Chips and Slips. 299 



what distance from each other and from the road-bed, and making the neces- 

 sary rules for their protection, &c. Four years after the planting, upon 

 receiving a duly certified statement of the number then in a thrifty condition, 

 the Board is directed to pay to the cultivator £1 for e:ich such tree. In 

 October, 1872, the State Board of Agriculture called attention of County 

 Supervisors to this Act, and urged them to do what is in their power to en- 

 courage a compliance with its provisions. They advised that the age be fixed 

 from three to eight years from the seed, and the minimum distance between 

 tree and tree at twelve feet, and recommended the planting of the following 

 varieties : black and honey locusts ; black, white, and fruiting mulberries ; 

 Osage orange, native and eastern black walnut ; American chestnut ; American, 

 European, and cork-bark elm; the difierent varieties of maple; tulip-tree; 

 Carolina, Lombardy, and silver-leaf poplars; the difi'erent varieties of ash; 

 apple, pear, plum, cherry, almond, and fig trees ; the Eucalyptus or Austi'alian 

 blue and red gum tree ; Monterey, sugar, yellow, spruce, and Scotch pines ; 

 Norway spruce, balsam fir, European larch, Monterey and Italian cypress, 

 and California laurel ; and redwood. 



TuE Yellow Pines. — The investigations of Professor Sargent show that in 

 all the large lumber centres — Wilmington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York 

 and Boston — "yellow pine" is exclusively applied to the timber of Finus australis 

 (Pirtwsj^aZitsirzs of Lambert). Much of the confusion in "yellow," perhaps, 

 ■arises from the fact that the prevailing " yellow pine " of old lumbermen was 

 P. mitis, which is now rarely (if ever) in market. 



The Timber Line in the various Mountains. — In the Himalayas, trees 

 grow up to a height of 11,800 feet, and there are often forests just below this 

 line. In the Andes the growth of trees ends at 12,130 feet; in the Alps it 

 ends on an avei-age at 6,400 feet, but it is stated that specimens of trees are 

 found above 7,000 feet, but the pasture-grounds in Thibet are known to 

 extend over an elevation of from 15,000 to 16,350 feet. 



Italian Forests. — In a recent report from Venice the forests of Belluna, 

 Udine, and Trento are described as being very extensive, and to possess 

 almost inexhaustible quantities of timber, though more facile means of trans- 

 port are required to bring it into the market. The produce of the pine forests 

 of the mountains of Venetia is sent down in planks, on rafts, along the Piave 

 and other rivers to the port of Venice. The trade in planks is conducted on 

 a very large scale for the supply of railway companies as well as for exporta- 

 tion to the last. Venice is a very important depot for timber on account of 

 its proximity to the rivers Po and Adige, and it is said that a larger stock is 

 probably kept at Venice than at any other port of the Adriatic or Mediter- 

 ranean. 



A Noble Oak. — Mr. Wilson, of Shrewsbury, lately purchased from Colonel 

 Edwards, Great Ness, a fine oak, supposed to be the largest sound tree in 

 Shropshire. At five feet from the ground it measured twenty feet in girth, and 

 with its immense tops it contained upwards of 600 cubic feet of timber, and 

 produced about three tons of bark. The total estimated weight is at least 

 thirty tons. 



Ministries or Agriculture. — We find an article in some of our exchanges, 

 without specified origin, giving the titles of public ofiicers under various 

 governments, having charge of their agricultural interests, alone or in con- 



