384 EDITORS BOX. [March, 



KAY'S DENDBOMETEB. 



Sir, — It is on record that old King Solomon said, and said 

 truly, ' there is nothing new under the sun,' and from your Indian 

 correspondents it would appear that Mr. Kay's Dendrometer is not 

 only not a new one, but a very old one of German invention. 



I was about to buy one of these instruments from Mr. Kay's agents, 

 but now I shall wait till it is seen what time will reveal. 



At the last annual meeting of the Scottish Arboricultural Society, 

 I happened by mere accident to be in the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, 

 and had the very pleasing experience of watching a practical test of 

 Mr. Kay's instrument alongside of another instrument of a like 

 nature, exhibited, as I understood, at the sams meeting by 

 Mr. Mackenzie, of Edinburgh. 



Since then, I had hoped for, and quite expected to have seen, a, full 

 and complete description of Mr. Mackenzie's new Dendrometer, for 

 which, I was afterwards informed, he was awarded a first-class silver 

 medal. 



From a superficial observation of the trial of Mr. Mackenzie's 

 instrument in the Botanic Gardens that day it appeared to me that it 

 was proved to be all that could be desired by the forester, except the 

 price, which, if I was rightly informed, would in my opinion be 

 rather high; however, I doubt not that even at the high price of 

 £2 2s. it would be cheap comparatively speaking. Mr. Mackenzie 

 showed that not only could the height of any object be ascertained 

 correctly, and that from any position, whether level with, or above, or 

 far beneath the level of tlie object, but the distance could also be 

 ascertained as correctly as the height ; this being an advantage 

 none of the other instruments of other makers known to the writer 

 possesses. From the drawings in the hands of the secretary, it 

 appeared to me and a few others, that the instrument could be used 

 for small surveys and for finding distances (in straight lines) to any 

 distant object miles away. This of course may be quite a mistake 

 on my part, and it would certainly be interesting and instructive (to 

 me at least) if we could learn the exact nature and workings of the 

 instrument, and even to know if it is original or not. And I would 

 therefore, with your kind indulgence, take the present opportunity of 

 asking Mr. Mackenzie through the medium of your widely circulated 

 and valuable Journal, to come to the front and give the public a fair 

 and impartial explanation of what his instrument can do in the 

 direction I have already hinted. What, I would ask, did he get the 

 silver medal for ? Surely not for saying that he invented a new 



