or cleaning, 182 adults, of which 142 were males. It is possible that this excess of males may be due to the fact that the males being smaller than the females, the seeds enclosing the males, being somewhat lighter, would be the more likely to be blown through in dressing. I bred out from a very small quantity of seed, in May and June, thirty females and nineteen males. The native home of the Douglas fir, known also as the Oregon pine and Columbia redwood, is Western North America, where it extends over an area of 50,000 square miles, between 43° and 52° latitude. /egastigmus has doubtless been introduced to Britain in seed from the native home of the tree. To what extent the insect may be present in Britain we cannot yet estimate, as comparatively few estates take advantage of the seed produced on the Douglas firs grown on them. I would be very glad, however, in view of a later communication, to receive material of Douglas fir or other cones for examination from any estate. PROTECTION AND REMEDY. The insects are so small, and the number of.cones on the Douglas may be so great, that direct measures to prevent egg- laying do not seem very practicable; yet it is worth keeping in MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACHTL. 57 mind that close allies of these insects are considered as amongst the easy prey of the collector, good hauls being got by netting, and by sweeping and beating the trees. Such sweeping or beat- ing, where A/egastigmus brought itself within reach, would be certain to account for numerous adults. Any adults seen on the seed-beds should also be destroyed. As against the insect in its various stages in the seed, measures can probably be adopted with success. The cones should be gathered as soon as ripe (the latter half of October), and should at once be subjected to such treatment as will permit of the seed being abstracted. This seed should, without delay, be fumigated with bisulphide of carbon. The method is as follows :—Place the material to be treated in an air- tight receptacle. Pour the bisulphide of carbon into a saucer or saucers, or such shallow dish, and lay these on the top of the material. Close the receptacle. The bisulphide of carbon vaporises, and as its fumes are heavier than air, they sink down through the material. The receptacle should be kept closed for forty-eight hours. One ounce of bisulphide of carbon will do for too lbs. of seed, or one ounce for every 50 cubic feet of air space. The treatment should be administered in not too cold a temperature. Bisulphide of carbon fumes being poisonous should not be inhaled by the operator, nor should a light of any kind be brought near. If it is desired to store the cones during winter or longer, these must be similarly fumigated directly they are gathered. The results to be looked for from fumigation are :— 1st. The germinative capacity of such seeds as have not been infested is not interfered with. 2nd. In infested seed, where the larve may not have made much progress in the destruction of the reserve in the seed, the larva will be killed and the seed may germinate. 3rd. In infested seeds, where the contents have been alto- gether or much destroyed by the larve, and which therefore would not have germinated, the larve will be killed and the issue of the next year’s brood of adults prevented. The light seed blown through by the fan at cleaning time should be burnt at once, and where there has been attack this will probably account for many of the pests.’ 1 The foregoing, along with the Figures, was published in Zhe Journal of the Board of Agriculture for January 1906. 58 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. Is MEGASTIGMUS A @frect ENEMY OF THE SEED? It has been already stated that one feature of interest in connection with this Megastigmus infestation is that the insect is one of the Chalcididae. It has been admitted now for some years, practically by all entomologists, after great controversy, that certain Chalcids are feeders on plant-tissue, but controversy still exists about the genus Megastigmus. A review of the Chatcididae and the controversy may prove useful. POSITION OF THE CHALCIDIDAE IN THE INSECT WORLD. The well-known order of insects—the Hymenoptera, with its tens and tens of thousands of species, is divided into two sub- orders, one whose members feed on plants, ¢.g., the saw-flies and the wood-wasps. The other suborder, far greater in number of species, is known as the /efzolata, from a constriction between thorax and abdomen. To this suborder Petiolata belong the bees, ants, wasps, and ruby-wasps, and a great series known as the Parasitica. The series Parasitica—so called because of the frequency of the parasitic habit amongst its members—is divided up into families, of which the Chalcididaeis one. ‘The other well-known related families are the Cynzpide or Gall-flies, the Zchnewmonide or Ichneumon Flies proper, and the Braconide. Many of the Cynipide give rise to galls on