Mr. G. S. Hartig, in the ‘Revue Horticole,’ gives the results of experiments made with great care and patience, upon woods buried in the earth. Pieces of wood of various kinds 3⅛th inches square, were buried about one inch below the surface of the ground, and they decayed in the following order: the lime, American birch, alder, and the trembling-leaved poplar, in three years; the common willow, horse-chestnut, and plane, in four years; the maple, red beech, and common birch, in five years; the elm, ash, hornbeam, and Lombardy poplar, in six years; the oak, Scotch fir, Weymouth pine, and silver fir, were only decayed to the depth of half an inch in seven years; the larch, common juniper, red cedar, and arbor vitæ, at the end of the last-mentioned period remained uninjured. The duration of their respective woods greatly depends on their age and quality; specimens from young trees decaying much quicker than those from sound old trees; and, when well seasoned, they, of course, last much longer than when buried in an unseasoned state. In experiments with the woods cut into thin boards, decay proceeded in the following order: the plane, horse-chestnut, poplar, American birch, red beech, hornbeam, alder, ash, maple, silver fir, Scotch fir, elm, Weymouth pine, larch, locust oak. Before quitting the subject of decay of timber when buried in the earth, it will not be out of place to allude to the decay of railway sleepers, taking for example those in India: English and American sleepers will be dealt with more in detail hereafter.