62 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIKTY, 



scales and needles, chaflf, resin, and other debris. So it must 

 undergo one more operation, which consists in running it 

 through the fanning mill. The clean seed is stored in large 

 air-tight cans, ready to be shipped to the various localities in 

 the national forests in need of re-stocking with lodgepole pines. 



" Approximately one hundred bushels of cones are cleaned 

 ■every twenty-four hours during the extracting process. Three 

 bushels of lodgepole pine cones are usually required to produce 

 one pound of clean seed. A bushel of Douglas fir cones may 

 yield one pound of seed ; a bushel of yellow pine cones one and 

 a half pound of seed ; and a bushel of white fir cones four and 

 .a half pounds of seed." 



Snapping of Elm Branches. 



A lady in Essex writes to me as follows : — " All this summer 

 large limbs have been falling off the elm trees here, for no 

 apparent reason, and with no sort of warning. It is most 

 ■dangerous. The same thing has been happening to the cedars, 

 ■which must be looo {sic) years old, I suppose. It is so sad 

 to see them go; can any one explain it?" I am unable to 

 ■ offer any explanation. Can any of your readers give me one? 



W. M. Price. 



Douglas Fir {Fseudotsuga Donglasii) in Banffshire. 



It may be of interest to members of the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society to read the following notes of five 

 Douglas firs that were cut recently at Forglen House, the 

 property of Sir G. W. Abercromby, Bart, of Birkenboy and 

 Forglen. 



The firs were planted about forty-seven years ago, according 

 to the annual rings on the roots. It was found necessary to 

 have them removed, as they had been planted quite close to a 

 stone and rail fence around the mausoleum, and the swelling 

 of the roots were damaging the fence. 



The trees were not, from a silvicultural point of view, marketable 

 timber, as they were practically heavily branched to the ground, 

 and the timber produced was very knotty. 



As will be seen in the column of total heights two of the trees 

 were much shorter than the others. Some time ago they suffered 



