472 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



going to waste augnients the amount of food that can be 

 spared for export. By providing its own winter stores 

 through canning or drying the household rechices the de- 

 mands which it must make on the open market. Every- 

 thing stored on the pantry slielf or saved from waste is 

 a factor in releasing other edibles for transmission to 

 war-ridden Europe. Conservation thus becomes a dis- 

 tinct service to the nation and to those who are engaged 

 with us in the fight for Democracy. Its practice is a 

 ])atriotic duly and in this time of war no true .American 

 can afford to do less than his full share in bringing alioul 

 100 per cent efficiency in the use of tlie foodstuffs with 

 which nature has rewarded the labors of the .'soldiers 

 of the Soil. 



'i"o encourage, stimulate and render easy the ])ractice 

 of food thrift through Home Canning and Home Drying 

 the National Emergency Food Garden Commission is 

 bending its every energy and resource. In tiie various 

 ramifications of the undertaking the Commission has 

 had in mind the one vital fact that a nation at war is 

 a nation with a food problem. This problem is funda- 

 mental. Its solution is essential to success at arms. With 

 all Europe aflame, her fields devastated and fruitless and 

 her population engaged in the ])ursuits of war. .\nierica 

 is confronted not merely with the obligation to feed 

 itself, but to feed its allies as well. The world supply 

 of food is abnormally short. If victory is to be achieved 

 in the battle for democracy America's food wealth must 

 be thriftily and intelligently utilized. ,\rtnies cannot fight 

 unless well fed. Countries at war cannot give their 

 armies adequate sup|)ort if the iKinu- ])c)|)ulatiiin is weak- 

 ened by hunger and want. .America is the one country 

 among the allied nations which this year will jjroduce 

 foodstufifs in excess of her own needs, ihe measure of 

 this excess will be the extent to which Food Thrift is pra:- 

 ticed by every American citizen. If we permit waste to 

 go on as in the ])ast the surplus will be reduced to zero. 

 If we engage in l'"ood Conservation on a national scale 

 it will become an abundance with which we mav ])revent 

 starvation in Europe. Food Thrift, therefore, is the (ini 

 true secret of success in the great war. \\"t\\] it we can 

 win the conflict. Without it the most l)iilliant ncliieve- 

 ments of our armed forces will be of tio avail and Amer- 

 ica must face her first defeat. The ctinice tinist be of 

 our own making. 



'T'HE lumber industry is doing its share in provid- 

 ing material for national defense," said John W. 

 Blodgett, Chairman of the Trade Extension Commit- 

 tee of the National Lumber Manufacturers Associa- 

 tion today. "Reports to the National Association of- 

 fice by 691 mills just tabulated, show that during the 

 month of June these mills cut 1,499,000,000 feet of 

 lumber and shipped 1,581,000,000 feet, the largest vol- 

 ume of shipments ever reported to this office during 

 any one month. Moreover, telegraphic reports from 

 300 representative Southern and Western mills show 

 that during the last four weeks these mills have cut 

 655,000,000 feet of lumber and shipped 784,000,000 feet, 

 of 20 per cent, more than they produced. 



A (;1ANT SASSAFRAS TREE 



F' )|,L( )\\'l.\(j the i)ublication in .\.\iekka.\ l-niuisiKV 

 iiir January of the ])hotogra]5h of a veteran sassafras 

 of unusual size at Horsham. I'ennsvlvania. .Mr. 

 Beirne Lay, of Keswick, X'irginia, sends the following in- 

 teresting account of a sassafras on the farm o( Mr. I-" rank 

 M. i\an<l(ilpb. near Keswick: "I enclose the ])hotogra]jh 

 of the big sassafras. The measurements — 20 feet 6 

 inches, at six inches above the ground, and IS feet 4 

 inches, at Uvv feet above the ground. — show this to be a 

 good deal bigger than the I'enn.sylvania tree, and prob- 

 ably the largest in this country. Some vears back this 

 tree was a holkiw inink'. broken ofl' at the top aiic! 

 languishing, .'^onieime built a fire in the iiiteriur which 



SASSAFK.AS TREE 0\ \IRC.1M.\ 1 ARM 



Tllf rival ot the Horsham Sassafras, which unly lilfasureil 1.* feet in cir 

 cumferelicc 16 inches from the ground, wllile this rejuvenated — as the story 

 proves — specimen measures 20 feet only 6 inches from the ground. 



was (|iieiiched witii difiiciilty. It was thought tiiat the 

 fire wr)uld finish the tree. instead, it killed the bugs 

 and hardened the interior surface and the old tree stum]-) 

 branched out, like a dressy old woman, in a new Easter 

 bonnet, with the crown of strong, healthy boughs that 

 you see in the photograph." 



OAID the late Simon B. Elliott, one of the pioneer 

 '"' foresters of America : "I can come to no other 

 conclusion than that of the 10,000,000 acres of non- 

 agricultural land in Pennsylvania at least sixty per 

 cent, is now, or soon will be so devoid of uninjured 

 trees of valuable species that it must be planted to 

 justify the payment of taxes." 



