NEWS AND NOTES 



449 



gress, 'will be ample to protect all the more 

 important water-power sites undisposed of 

 en the public domain, and enable Congress to 

 intelligently legislate for their disposition.' " 



Va )fe' ^ 



A Conservation Commission for Iowa 



On June 7 Gov. B. F. Carroll named the 

 first state drainage and conservation com- 

 mission that Iowa ever had, in accordance 

 with the law passed by the recent legislature 

 setting aside $5,000 for preliminary steps 

 toward making Iowa rivers navigable. 



By people who are interested in improve- 

 ment of Iowa waterways and the conserva- 

 tion of the state's natural resources, the cre- 

 ation of this board is regarded as the most 

 important act of the legislature. — Des Moines 

 (Iowa) Capital. 



&' ^ ^ 



Favors a Conservation Commission for Canada 



Hon. Clifford Sifton, who represented Can- 

 ada at the International Conference on Re- 

 sources in Washington, is now advocating 

 the appointment of a Canadian commission 

 to carry out the principles promulgated there. 

 He is supported in his campaign by Hon. 

 Sydney Fisher, one of the other Canadian 

 delegates. In his first public address after 

 returning from Washington Mr. Sifton, the 

 other evening, asserted that the preservation 

 of forests called most loudly for action. The 

 creation of a commission, he believed, would 

 give a minister support in carrying out a 

 more aggressive policy. 



)^ )!i ^ 



Conservation of Daylight 



Speaking of "the movement for the con- 

 servation of natural resources through the 

 better utilization of daylight," the Grand 

 Rapids (Mich.) Herald said editorially: 



"The select committee of parliament which 

 gave the pending British bill a unanimously 

 favorable report, 'its advantages far out- 

 weighing any objections thereto,' cite among 

 other such advantages these : Bunching the 

 leisure, especially of wage-earners, at the 

 end of the work day; bettering the health of 

 all classes, and especially the eyesight ; an 

 enormous aggregate saving in expense for 

 artificial light, and materially reduced con- 

 sumption of liquors by reason of more out- 

 door daylight recreation and less resort to 

 drinking places. It also appears from the 

 report of the parliamentary committee that 

 the principle of the measure has the sup- 

 port of the British chambers of commerce 

 in all the principal cities; of the borough 

 councils ; of all the great railroads ; of the 

 general federation of trades unions; of the 

 postoffice department with reference to the 

 handling of all but the relatively small 

 amount of continental mail ; of the press — in 

 fact, a support that is 'surprisingly unani- 

 mous in all quarters, considering the little 



favor with which the proposition was re- 

 ceived by the public when the measure was 

 first introduced.' " 



&' i^ &' 



Forest Fires in Maine 



After all conversation, law, and expendi- 

 ture, enormous tracts of forests in northern 

 Maine are being destroyed by fire. The dis- 

 aster involves farmers as well as lumber- 

 men, for thousands of bushels of potatoes 

 have been prematurely roasted to a cinder. 

 On whom does the responsibility rest? Is 

 not the carelessness of lumbermen and of 

 hunters largely responsible for awful waste 

 of forests? Is not the moral factor of Amer- 

 ican industry minimized by high finance and 

 by the tainted conscience which characterizes 

 not only the sugar trust, but many of us 

 outsiders — -rich and poor — concerned only for 

 the present moment? Though we ignore 

 Him, there may yet be a God in Israel. The 

 first firebrand is the real devil. — Lcwiston 

 (Me.) Journal. 



"ti ^ % 



Bark Affects Penetration of Wood 

 Preservatives 



The Government has gone into the study 

 of every phase of wood preservation. One of 

 the features which has been neglected is the 

 effect of patches of inner bark on wood in 

 preventing .proper penetration of preserva- 

 tives. 



In conducting some tests on the treatment 

 of pine in Louisiana and Alabama, in 1907 

 and 1908, it was noticed that very little or no 

 creosote entered the wood through even the 

 thinnest layer of adhering bark. 



In the creosote treatment of timbers, it is 

 rare that the entire stick is penetrated by 

 the preservative. The value of the treatment 

 consists largely in the creation of an exte- 

 rior antiseptic zone around the untreated 

 interior portion. If this outer zone be broken 

 the value of the treatment is to a large ex- 

 tent lost. 



In the case of piling, the effect of any 

 small portion of untreated wood extending 

 from the outer surface to the interior of 

 the pile is especially injurious, because of 

 the manner in which teredoes work. This 

 parasite enters the wood when small, mak- 

 ing but a tiny hole, perhaps no larger than 

 a pinhead. As teredoes grow, they increase 

 the size of their borings, and, if present in 

 large numbers, they will very quickly so 

 riddle and weaken a pile that it will break 

 off with a very slight strain. Access to the 

 interior of a treated pile might readily be 

 gained through small, untreated portions of 

 the outer surface of the wood, which, be- 

 cause of bark adhering at time of treatment, 

 absorbed no preservative, with the result 

 that all of the interior untreated portion 

 vyould be riddled, leaving only the exterior 

 creosoted shell sound. It is probable that 



