Forestry Memories

Tractors Ploughing on a Hill – Aberdeenshire circa 1980

The image is courtesy of John Thomson, formerly Forest District Manager of Aberdeenshire and Moray Forest District. This black and white image was taken by a photographer from Westland of Inverurie, Photographic Artists, but there is no detail on the location or operations.

Note that this is an unusual operation as the hill ground is being completely ploughed very much like a farm field and not the spaced ploughing normally associated with planting trees on hill ground. The tractors, possibly Caterpillar D4s, appear to be pulling double furrow ploughs going by the width of the new furrow areas.

There was a period when it was believed that complete ploughing of dry heather ground would allow the trees, generally Sitka spruce, to grow quickly and avoid heather check and not require any chemical spraying to kill the heather. In the event the young trees did grow well for a number of years but slowed down markedly after a few years and it was later judged to be an expensive ground treatment. The advent of aerial fertilising and top dressings of nitrogen and phosphate generally worked just as well and seemed to be a better option.

The location may well be the hill ground at Knockespock on the west side of the public road going over the Suie in Aberdeenshire. There was a common gull nesting area over the hill and some gulls may be visible in the image. This writer recalls that Jackie Macdonald, a ploughman in North Scotland Conservancy, did at one time go over on loan to the East Conservancy, Huntly area , for a period about this time. The emergency debogging sling fitted to the front of the lead tractor is indicative of a tractor used in more boggy conditions of north Scotland.

Any details of the site, the tractors and operators would be very welcome.

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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines

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