Alien Trees
The land as well as the rivers in Galloway are at the beginning of a great change. A very large area has come into the posses- sion of the Forestry Commission ; and most of it perhaps will be planted, and it is to be feared that most of it will appear as a conifer forest, a thing alien to most of our landscape. More than this, that most repulsive of all conifers is in some favour— the Sitka spruce. It grows very fast and very straight, and is not without other useful qualities ; but it makes a wood that is wholly repulsive and repellent in the true sense of the word. No animal can endure it. It has nobs like thorns, stiff boughs that perish as the shade increases ; and soon its dusty darkness loses all the pleasant attributes that should belong to a wood. The Douglas fir, which is first favourite with the modern affores- ter, is not the most attractive of species, and is quite without the beauty of the Scots fir ; but it is not quite so unwelcome in a landscape as the Sidra. One small area is planted exclu- sively with birch, that " monarch of the Glen " ; and birch cannot be robbed of its beauty, either of form or colour, by any regimentation. Few trees that grow so fast have so hard and enduring a wood.
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