PINE SOILS OF POOR QUALITY. 6;^ 



was able to gain complete evidence of this in a forest 

 territory where this system had been in operation for decades. 

 Consequent ill effects from insect attack or fire danger have, 

 according to the author, not been observed. If the thinning is 

 done in late autumn the brush will have become so saturated 

 with water during the winter that the danger from fire is very 

 much reduced, even in the case of extended dry periods in 

 spring. On the other hand the author recommends, and rightly 

 so, that for safety a cleared strip about 10-12 yards wide 

 should be formed along much frequented roads. 



"If this precaution is observed (especially by the side of 

 railway lines), together with thinning in late autumn, which 

 reduces the insect danger, then the system recommended by the 

 author is reasonably safe, and is of unquestionable value as 

 regards the water-content of poor sandy soils. Cieslar (in 

 the Centralblatt fur dis gasamte Forstwesen, 1893, s. 24) has 

 also shown that the effect of a soil covering, even with dry 

 plant remains, is extremely favourable, and that the covering (of 

 nursery beds) with moss (of not more than at most 2 inches 

 in depth) has at least the same effect as weeding, spraying with 

 water, and loosening of the soil combined." 



A. W. B. 



10. Note regarding a Sitka Spruce Tree at 

 Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire. 



On 20th December 1920, the Editor received the following 

 communication from Sir Hugh Shaw Stewart : — 



"The head forester, Mr Garrett, recently discovered two 

 Sitka spruce trees growing in the woods on the above estate 

 under forest conditions. I girthed one, at breast-height, to be 

 114 inches, and the other 96^^ inches. 



" I knew that these trees must have been, with other kinds 

 of exotic conifers, grown from seed brought over by my uncle, 

 the late Lord Stalbridge, in i860. As these trees had out- 

 grown their neighbours (silver fir and common spruce) in 

 height and girth within sixty years, I thought it would be 

 be worth while to obtain permission from my mother to have 

 one felled. I then communicated with one of the Forestry 

 Commissioners, Mr Robinson, who was much interested. At 



