316 EDITORIAL NOTES. [Margh, 



has been taken up by them with such an amount of enthusiasm and 

 spirit as has seldom, if ever, been shown towards any similar project of a 

 national character. And we are pleased to learn that they are 

 contributing most fully towards the Loan Collections in the Exhi- 

 bition. From the Royal Family downwards, all appear to be vying 

 with each other in placing their rare and valuable collections of 

 suitable articles at the disposal of the Exhibition Committee. Included 

 in these will be many extremely rare and curious specimens of woods, 

 showing the unique uses made of them. There will also be con- 

 tributed numerous valuable trophies of the forest chase, and other 

 objects of natural history of a specially interesting kind, which will 

 form a contrast to those specimens of the vegetable kingdom that 

 must of necessity be the chief characteristic of the Exhibition. 



* # 

 * 



The disastrous gales of the past winter will be long remembered by 

 foresters as the most destructive to forests in Britain upon record. 

 So far as we can ascertain, such wide-spread and general disaster has 

 never been seen as is presented in our woods at the present time. In 

 these dull times it is most unfortunate that such a calamity should 

 have happened ; but if it result in more careful attention being given 

 to our woods and forests the loss will not have been altogether with- 

 out its compensation. For some time home timber will be a drug in 

 the market, especially where it is distant from a cheap mode of 

 transit. This may cause inquiry into a more economical method of 

 conveying timber by laud than any we have in use at present, and in 

 course of a short time we may expect to see the useful and cheaply- 

 made tram or railroads of other countries introduced into ours. 



By the use of these cheap tram roads in the forests of Germany 

 and other European countries timber is readily conveyed to great 

 distances at a remarkably small cost. If they could be laid down, as 

 we certainly believe they could, in our forests and on our large estates, 

 they would save an immense amount in the cost of carriage of all 

 heavy goods — including timber, coal, building materials, manure, 

 farm produce, and other articles requiring to be daily moved about 

 on large properties. These tram roads should, if possible, communi- 

 cate with a river, or the sea, so that timber could at once be rafted 

 and floated to tlie nearest port, as the heavy charges made by our 

 railways for carrying timber, especially home-grown timber, is the 

 greatest drawback to the profitable realisation of it at the present day. 



Erratum. — On the first page of February number, for Foster read Fisher. 



