362 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ALCOHOL FROM SAWDUST. 
About 2 tons of sawdust are boiled with sulphuric acid for 
three hours, the liquid matter being then extracted by pressure, 
neutralised, left to stand for eighteen hours to cool and clarify, 
and then fermented for four or five days. The resulting alcohol 
is afterwards distilled and rectified; and, making ample allow- 
ance for loss in the latter operation, the yield of spirit is said to 
be about 24 quarts per cwt. of sawdust. Trials made with 
the method on a manufacturing scale are claimed to have 
demonstrated the possibility of working at a profit, and of 
opening up a new industry in timber-producing countries, 
where enormous quantities of sawdust are annually wasted.— 
Country Brewers Gazette. 
Notre oN ReEvIEwW oF Zhe Forester. 
In the kindly and generous criticism given to Zhe Forester in 
Vol. XIX. Part I., I should like to correct an error on p. 228, 
in the passage which says that— 
‘*The author nullifies a great deal of what he has previously said when he 
practically admits that ‘trees grown in our more open woods. . . are, 
although shorter in the bole and rougher in the top, more durable, of greater 
density and greater strength than timber grown closely together, as it is in 
the well-managed Continental and in the primeval virgin forests,’ a fact, at 
least so far as the timber of broad-leaved trees is concerned, which is apt to 
be lost sight of in these days of advocacy of wholesale adoption of Continental 
methods.” 
The opinions above expressed within the quotation marks are 
not the author’s, but are those of Mr Margerison, as contained 
in a written statement handed in to the Departmental Committee 
on Forestry, 1902. The original quotation in Zhe Forester 
continues from near the foot of p. 451 to far down on p. 452 
of vol. ii., where the acknowledgment concerning Mr Margerison 
is made in full. The author’s personal opinions about this 
matter are given on pp. 442 and 443. - iN. 
ABERDEEN BRANCH OF THE SOCIETY. 
On the 18th May 1906 a Branch of the Royal Scottish 
Arboricultural Society for the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and 
Kincardine was formed at Aberdeen. A detailed report of 
the inauguration of the Branch will appear in the Proceedings 
of the Society in due course. 