plants, and their larve live in the galls caused by the pricking and egg-laying of the adult; others of the Cynipide live as guests in these galls. Some of the Cyzipide, however, do not feed on plant-food, but are parasitic on other insects. This difference of economy among members of the same family should be noted. The Jchneumonide is a very large family with larve of parasitic habit, most of the larve living within the body of their victims. The Braconide are very like the last, but are marked off from them structurally by differences in the wings. Like the Ichneumons, however, the larve of Braconide are parasites. The Chalcididae, named from the metallic lustre of their chitin covering, is a large family very rich in species. Some species reach a length of 2 inch, but the great majority are minute 8s insects, some very minute. MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACHTL. 59 Lire-HIsTtoRY AND HABITS OF CHALCIDIDAE. The great majority of the Chalcididae are parasitic on insects. Eggs may be parasitised, as in some of the cockroaches, or pupz may be infested, but far the commonest stage for infesta- tion is the larva. The larval host may be a gall-maker, or a guest in a gall, or a feeder in a mine or burrow in the plant, or an external feeder. The female Chalcids lay their eggs on or in the host. In the majority of cases the larve, on hatching, feed internally. If the larval host feed enclosed on plant-tissue, the Chalcid parasite may feed externally on it. There are a few cases known where the parasitic Chalcid larva feeds externally on an external feeding host. When full grown, the parasitic larva passes into the pupal stage without making a cocoon. The range of insect host parasitised by Chalcid larve is a very wide one. Scarcely any insect Order escapes. Dr L. O. Howard points out! that the non-parasitised insects, the May- flies and the Dragon-flies, and Thrips and 7hysanura, are either aquatic forms in their early stages, or very tiny land forms. Following Howard, the commonest orders parasitised are the Lepidoptera, the Hymenoptera, and the Hemiptera-Homoptera. The caterpillars of Lepédoptera are very commonly parasitised, those of the Micro-Lepidoptera more often than of the Macro- Lepidoptera. Among Hymenoptera, the bee section, the gall-flies and the saw-flies all suffer, while Chalcid parasites are also found infesting Ichneumonids, Braconids, and even other Chalcids. Of the Hemiptera-Homoptera, the Scale insects, Aphids and Psyllide are much infested. Of the remaining insect Orders, a number of beetle-families provide Chalcid hosts. Of the Diptera we find Chalcid parasites levying toll on the gall-gnats (Cecidomyide), the crane-flies, and the Muscide. Orthoptera also suffer, and among the WVeuroptera the ant-lions and the predaceous lace-wing flies. While it is not possible to say absolutely that each Chalcid section confines its parasitism to a special family of insects, yet one can say that certain of the Chalcid genera affect, and even limit their parasitism to, specially chosen families. 1** Biology of the Chalcididae, 1901,” Proceedings United States Nat. Muts., vol. xiv. By Dr L. O. Howard. 60 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. Hapsit oF LIFE. While the vast majority of the Chalcididae then are parasitic on insects, there are some which have a phytophagic or vegetarian habit. Over half a century’s controversy has taken place regarding this phytophagic habit, but now entomologists are agreed that in the genus /sosoma and closely-allied genera at least, vegetable-feeders are found. THE Genus ISOSOMA. Scattered up and down in entomological writings in the United States and Canada, from 1834 onwards, are observations by Harris, Fitch, Cadell, Walsh, Pettit, Riley, and Howard on the food-habits of /sosoma.1 Howard gives the date 1882 as the time by which all entomologists were agreed as to the phytophagic habit of /sosoma. Recently Mr F. M. Webster? has enumerated sixteen North American species of /sosoma whose larve are directly injurious to wheat, barley, rye, or other grasses. An interesting feature in the biology of the Greater Wheat Straw-Worm is chronicled by Webster, this species showing in its life-history an alternation of generations—a spring generation, wingless and small in size, alternating with a winged summer generation larger in size. The importance of a knowledge of life- history is well illustrated here, for as the spring generation is wingless it can be fought by changing the crop. The following three genera, related to /sosoma, are stated by Howard, from notes in the Division of Entomology of the United States, to be gall-makers—LZurytomacharis, Ash., Lsomorpha, Ash., and Philochyra, Hall. Outside of American literature we have various records. West- wood, in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1869, records a Chalcid, the pupz of which he took from an orchid. Certain curculionid grubs were feeding on the orchid leaves, but Westwood, believing that the Chalcid had been feeding not on these grubs but on the plant itself, suggested for the Chalcid the name /sosoma orchidearum. 