Editors Box. 63 



SUGGESTIONS. 



Sir, — I am glad a gap long felt by every practical forester is now to be 

 filled up, viz., the starting of a Journal of Forestry and Estates Manage- 

 ment. A journal on arboriculture will act centripetally and centrifiigally, 

 concentrating and circulating views, opinions, and suggestions, affording 

 each forester an opportunity of comparing and contrasting his own personal 

 ideas and experience with those of others. Forestry has long been looked 

 upon as a mere mechanical art, requiring no other training than is neces- 

 sary to be an expert at felling trees. Practical forestry is a science dis- 

 tinctly elevated above all that is fanciful, and may be defined as the art of 

 producing the greatest quantity possible, of the most valuable kind of 

 timber, on a given area of ground; or in other words, the science of utilizing 

 the soil, and increasing its value under a crop of timber to a maximum 

 point at a minimum expenditure. 



Practical experience, no doubt, is an excellent teacher, but no man can 

 from practice alone acquire that amount of knowledge he may possess in a 

 short time by perusing the written opinions of others. However much may 

 be our own personal knowledge, from others we can cull hints, which, if 

 properly applied, will be found permanently useful. A competent forester 

 is not to be found ready made ; he must go through a course of instruction 

 before he can appreciate the laws which govern vegetable productions, their 

 generic qualities and growth. No better medium can be found than a 

 journal on forestry. It will act as a gatherer, a snapper-up, and a recorder 

 cf many useful hints, and when generally known will be found an in- 

 valuable auxiliary to the practical arboriculturist. 



The members of the Scottish Arboricultural Society are scattered far and 

 wide b}' mountain, stream, and sea. They have no opportunity of express- 

 ing an opinion on any subject. Now, argument is accompanied with 

 beneficial results when conducted openly through the press ; it dispels 

 delusions and prejudices, and fosters a desire after information. Much 

 could be written on the benefits, practically and theoretically, which forestry 

 will receive by the starting of this Journal, and the enterprise ought to 

 receive the support of every forester, estate manager, and landowner in 

 Great Biitain. 



In conclusion, permit me to suggest that the Journal must be compre- 

 hensive and exhaustive, including all matters connected with arbori- 

 culture and the management of landed estates, with the kindred subjects 

 of agriculture, horticulture, geology, chemistry, botany, natural history, 

 and occasional papers on other subjects, which will render the undertaking 

 ii complete success. The necessity for such subjects being treated in a 

 Journal of Forestry will sufilciently suggest itself — I am, sir, yours 

 faithfully, 



David Sym Scott, 



JBaltinacoiirt, Tipperary. Forester. 



April 9, 1877. 



EOMAN CEMENT FOR BATTING. 



Sii^^_In the last issue of the Transactions of the Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society there is a report on the deleterious effects of sulphur upon iron fencing. 

 A better material for batting iron into stone than either sulphur or lead is 

 ■what is called here Eoman cement. The stone of which it is made is found 



