206 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
out at £450, or £150 per acre. There is no record of sales 
previous to the aforesaid period, but the returns must have been 
considerable, I should say one-half more. The timber was 
sold standing, by private agreement. 
Four acres of larch, 52 years of age, on a light sandy 
soil, worth about 2s. 6d. per acre for agricultural purposes, sold 
standing, realised £420, or £107, 10s. per acre; and one acre of 
larch on similar soil, 80 years of age, sold standing, realised 
£210. In neither case was there any record of the value of 
intermediate returns. 
The following are particulars of a small plantation on a 
strip of waste land, on a hard chalk and greensand formation, 
with a south-east exposure, which was formed in the autumn 
of 1894. The area was 3 acs. 3 ro. 14 pls., and the crop con- 
sisted of oak and ash, with chiefly larch as nurses. 
Receipts for larch poles sold in 1905, : : £60 io Te 
Cost of plants and labour, é 432 Tie 
Thinning in the spring of 1905, in- 
cluding cost of delivery to station, 
and pruning hardwoods, , : IQ it 3a 
52 2 4 
Leaving a net surplus of . : ; : : 47 18 6 
The value of the crop after thinning, exclusive of hardwoods, 
is £100, which is equal to £160 in the gross for ten years’ 
growth, or about £40 per acre. 
W. STorRIE, 
Whitway House, Newbury, Berks. 
Rooks FEEDING ON PINE BEETLES. 
In the autumn of 1905 my attention was attracted by the 
movements of a flock of rooks among Scots pine trees in a 
wood near my house. The age of the trees (under 30 years), as 
well as the time of year, precluded any idea of nesting operations ; 
yet it was evident the birds had some object in view, as they 
were observed to flit about among the tops of the trees for 
days. For some years the wood had been a good deal infested 
with pine beetle (Hylesinus piniperda), and a little close observa- 
tion of the movements of the rooks revealed the fact that they 
were in search of the beetles, which had taken up their winter 