1 Formerly several of the forms now named /sosoma were named as of the genus Lurytoma. 2 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, Bull. No. 42, 1903—Some Insects attacking the Stems of Growing Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats. By F. M. Webster, M.S. MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACH'?L, 61 Trail in Scotland, and Ritsema Bos in Holland, had re- corded in 1870 and 1871 Zurytoma (which Howard says should be named Jsosoma) longipennis as the cause of galls on Sea Marram or Mat Grass (Ammophila arundinacea). In 1880 Lindeman! described a species of /sosoma which had, over a period of five years, been harmful to rye. Westwood, in 1881,? recorded an instance of Chalcid larve causing damage to the buds of a specimen of Cattleya by boring into these and destroying the heart of the shoot. Again, in 1883, Westwood claimed Zurytoma taprobanica as a gall-maker on /icus, but Howard dissented, believing it to be really parasitic in habit. Amongst the subfamily Zorymide, the subfamily to which the genus Megastigmus belongs, are some of the fig-insects well known in fig-caprification. Tue GENUS MEGASTIGMUS. A controversy, similar to the one that existed with regard to the food-habits of /sosoma species, exists as regards some of the Megastigmus species. The genus Megastigmus, of the subfamily Torymide, is characterised by this, that in both sexes the tiny vein, which is given off as a branch from the part of the vein that runs along the front edge of the forewing, is very short, and ends in a marked knob or club. The females, too, have a long ovipositor. There seems to be no doubt that certain of the Mega- stigmus species are parasitic on insects. Mayr,’? for example, mentions Megastigmus species that are parasitic on the larve of numerous Cynipid galls and on species of caterpillars of Lepidoptera. Ashmead‘ names AMegastigmus species taken from Cynipid galls and from a Cecidomyid gall. There is a consider- able body of evidence, however, in favour of the phytophagic habit of several species. Wachtl® obtained from rose-hips a number of Megastigmus collaris, Brh., and Megastigmus pictus, 1 Bulletin de la Société Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscow, 1880. 2 Gardeners’ Chronicle, vol. xvi. p. 567. ° Die Europaischen Torymiden, 1874, Mayr. 4°* Studies of North American Chalcididz,” Ashmead, 77. Am. Ent. Soc., vol. xiv., 1887. 5 Wiener Entom. Zeitung, iii., 1884, pp. 38 and 214. 62 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. Forst. Up to the time of Wachtl’s published statement, these Megastigmus \arve had been considered to be parasitic on the larvee of a Zryfeta moth that had also been found infesting the rose-fruits. As a result of many observations, Wachtl recorded that he had no doubt whatever that the two different species of Megastigmus \arve were direct feeders on the rose-fruits and not parasitic on any insect. Howard! expressed doubt as to the vegetarian habit of these larve, believing rather that the Mega- stigmus larve had previously fed on and destroyed the true enemy of the rose fruit and seed, and stating in support of his belief that he himself had found the larve of Zurytoma funebre in the seeds of clover, in which they had been feeding on the larve of Cecidomyia leguminicola, the real enemy of the seed, which larvee the Eurytomes had quite destroyed. More recent investi- gation, however, has shown that the clover seed Chalcis fly, £. funebre (now known somewhat unhappily as Aruchophagus funebris), is an undoubted enemy of clover and alfalfa seed, and a more dangerous one to the clover seed than the clover seed midge (Cecidomyia leguminicola). Mr E. S. G. Titus,? with specimens of the clover seed Chalcis fly, reared from clover seed, placed these on isolated clover plants, and was able to work out the life-history. This Chalcis fly lays its eggs on the young forming clover seed, and its larva, on hatching, feeds on the seed contents, these being practically used up by the time the larva is full fed. Pupation follows in the hollowed-out seed. In some cases the Chalcis larva was found to attack more seeds than one. Previous to this experiment, Hopkins, in 1895, had expressed the opinion that the above Chalcis fly was a very destructive enemy to red and crimson clover. Of other species, Alegastigmus brevicaudis, Ratz., has been reared by Bouché from the fruits of the rowan (Pyrus Aucuparia), and MM. pistacie from the fruits of Pistacza Lentiscus and Pistacia Terebinthus. MEGASTIGMUS AND NEEDLE-LEAVED TREES. In the spring of 1893 Wachtl received from a friend specimens of a Megastigmus taken from the seeds of the Douglas fir. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., Washington, 1892, vol. xiv. p. 576. 