The Forestry Commission Journal was introduced as a way to communicate information on a wide range of topics which could not be communicated through ‘ordinary official channels’, and was intended to be a means of exchanging the opinions and experiences of all members of the staff.

This twenty-fourth Journal includes information on:

The forests of Sicily; A tour of French forests; Fourth World Forestry Congress Dehra Dun, India — December 1954; A note on forestry in Northern Ireland; Alice Holt Forest: contributions to its history; The Benmore Forest Garden; Larch plantations at Atholl and Dunkeld; Collection of lodgepole pine seed from British Crops; Variation in branch form in the progeny of individual Japanese larch trees; Whence those hops?; Notes on ploughing equipment; Establishment of hardwoods in Scotland; Notes on planting periods and resultant percentage of failure; Treatment of felled broadleaved areas in the Midlands; Tree growth on acid soil; Planting Corsican pine in trenches ploughed in sand; Watten experimental area, Caithness; Lime-induced chlorosis of Corsican pine at Friston Forest, Sussex; Grey squirrel enquiry; Monetary return from thinning a thirteen-year old Japanese larch stand at Allerston Forest; Hints on the care and use of axes; Mobile accommodation units;

Converting a motorcycle to carry two knapsack fire pumps;

The pannier bag carriers on a motorcycle of the Triumph make, type T R W .499 c.c., can readily be converted to take two knapsack pumps for fire-fighting, as follows:

Remove pannier bags, bolt a metal sheet the size of knapsack pump on the base of carrier with a two-inch flange on the outside, with two eyes to hold straps taken from pumps. The straps will then pass up and over the top of pump and fasten together from each side above the mudguard carrier. Remove foot plate from pump, this will give a proper setting in the pannier bag carriers. A sponge rubber fitted on the inside of the pump filling cover will give a water-tight seal, so that water will not splash out when the motorcycle shakes.

Every effort should be made to keep the pumps full to capacity to get a good balance with the motor-cycle shakes.

A handy staple extractor; A cone splitter for seed sampling; A vanishing craft, “AESCULUS”; The future of homegrown softwoods; The thinnings house, timber development association; Notes on homegrown timber and its use on the farm; The preservative treatment of timber; Newsprint production at Sittingbourne, Kent; District Officer home Forestry Commission: to be or not to be?; Preliminary working plan reports; Newcomers to Northumberland forest villages; Glenmore Lodge. Scottish council of physical recreation; The work of the nature conservancy; Bird notes from Lynford Hall; British Bryological Society field excursion, Arnside, Westmorland; A note on the ecology of the limestone pavement in Westmorland; Reflections; Book review: in the Western Highlands; Norwegian idyll; Seventeenth century forestry on a Hertfordshire estate; Ornamentals.