372 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Coal Companies Protect Forests 

 Organization of the Forest Protective 

 Association for the hard coal region of 

 Pennsylvania has been completed, and 

 application made to Chief Forest Fire 

 Warden Wirt for a form of charter. 

 The following officers have been elected: 

 President, H. C. Mason, of the Lehigh 

 and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company; N'ice- 

 President, A. C. Neumiller, forester for 

 the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 

 pany; Secretary and Treasurer, H. C. 

 Wiener, forester for the Lehigh Valley 

 Coal Company. Directors: H. B. Fell, 

 of the Wyoming Valley W'ater Company; 

 L. W. Conrad, of the P. and R. Coal and 

 Iron Company; H. A. Christian, of the 

 New Jersey Zinc Company; E. A. Petti- 

 bone, of the D. and H. Coal Company; 

 Col. James Archbald, Superintendent Girard 

 listate; P. VV. Lance, of the Spring Brook 

 Water Company ; and R. C. Coombe, of 

 Tamaqua. 



The charter will be modelled after the 

 one under which a similar association is 

 now operating in the Poconos. The 

 association will operate over about 

 500,000 acres of forest land, covering 

 practically all of the anthracite region 

 between the Susquehanna and the 

 Schuylkill. 



Under Forestry Management 

 The Empire State Forest Products 

 Association, made up of prominent New 

 York lumbermen and paper manufac- 

 turers who control a total area of one 

 million two hundred thousand acres of 

 timberland in that state, has decided to 

 establish a rational and constructive sys- 

 tem of forestry for handling these lands. 

 The first step taken was the securing of 

 Professor A. B. Recknagel, of the Fores- 

 try Department at Cornell University, as 

 forester. He has been given a year's 

 leave from his duties at Cornell and will 

 establish headquarters for the associa- 

 tion at Albany, starting the work at once. 

 In taking up this work. Professor Reck- 

 nagel will have the benefit of years of 

 practical training and experience in simi- 

 lar work for the government in the 

 United States Forest Service, coupled 

 with four years' experience in teaching 

 forestry at Cornell University. He has 

 specialized in forest management and is 

 the author of a book on " The Theory 

 and Practice of Working Plans," the 

 second edition of which has recently 

 appeared from the press of John Wiley 

 and Sons, of New York. He is a grad- 

 uate of Yale University in the class of 1904 

 and of Yale Forest School two years 

 later. Subsequently he spent a year in 

 study and travel abroad. 



Levison Resigns 



J. J. Levison, B.A., A.F., has resigned 

 his position as Forester of the City 

 of New York to give all his time to his 

 private practice as consulting landscape 



forester and arboriculturist. Mr. Levison 

 has been associated with the park depart- 

 ment of Greater New York for the past 

 eleven years and has been instrumental 

 in improving tree conditions there. During 

 llie past few years he has written a good 

 many interesting articles on tree conditions 

 for Americ.\n Forestry. 



State Game Protection 

 " New Mexico Game Protective Asso- 

 ciation wins fight for a 100 per cent 

 game warden," is the terse way Robert 

 E. Dietz, Secretary of that Association, 

 sums up the results of the campaign of 

 New Mexico sportsmen to save the fast 

 dwindling game supply through honest, 

 competent handling. Tlic campaign 

 lasted over six months and resolved it- 

 self into a running fight between the 

 sportsmen and hostile political influences. 

 Public opinion was so thoroughly 

 stirred up and the Association's position 

 was so irrefutably sound, however, that 

 the appointment of a competent w'arden, 

 " skilled in matters pertaining to fish and 

 game " as the state law requires, was se- 

 cured despite the opposition. 



" Heretofore we have had more law- 

 breakers than game," says Mr. Dietz. 

 " Now we hope for sudden failure of the 

 crop of game hogs and a chance for the 

 game to come back." 



