Forest Fibes in America. — The news from America of late tells of dreadful 

 ravages of forest fires iu the New England States, and the States of New- 

 Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and also in Canada and New 

 Brunswick ; in fact, there appears to be almost a continuous conflagration of 

 the forests throughout the north-east part of the United States and the lower 

 parts of Canada. The railway traffic is interrupted in many places, and a 

 great number of dwelling-houses, farms, mills, &c., destroyed, causing great 

 suffering and destitution amongst the rural population. The favourite summer 

 hotels on the White Mountains, in New Hampshire, are in great danger of 

 being consumed, large portions of the surrounding forests being in a blaze. 

 The air is filled with fire and dense smoke, and the whole counti'y is brilliantly 

 illuminated at night by the glare of the flames. 



Lovers oe noble trees, and especially of those which have artistic associa- 

 tions, observes the Athenceum, will regret to learn that one of the magnificent 

 elms in front of the Manor House at Chiswick, a tree which Pope and Hogarth 

 must have known quite well, and which the latter drew in the etching styled 

 "Mr. Ranby's House at Chiswick," was blown down in a late gale. Mr. Ranby 

 was Serjeant-Surgeon to the king; he attended Sir R. Walpole in his last 

 illness, and is said to have sat to Hogarth for the hero of " A Rake's Progress," 

 probably in the marriage scene. He was much in the coirfidence of George 

 J I., and attended at the battle of Dettiugen; he is often mentioned in memoirs 

 of the time, and was buried in Chelsea Hospital, near Cheselden. 



Erratum. — Mr. James Gordon, of Rossdhu, writes us that a mistake occurred 

 in the Table of Comparative Prices published in our last issue. He says that he 

 did not intend to represent the Rossdhu Estate as realizing £4 for larch bark 

 to be *' cut and peeled by purchaser." Though a good deal of larch is peeled 

 annually on the estate, it is done to lighten the carriage of the wjod ; conse- 

 quently larch is not sold for barking purposes ; but as the barking of it is 

 amply repaid by the price the bark realizes, and as the cost of conveying the 

 wood to market is thereby greatly diminished, a little more is naturally 

 expected for the wood when selling it to be cut during the barking season. 



The Banffshire Journal says that the young trees in about two a.cres of a 

 plantation at Tomsfores, Kintore, Aberdeenshire, were recently destroyed by 

 fire. It is supposed that the fire may have been caused by a spark from a 

 railway engine. 



Prices of Timber at North Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire. — Except- 

 ing cordwood, home-grown timber has sold well this spring, especially larch of 

 moderate dimensions. The price of pitwood ranges from 18s. to 28s. per ton 

 according to quality; cordwood is difficult to sell at from 12s. to 14s., so iu some 

 cases where cartage is heavy barely pays expenses ; bark sells readily from 

 £'5 to £6 per ton, and judging from present signs is likely to maintain its 

 price; alder for dogwood sells from 7d. to 9d. per foot ; ash being scarce sells 

 from Is. to 2s. per foot ; oak timber of good quality being difficult to obtain, 

 sells from Is. 2d. to 2s. 6d. acording to qualitj- and dimensions.— Z). P. Davies. 



