6o TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



plant can be carried on a truck to any point on the line where 

 it is required, whereas other forms of antiseptic treatment often 

 need large and expensive establishments. Experiments are also 

 being made with green oil, cresoyle, phenol, and hylinite. 

 Green oil can be used cold, though it is better to heat it. It is 

 said to be a most excellent antiseptic, and is even useful when 

 merely painted on. It costs only 20 centimes the kilo., and so 

 far as can be judged a sleeper will only cost 15 centimes to treat. 

 Another set of experiments, instituted to find a simple and 

 cheap preservative, has now been in force at the Nancy School for 

 some five years. Fir, pine, oak, beech, and poplar have been 

 tested. After drying they were simply immersed in the various 

 preservatives, heated to 140° F., for one day, and then buried 

 in manure and in vegetable mould with the upper face exposed 

 to the air. Other pieces were placed in a mine gallery. After 

 5 years the fir, pine, oak, and even the beech and poplar, which 

 rot so easily when exposed, were perfectly sound when treated 

 with Carbolineuni or Microsol. The untreated pieces of beech 

 and poplar were completely done for before the third year. 

 The untreated pieces of the other species were also in very bad 

 condition — even the heart-wood of the oak and pine showing 

 signs of decomposition. In the case of gas tar it was found 

 that wherever there was the slightest crack decomposition had 

 set in, although the surface of the treated pieces appeared to 

 be in perfect condition. In the future a number of other 

 preservatives are to be tried, and with them the Powell process, 

 which claims to be white-ant proof 



3. It is said that the Merulius lacrytnatis (dry rot) is only to 

 be found in damp, shaded, unventilated places. The mycelia of 

 Merulius will die if exposed for some hours to the sun, but 

 inside the attacked wood the fungus still lives. The spore, 

 moreover, will withstand the action of prolonged sunlight, and 

 has great vitality. But it cannot germinate except in a 

 damp place, " and," adds M. Mena, " under the action of an 

 alkali." He quotes two very striking cases to prove this, and 

 we may mention one. A building, fifty years old, situated in a 

 foggy place near a stream, had previous to being rebuilt in 1888 

 never been touched by dry rot. The wood used for the re- 

 newal was perfectly dry, and of first quality. The floor was well 

 ventilated below, but in order to give a sort of drainage, and to 

 keep things dry, a layer of cinders was spread below. In three 



