Notes and Queries. 439 



also state wlicther good or bad veutilatioD was introduced, aud I guess 

 his conclusions will very much resemble mine. 



Thomas Wilkib, 



AnUd/i//lass,lith SejjfeiiiLer, ls77. Forester. 



SCOTCH FIR. 



Sir, — In passing through a young plantation the other day, two-thirds 

 Scotch fir aud one-third larch, al)OUtnine or ten years old, I noticed several 

 of the Scotch fir dead, and others dying. On examination I found that 

 they had been apparently very healthy until within a few years of their 

 death. Last year's shoots were of an average length, and some even had 

 grown six inches the summer before they had died. I found in several of 

 them some beetles, Hiilunjus piitiperda, but not in sufficient numbers, I 

 thought, to cause. death. The beetles were in the main stem. I could not 

 discover any in the young shoots where they generally attack. On pulling 

 up a tree, however, I found that there was a cankered resinous swelling 

 round the tree, just about, or rather below the level of the soil. On those 

 trees which were quite dead it extended completely round, whilst it only 

 partially encii'cled those which were dying. 



'I here was a heavy crop of Scotch fir and larch ou the ground previous 

 to the present one, but before being planted the second time it was allowed 

 a few years' rest, and then pitted. After the first crop w'as cut off, heather, 

 grass, and bracken sprang up in great abundance, and it is a singular thing 

 that there are fewest dead trees where the heather is most plentiful. 



Have any of your readers noticed a similar occurrence in young Scotch 

 fir plantations ? and can any one tell me the cause of it ? W. B. H. 



Notes and Queries 



\_T/u' Editor requests the assistance of Readers in answering Queries, so 

 that the usefnlness of this Department may be maintained.'] 



H.]\r.S. " Caledonia," &c. — In answer to your correspondent "G. S. 

 B., inquiring as to the success of carbonizing by M. de Lapparent's 

 Ijrocess, I may state that the Z)ra/J, which was substituted for the Spartan, 

 and the Tenedos, referred to in Laslett's " Timber and Timber Trees," were 

 opened for repairs at Sheerness and Devonport dockyards in the spring of 

 the present year, the result being that after a most careful examination no 

 difierence could be detected in the condition of the parts charred in either 

 ship from the others not so treated. — Thos. Lastett. 



Cleaking Plahtation Ground. — The prices of clearing the land 

 referred to by "M. R.." page 862, would greatly depend on the locality in 

 which it is situated, if labour is cheap or not, and if the roots could be sold. 

 In this part of Scotland the work could be performed for £12 per acre, 

 and the roots would realize Id. each. When the roots are not old the best 

 and cheapest mode is trenching, but obstinate roots could be advantage- 