A Forest Play 

 A picturesque and appealing little play 

 for children is " The Spirit of the Forest," 

 liy Miss Margaret Dadmun. It not only 

 furnishes fun and entertainment for a cast 

 of from forty to fifty little ones, but car- 

 ries a real lesson in conservation which, 

 presented in this way, is bound to be effect- 

 ive and to make its indelible impression, not 

 only on the audience but on the players as 

 well. It is written around Gerta, a little 

 peasant girl of ten, and Wilfred, her 

 lirothcr, a little older, and their experience 

 in an ancient grove of trees suddenly en- 

 chanted by the Spirit of the Forest — a fairy 

 and her attendant train, who gives to each 

 tree a voice to speak and tell of his love 

 and special service for mankind — a service 

 repaid by neglect and cruel destruction, as 

 tlie lines go on to say, until the eyes of man 

 are opened by the lack of rain and the 

 drooping and death of the trees, since the 

 Raindrops come no more. Their King — the 

 mighty oak — is slain and felled by man, 

 and the Trees have given up hope when the 

 Spirit of the Forest returns, bringing the 

 Raindrops and Sunbeams, Fairies and Elves 

 with her — and new life to the forest 

 through the Little Oaks which spring up 

 from the freshly moistened earth to carry 

 on the work of serving man. The cos- 

 tuming and grouping of the children in the 

 various parts is very effective and is made 

 more so by the interpolation of appropriate 

 nnisical selections to carry along the spirit 

 of the play. 



We like " TTie Spirit of the Forest " and 

 wish to congratulate Miss Dadmun on her 

 work. We shall be glad to refer inquiries 

 regarding it to her, and hope that it will 

 be widely read and used. 



Liberty Trees of Andorra 



Tliat the graceful v.istaria which adorns 

 so many of the lovely homes in German- 

 town, Chestnut Hill, and Mount Airy, 

 Philadelphia, traces its origin, together 

 with quaint Wistar Street, to Richard 

 Wistar, founder of the large Andorra es- 

 tate, is probably unknown to many of the 

 residents of this charming suburban sec- 

 tion, and it is also probably a little known 

 fact that clustered around the name An- 

 dorra are some of the quaintest legends of 

 the Pyrenees. Particularly interesting to 

 patriotic Americans is the story that the 

 natives of Andorra plant in their public 

 squares, not flag-poles surmounted by flags, 

 but trees which they call " Liberty Trees." 

 In these days of conservation in every de- 

 partment of animal, horticultural, and 

 agricultural activity, too much emphasis 

 cannot be placed on the importance of tree 

 planting. " Arbor Day " comes only once a 

 year, and too little publicity is given this 

 subject. Trees, ornamental and comfort- 

 giving as they are, are most valuable as 

 conservers of soil moisture. Potato plant- 

 ing in these days of national crisis is un- 

 doubtedly a patriotic act, but a closely re- 

 lated task is that of tree planting, and it 

 would not be a bad idea to supplement the 

 popular liberty loan with the planting of 

 liberty trees. 



Foresters Enlist 



At the present time the New York State 

 College of Forestry is represented in the 

 dift'erent branches of the Army and Navy 

 to the following extent : Six men have en- 

 listed in the Naval Reserve Corps : ten 

 have seen Border Service and are still with 

 the Cavalry, Infantry, or Artillery Service; 

 seven have enlisted in the above branches 

 since the outbreak of the war, and between 

 40 and 50 will attend the Officers' Training 

 Camp at Madison Barracks. New York. 



The College also maintains a company in 

 the Syracuse University Regiment. Pro- 

 fessor H. B. Waha is captain of the com- 

 pany, and the other commissioned officers 

 are Professor R. P. Prichard and Professor 

 H. H. Tryon. 



A Course in Lumbering 



A short course in lumbering, designed 

 to meet the demand for a brief and prac- 

 tical training with special emphasis on 

 the engineering aspect of the subject, 

 has been inaugurated at the (jcorgia 

 State College of Agriculture at Athens, 

 Georgia. It prepares men for such posi- 

 tions as cruiser or surveyor, yard boss, 

 scaler, or woods foreman with lumber 

 companies, or for the position of Forest 

 Ranger in the Government service. 



