Forest Work for the Month. 265 



All branches encroaching on the sides of walks or drives should be 

 cut in, and those which are hanging too lar down from overhead 

 should be shortened with a knife or light pruning-hook. 



The extraordinary growth of nettles, and other rank forms of 

 vegetation, this season is sure to choke up the open drains in plan- 

 tations, if they are not cut and forked out to a safe distance from the 

 drain. A common reaping-hook fastened into a handle five feet long 

 is a capital implement to use for this work, as a man can use it with 

 great freedom and ease, even amongst the strongest nettles in thick 

 plantations. 



It is to be hoped that all the bark ranges will be cleared by this 

 time, and when they are taken down make sure that every stob hole 

 is beat full of soil, more especially if the ranges have stood on drives, 

 or any place where horses are likely to pass over, as one of these 

 holes is quite enough to endanger the life of both the horse and his 

 rider. Egbert Baxter, 



Dalkeith Park. Fores'er. 



lEELAND. 

 The chief point in rural economy is to utilize the local products to 

 the best advantage ; hence the importance of fully comprehending 

 local requirements. Forestry, above all otlier branches of rural in- 

 dustry, requires to be reduced to a system, the success of which 

 depends entirely on the skill, judgment, and tact of the forester- 

 No competent forester will neglect surrounding circumstances ; and in 

 Ireland, where farm labour occupies most of the farmers' attention 

 during the summer months, sales of timber if held would be but 

 poorly attended. The hay being all saved, and the after grass 

 requiring fencing, the end of this month will be found a very good 

 time to have an auction of small thinnings suitable for paling and 

 stack-yard purposes generally. Timber suitable for those purposes 

 is the only material which ought to be exposed for sale by auction at 

 present. Heavier trees may be marked at the same time, and felled 

 later on in the season, when such stuff is more in request. At all 

 auction sales the material offered ought never to be in excess of the 

 demand, and to guard against this, and at the same time to increase 

 the number of customers, shows the forester's ability. Public 

 auctions, so far as we have seen, are rather loosely conducted, and to 

 assist such as may choose to follow our system we will give an outline 

 of our practice. As commonly done, we select and arrange tlie timber 

 into lots, keeping each size, kind, and qualit}' distinctly separate. An 

 auctioneer is engaged, and the whole sold under certain " conditions," 

 which are audibly read at the beginning of the sale. Purchaser pays, 

 in addition to his bidding, five per cent, as auction fee ; the auctioneer 



