112 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



by fire brought against any railway company unless notice of 

 claim and particulars of damage, in writing, shall have been sent 

 to the railway company within seven days of the occurrence of 

 the damage as regards the notice of claim, and within fourteen 

 days as regards the particulars of damage. 



" Light railways and tramways worked by steam power are 

 within the scope of the Act." 



In connection with the above circular, it may be interesting 

 to note the provisions of the French Forest Code for the protec- 

 tion of woods and forests, including those privately owned, from 

 damage by fire. 



Section 148 of the Code reads thus :— " It is forbidden to 

 carry fire or to light a fire in the interior of, and within a distance 

 of 200 metres from woods and forests, under penalty of a fine 

 of from 20 to 100 francs (i6s. to ^£4) ; without prejudice, in case 

 of a conflagration, to other penalties which may be incurred 

 under the Penal Code, and to liability for damage done, if any." 

 F. B. 



The Douglas Fir in Germany. 

 We have received from Mr John Booth a short note on the 

 Douglas fir in relation to root-destroying fungi {Mitteil. d. 

 Deutschen Dendrologischen Gesellschaft, 16, 1907). In June 1907 

 the Minister for Agriculture, Woods, and Forests (Landwirt- 

 schaft, Domanen u. Forsten) in Germany drew the attention 

 of foresters to the value of the Douglas fir, and the desirability 

 of planting it more extensively. This recommendation was 

 based especially upon the value of the wood, but the object 

 of the note referred to is to call attention to the value of the 

 tree from another point of view also. In the first place, a 

 comparison of Douglas fir and Scots pine grown together on 

 very poor ground at the experimental Station of Siilldorf, 

 Holstein, shows that the former is much more resistant to 

 unfavourable soil conditions than the latter, and that it also 

 ameliorates the soil of moors, by inducing an active bacterial 

 growth, not produced by the action of the pine on the same 

 substratum. Further, in the Liineburger Heide, the Douglas fir 

 develops a perfect root-system in ground where both Scots 

 pine and Weymouth pine show root-rot, and at Siilldorf per- 

 fectly sound specimens of the Douglas fir occur in a plantation 

 of Scots pine dying of root-rot, in soil which is apparently 



