NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE .VOTES 187 



most extensively planted. There are great possibilities of rubber for pave- 

 ments for roadways The rubber pavement, under the archwav leading to 

 Euston Station in London was laid down in 1881 and in 1902 was found to 

 have worn down to 5 g inch in the thinnest places. This pavement cost less 

 than three times as much as wood or asphalt; but the life of wood or asphalt 

 is 4 years, while the life of the rubber is 20 years. [From the India Rubber 

 World.'] 



J. B. 



Serpents of Pennsylvania. A large pamphlet with this title has been 

 prepared bv Professor H. A. Surface, State Zoologist, and published bv the 

 Pennsylvania State Department of Agriculture. It fullv treats structure, 

 classification, life-historv and economic relations of all species found in the 

 State. 



Cedar Wood for Lead Pencils. The lead pencil is one of the most 

 common articles in everyday use, and nearly 320,000,000 pencils are 

 manufactured in this country every year. To manufacture these millions of 

 pencils there are required I 10,000 tons, or 7,300,000 cubic feet, of wood, 

 so that each dav in the vear 300 tons, or 20,000 cubic feet, of wood are 

 used for pencils. Since practically all of the wood is red cedar, and since the 

 pencil industry is steadily growing, the supply of red cedar is greatly depleted; 

 vet no substitute has been found for it. Leaving out of consideration the 

 imported pencils, the average educated American over 10 years of age uses 

 six pencils of home manufacture each year. Ten years ago he used less than 

 five. 



Red cedar has a soft, straight grain, and when grown under best conditions 

 is very free from defects. Because of its peculiar qualities no equally good 

 substitute for it has ever been found, and it is doubtful if any other wood- 

 using industry is so dependent upon a single species as the pencil industry is 

 dependent upon red cedar. In fact, red cedar suitable for pencil manufacture 

 is the only wood the price of which is always quoted by the pound. 



Strange as it may seem, no steps have heretofore been taken to provide for 

 a future supplv of red cedar. This has been largely due to a lack of informa- 

 tion on the rate of growth and the habits of the tree, and to the widespread 

 belief that second-growth red cedar never reaches merchantable size. 



In accordance with its policy toward the conservation and economic use 

 of commercial woods, the Forest Service has made a careful study of red 

 cedar and has come to the conclusion that it can profitably be grown in 

 regions of its development. Several changes are recommended in present 

 forest management in order to secure the desired growth. In the southern 



