126 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



public highwaj's which appear to be under 

 the supervision of no public department. 

 These have an aggregate length of eighteen 

 hundred miles, and could be utilized much 

 more than at present for transportation 

 purposes. What moves the state engineer 

 to recommend some systematic conserva- 

 tion of these streams is not their avail- 

 ability for internal communication so much 

 as the imminent danger of their being 

 "usurped for private purposes." He sug- 

 gests some bureau be established whose 

 license shall be required to enable the es- 

 tablishment of power sites on terms equable 

 to the community and guarding the public's 

 rights. — Boston Transcript. 



Commissioner White on Forest'-reserve Battle 



Railroad Commissioner Clinton White, who 

 is back in Boston to-day after attending 

 the meeting of the National Board of Trade 

 in Washington, says that he went to the 

 board meeting especially in the interest of 

 the White Mountain forestry-reserve proj- 

 ect, although he was interested and active 

 in other matters relating to New^ England. 



The committee on forestry and irriga- 

 tion, of which Mr. White is chairman, pre- 

 sented a set of resolutions in favor of Gov- 

 ernment Forest Reserves which were ac- 

 cepted by the board and which place the 

 board on record as in favor of Congressman 

 Weeks' Forest-reserve Bill. The resolutions 

 were drawn up by W. S. Harvey, of Phila- 

 delphia, a member of the committee, how- 

 ever, Mr. White was careful to point out. 



With the resolutions was a careful re- 

 port on the forestry situation in the United 

 States which the committee had prepared 

 and which was also adopted by the board. 

 This report shows the necessity of preserving 

 the forests that are on the headwaters of 

 the streams which have their origin in the 

 southern Appalachian and White Mountain 

 region. 



The report recognizes the great value, and 

 approves the work of the Forest Service, 

 and expresses the belief that within a few 

 years the income from the National domain 

 will be largely in excess of the cost of ad- 

 ministering this valuable asset of the people. 

 It approves also the proposed issue of 

 $13,000,000 bonds to complete the reclama- 

 tion and irrigation projects in the West. — 

 Christian Science Monitor. 



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Sewage Disinfection 



The problem of purifying sewage so that 

 it no longer transforms the rivers into whiciT 

 it is discharged into open sewers has been 

 so far solved that these streams need no 

 longer be disgusting to the senses and dan- 

 gerous to the health of people living along 

 them. The task of destroying the disease- 

 breedinw bacteria in tho sowaee and once 



more making the rivers available for drinking 

 water has not yet been worked out on a prac- 

 tical basis, but investigations recently made 

 by the United States Geological Survey in 

 cooperation with the Sanitary Research Lab- 

 oratory of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology and local authorities at Boston, 

 at Baltimore, and at Red Bank, N. J., show 

 that this endj too, may be attained at a 

 reasonable cost. 



The essential agents of sewage purification 

 are provided and employed by nature, and 

 sewage purification as practised to-day is but 

 the intensive application of these natural 

 processes. The improvements that have been 

 made have not involved the discovery or 

 application of new principles, but have merely 

 increased the working efficiency of the nat- 

 ural agencies. From the old-time sewage 

 irrigation field, with its maximum capacity 

 of possibly 10,000 gallons an acre in twenty- 

 four hours, to the present-day trickling filter 

 capable of dealing with two or three million 

 gallons an acre a day, improvement has been 

 steady. 



The old-time methods, however, really 

 destroyed the polluting substances, while the 

 modern sewage filter does not. The liquid 

 flowing from these filters looks to the un- 

 trained eye like the original sewage. 

 There is almost as much organic matter in 

 it as in the raw sewage, and sometimes more. 

 Its nature, however, has been changed ; the 

 organic matter, though not burned up, has 

 been charred or partly oxidized, and this 

 charring has been sufficient to rob it of its 

 foulness. In other words, its chemical com- 

 position has been so altered that it can no 

 longer undergo rapid putrefaction and cause 

 a nuisance. 



The water, however, still needs filtration 

 to make it fit to drink. Moreover, it may and 

 in many cases does contaminate oyster beds, 

 thus spreading disease and tending to ruin 

 a great industry. 



It has not yet been decided upon whom the 

 responsibility rests for keeping the rivers 

 clean, but the consensus of competent opinion 

 requires that if sewage is discharged within 

 the region of important shellfish beds, or into 

 a stream which is used as a source of domes- 

 tic water supply without filtration, such sew- 

 age shall at least be free from disease-bear- 

 ing germs. 



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Vanishing Food Fish 



The prodigal waste practised by the Amer- 

 ican people is well illustrated in the exter- 

 mination of some of the food fishes of our 

 streams, and long ago the Federal Gover- 

 ment undertook to restock waters that half 

 a century ago abounded with many families 

 of the finny tribe. It is doubtless true that 

 the shad would be as nearly extinct as the 

 sturgeon if Government hatcheries had not 

 partially restored that fish to the tables of a 

 comparatively few American citizens. 



The destruction of fish by dynamite goes 

 bravely on in contempt of the law, as does 



