NOTES AND COMMENT 



The receipts of the National Forests for the past fiscal year exceeded 

 those of the previous year by more than $600,000, and reached a total 

 of $3,450,000. This sum is chiefly derived from the nearly equal 

 sources of timber sales and grazing permits, with a small income from 

 permits for water-power development. The cost of operating the 

 forests remained approximately the same as in the preceding year at 

 $4,000,000. The gradually increasing receipts give a basis to the hope 

 that the National Forests will become self-supporting in the course of 

 a few more years. During the last fiscal year the cutting of timber was 

 more active and the number of cattle and sheep given pasturage was 

 raised from 9,600,000 to 9,900,000, with slightly increased fees for 

 grazmg. The careful supervision that has been given to grazing oper- 

 ations in the National Forests for a number of years has resulted in 

 such greatly improved conditions that it was deemed safe to allow an 

 increase in the amount of stock pastured during the past summer as 

 a war emergency measure. 



Dr. H. C. Cowles and Dr. George D. Fuller, of the University of 

 Chicago, have been engaged in a study of the dunes of Lake Michigan 

 and have an extended publication on this subject in preparation. The 

 younger dunes near the south end of the lake are the ones that have 

 heretofore received the closest study, whereas the present investiga- 

 tion has been largety among the older stabilized dunes of the northern 

 shores of the Michigan side of the lake, some of which bear the highest 

 type of mesophytic forest. 



In continuation of the series of bulletins on the trees of the Rocky 

 Mountain region, Mr. George B. Sudworth has issued a treatment of 

 the pines (Department of Agriculture, Bull. 460) similar to that of the 

 junipers and cypresses which appeared some months ago. Fourteen 

 species are described and illustrated and small maps are given show- 

 ing their geographical ranges. 



John Wiley and Sons announce the appearance of a second edition 

 of Dr. Henry Kraemer's Applied and Economic Botany. This book 

 is designed for use in technical and agricultural schools, and for students 

 of pharmacy, medicine, and the chemistry of foods. 



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