2U.S. Agr. Reps, 1904, p. 77- MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACHTL. 63 Wachtl, after an examination of these dead specimens, obtained a number of Douglas fir seeds, and found them infested with a larva. The seeds showed no trace of any other inhabitant save the Chalcid larva. Wachtl bred out many adults of both sexes, and described the species under the name of Megastigmus spermo- trophus. The seeds from which the specimens were obtained had been imported from the American home of the Douglas. Wachtl, by publishing his observations, definitely stating the Megastigmus larva to be the seed destroyer, obtained priority as regards the discovery of a A/egastigmus destructive to conifers. Several other observers, however, previous to 1903, had noticed Chalcid larvz in, or bred out adults from, the seeds of different comfers, but their observations remained unpublished, or they took the old view that the A/egastigmus was parasitic on the real enemy of the seed, whatever it might be. The late Professor Nitsche, of Tharandt, had in his possession a letter written to his colleague, Professor Judeich, in 1887, by Mr H. Borriés, of Copenhagen, stating that there had been a marked destruction of the seeds of the silver fir (Adies pectinata) at Bornholm, in Denmark, and that from the seeds Borriés had bred out many Megastigmus strobilobius, Ratz. Long before this, Ratzeburg, in Germany, had obtained from the seeds of the spruce (Picea excelsa) a Megastigmus, but disbelieving in the plant-eating habit of Megastigmus, he stated that this larva from the spruce was probably parasitic on Grapholitha strobilella, a caterpillar enemy of spruce cones. Borriés had also written to Riley, in America, a letter relating to the appearance of Megastigmus adults from the seeds of different conifers. In this letter to Riley, Borriés writes:! “ During the year 1886 and 1887, the seeds of Ades pectinata, in the forests of Denmark, were destroyed so thoroughly that not a single healthy seed could be found. Cones which were sent to me for examination did not show anything peculiar externally, but the apparently healthy seeds contained each a small larva of the subfamily Zorymide. From two tons of cones, kept in cages, only a single species of Torymid developed from this larva in spring 1888, viz., Megastigmus strobilobius, Ratz., which had been entirely lost sight of since Ratzeburg’s time.” Borries had also had occasion to procure the seeds of a 1“*Ts Megastigmus Phytophagic?” by C. V. Riley, Proc. Ent. Soc., ‘Washington, vol. ii., No. 4, 1893. 64 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. number of rare and valuable North American conifers, obtained from Oregon, and shipped directly to Copenhagen. From these seeds, kept in glass jars, and exhibited at an Exhibition in 1888, examples of different AZegastigmus species made their appearance, with no trace of any other insect save a single Dipterous insect from Adies concolor. Borrits goes on to say in his letter: “It is worthy of mention that in the preceding year these valuable seeds could not be obtained at all, because, as was reported from Oregon, they ‘had been destroyed by a worm.’” Riley received from Borries Megastigmus adults from the follow- ing species—Abzes magnifica, A. concolor, A. amabilis, A. grandis, Tsuga Hookeriana, Abies Mariesti (a Japanese species). Riley refers the species from the first four trees to probably AZegastigmus pinus, Parfit, this being a Californian species. Nitsche, too, has chronicled the finding of the larva of a large undescribed Megastigmus from the seed of the Californian Adies amabilis. In the discussion which followed the reading of Riley’s paper, Dr Howard still maintained that the J/egastigmus larve were parasitic on some insect, and that they had only taken to the seed after devouring the host-larve, whatever these might be. IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION. The question as to whether J/egastigmus is p2rasitic on insects, or is a direct enemy to the plant or tree, is no mere academic one, but is a question of great significance in practical work: for according to the answer given we will either treat A/egastigmus as a useful ally against a plant and tree enemy, and accordingly protect it, or else recognising it as an enemy, we shall have to wage war against it. With the importance of this question in mind, and apart from the preceding evidence which seems to warrant the view that Megastigmus spermotrophus is a direct enemy of the tree, I dissected with great care many of the Douglas fir seeds, and in no dissection did I find a trace of an enemy other than the Megastigmus, while all the insects I bred out were, similarly, Megastigmus. Mr Crozier’s evidence is of great value on this point. Hundreds of Megastigmus, and Megastigmus alone, have been found by him escaping from the infested Douglas fir seeds. As we have material, arrangements have been made whereby we hope by direct experiment to trace the life-history of the