Editor s Box. 429 



which oak and acacia are the best, and birch and beech the worst — be sure 

 the wood is sound and seasoned, without sap in it; when ready to fix up? 

 burn so as to char the surface of the post for about eighteen inches, nine 

 inches above the ground line and as much below ; while the post is 

 still hot well saturate the burnt part with warm coal tar,^aud let it stand a 

 few days to harden. The post hole should be large enough to ram the 

 earth well all round it, especially at the part resting on the ground, using 

 clay if possil:)le. When fixed to within nine inches of the ground, level, and, 

 to the width of the rammer all round the post, shovel in a mixture of 

 mortar or any cement more tenacious than the soil itself. Spurs are only 

 requisite here and there to help where there is extra strain on the fence. They 

 must be served the same as the posts. Tar afresh every four or five years. 

 One Avay of patching fencing where the posts have broken off, l)ut are 

 sound above and below the ground, is to saw out the decayed parts, say 

 four inches, and lower the fence that much, driving down and nailing by 

 the side of it a good oak or acacia slab, and on the other side nail a 

 straightened out tyre "strake" on to the broken post, ramming clay or 

 mortar well round it. 



An Old Forester. 



THE CULLEN PRICES. 



Sir, — I am glad to see that my friend and neighbour Mr. Smyth is again 

 well, and able to enliven your pages. As an intelligent practical man, 

 a,nd not far distant, he should know not only the fact itself, but the 

 reasons why ceiUi n Rinds and classes of timber, and other descriptions 

 of wood prcduce, are higher at Culleu than any other part of Scotland, 

 probably of Britain. This is neither a new nor a strange thing, for in 

 186G, the year I came to Cullen, a transaction had just taken place 

 before I came by which higher prices (considerably) were effected than 

 those I quoted. If Mr. Smyth would turn up some of the back numbers 

 of the Banffshire Journal, where our auction sale prices are quoted (not by 

 me), he wiU then find corroborative proof of my statement in regard to 

 prices. 



Mr. Hendry, auctioneer, Keith, has been salesman since the decease of 

 Mr. Eaeburn, and he will, I doubt not, confirm what I have said as 

 to prices. Mr. William Smith, Mr. W. Mcintosh, Mr. George Slater, 

 Mr. George Smith, boatbuilders, Portessie by Buckie, and a score of others 

 I could name, can all testify to having bought and paid for timber here at 

 the prices quoted, not once or twice, but regularly as the sales occurred, 

 I need not, however, prolong the discussion on its present basis, since 

 what I have quoted as correct and true prices realized here have not 

 been denied by Mi-. Smyth, but only carped and cavilled at in a rather 

 undignified manner. If Mr. Smyth has proved that no such prices are 

 obtained at Cullen because they are not obtained at Banff or Macduff, by 

 the same parity of reasoning I might prove that no Colorado beetle ever 



