380 EDITOR'S BOX. [March, 



ere the period was half expired, be as rank and luxuriant as before 

 — the proposition is simply preposterous, and a needless waste of 

 precious time, when by pitting or paring, the ground could at once 

 be planted, and six years' growth gained to the bargain. 



* Bannockburn ' must propound other reasons in support of his 

 opinions, and, I venture to think, they will be difficult to devise. 



D. Scott. 



Darnaway, N.B. 



THE GALE OF SATURDAY, JANUARY 26th, 1881. 



SlE, — The effects of the gale which raged with such fury during 

 the evening and the early part of the night of Saturday, the 26th 

 January, were more disastrous than those produced by any storm 

 with which we have been visited for many years previous. Palling 

 trees and flying branches, tiles, slates, and chimney-pots, made 

 locomotion exceedingly dangerous, and only those whom the 

 necessities of the situation called abroad ventured out. 



One of the grand old Cedars upon the lawn at Surrenden-Dering 

 "was shorn of nearly half its strength, and huge branches were strewn 

 among the shrubs around. In the fine avenue of Limes, Sycamores, 

 and Elms which border the handsome drive leading from the mansion 

 to the village and the parish church of Pluckley, two of the noblesfc 

 Elms in the front line were uprooted, and many others were snapped 

 off or more or less torn to pieces. The main avenue in ' the Forest,' 

 upon the same estate, was for some days completely blocked by 

 fallen Spruce and Silver Firs of large size ; and all over the estate 

 the old timber suffered severely. Thousands of young trees just 

 planted out in the woodlands were loosened and battered about in 

 the wildest possible manner. Fortunately the land was not very wet 

 at the time, otherwise many of the noble trees whose hold upon the 

 ragstone is not of the deepest must have yielded to the fury of the 

 storm. It will be some time before we shall be able to clear away 

 the wreckage. And even then mutilated trees and numerous gaps 

 will remain to show the destructive powers of the wind on that 

 memorable night. 



Numerous lengths of park-paling were blown bodily into the 

 adjoining roads, chimney-stacks went down, houses were partially 

 unroofed, glasshouses stripped, and hop-pole-stacks went over by 

 hundreds. 



A. J. BUEKOWS. 



