Aberdeen University Forestry Student's Impressions of Forestry In Morayshire
The documents are courtesy of Anne and the late Alan Harper (Forester based at Huntly) both children of Frank G Harper.
As a forestry student at Aberdeen University Francis (Frank) G Harper from Aboyne reported on two visits and work experience in forests in Morayshire in the company of a Mr Ritchie on the final visit.
His first visit and work experience was for three weeks at Easter 1929 to the Forestry Commission Forest of Roseisle on the coast close to the town of Burghead. He describes the grassy moorland of former felled forest and some of the operations carried on at that time including planting, fencing and ditching.
Frank uses the descriptive forestry technology words “scheuched”, “screefs” in the planting operation, was not very impressed with the quality of trees arriving from the nursery for planting and outlines the sequence of gang planting with the foreman setting the pace. A “loon” re-supplied all the workers with more plants and retained the bundle strings or willows to enable a count for the day to be recorded.
All the new planting had to be protected by rabbit fencing and Frank runs through the process of erecting a light fence of a single line wire and digging in the rabbit netting. The posts cut from the existing plantations were peeled, charred in a fire and tarred.
The operations of sand fixing highlight the efforts of the railway company LMS whose branch line ran though the coastal sand dune area. They had initially resorted to building long sheds over the line in an effort to divert the blowing sand over the line instead of onto it. The use of marram grass planting and fences of rushes and broom by the Forestry Commission seemed to have better results. Frank took the opportunity to visits nearby Culbin Forest and was obviously impressed with the very early plantings at Binsness growing on pure sand but noted the effects of the ever approaching sand on the western edge covering the twenty plus year old trees to their tips and beyond. He mentions the Forestry Commission’s partially successful efforts at using marram grass and trials of broadcast pine seed (failed) and a German system of stakes driven in squares and filled with ‘rubbish’ but abandoned as being too expensive.
The preparations to prevent fire damage are described including Sunday patrols, distribution of fire brooms and burning traces between two ploughed lines. Frank mentions a fire that cost £1000 of damage and another from a railway that occurred sometime after his visit.
Innes House estate and Mr Ross is noted as having a very up to date sawmill and the rare provision of a heated timber creosoting plant as well as an excellent nursery.
The last part of the Morayshire report focuses on Monaughty Forest where Frank and his fellow student Mr Ritchie worked for six weeks in the summer of 1929. He was also able to visit several private estates in the area. At the Forestry Commission area of Monaughty Forest he describes Heldon Hill as most part covered with heather and patches of grass mingled with hummocks of a particularly vile and tough moss. This moss known locally by the forest squad as “Planter’s Joy” was Polytrichum communis. He mentions that the area had been covered with mostly larch forest and felled during the war (WWI) but that in areas there was remarkable larch regeneration a fair bit of it or a “skelp” of which had suffered damage from a recent fire. The work at the time was working through this and clearing the area for replanting all graphically described in the report. Further work experience was undertaken in hill ditching with a big spade cutting the sides, forking out “divots” and using a normal spade for bottoming. The other work was the erecting of a substantial march fence consisting of five wires, two of which were barbed much of it through an area covered with gorse. Unusually there is no mention of the early Forestry Commission plantings begun there in 1920.
Frank does mention welcome diversions to visit Logie and Relugas Estate the property of the Grants and saw two Sitka spruce trees planted by Dawes and Ramsay MacDonald but most of their forests had been felled in the war time.
Darnaway Estate is mentioned as the show place for forestry in the north, the forester has his own gamekeeper, woods on an 80 year rotation and 62 acre plots are felled annually. The estate has an excellent sawmill and well kept nurseries plus and interesting well stocked forestry museum.
The students have time to visit Watson’s Sawmills in Elgin and also Gordon Castle Estate at Fochabers. They are left with an impression of the large scale of work required to replace the war felling devastated forests and the vigour of the Forestry Commission and the progressive qualities of the Estates in replenishing the forests and woodlands of Morayshire.
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