FOREST XOTKS 



(ill 



ha\ing the time of their Hves in spite 

 of a good (leal of rough work. They 

 are able to help out their supply depart- 

 ment by fresh fish from the Catta- 

 hoochee. 



million cross-ties annually consumed 

 are treated, and the proper treatment 

 of an annual consumption of 4 million 

 poles may be said to have scarcely com- 

 menced. 



That at least one-twentieth of all the 

 stock bred on the o})en range of the 

 West dies before it reaches market age 

 and that much of this loss can be 

 stopped is shown by results reported 

 from the national forests. This waste 

 is said to add millions of dollars to the 

 people's meat bill and gives one more 

 cause of the high cost of living. Win- 

 ter storms and summer droughts strew 

 the ranges with the bones of cattle and 

 sheep ; predatory animals take a heavy 

 toll ; poisonous plants sometimes kill 

 half the animals in a herd almost over 

 night. Cattle contract anthrax, black- 

 log and other diseases, get stuck in bog 

 holes, slip off icy hillsides ; and sheep 

 ])ile up and die of suffocation. Insects 

 which madden and kill swell the total 

 losses as do a multitude of other minor 

 causes of death and injury. 



The most notable progress yet re- 

 corded in the chemical treatment of 

 timber to prevent decay was made in 

 191;^, according to a report recently 

 issued by the American Wood Pre- 

 .Tcrvers' Association in cooperation wdth 

 the Forest Service of the Department 

 of Agriculture. The report states that 

 '.1.'^ wood-preser\ing plants in IDlo con- 

 sumed over lOS million gallons of creo- 

 sote oil, 26 million pounds of dry zinc 

 ..hloride, and nearly -i million gallon.^ 

 of other liquid preservatives. With 

 these the plants treated over \y-\ million 

 cubic feet of timber, or al)ont 2A per 

 cent more than in 1!)12. The out]Hit 

 from additional plants unrecorded 

 w^ould increase the totals given. Im- 

 pregnation of wood with oils and chem- 

 icals to increase its resistance to decay 

 and insect attack, the report goes on to 

 say, is an industry which has become 

 important in the United States only in 

 recent years. in (ireat Uritain and 

 most of the Euro])ean countries j)racti- 

 cally every wooden cross-tie and tele- 

 phone or telegraph i)ole receives pre- 

 servative treatment. In the United 

 States less than 30 per cent of the 135 



Lands just approved by the National 

 Forest Reservation Commission for 

 purchase by the Ciovernment include 

 (),0<s;) acres in West Virginia, of wdiich 

 one tract comprising (),000 acres is sit- 

 uated in Tucker and Randolph counties 

 in the Monongahela purchase area. The 

 remaining 83 acres are on the Potomac 

 watershed in Hardy County in the Po- 

 tomac purchase area. These lands are 

 to be acquired in accordance with the 

 general policy under which national for- 

 ests of good size are being built up in 

 the Eastern mountains, both north and 

 south through successive purchases. 

 Tracts are bought wdthin certain desig- 

 nated areas, of which West Virginia 

 has three. The lands just approved by 

 the commission bring the acreage of 

 the Monongahela purchase area up to 

 -13,8<S7 acres and the acreage of that 

 part of the Potomac area lying in West 

 Virginia to 3G,405 acres, while the total 

 acreage in the State aproved for pur- 

 chase amounts to 10o,4S0 acres. 



The State legislature of l!n3 desig- 

 nated the North Dakota State School 

 of Forestry as a State nursery and pro- 

 vided that the president of the school 

 should be the State Forester, and he 

 should have general supervision of the 

 raising and distributing of seeds and 

 forest tree seedlings, promote ])ractical 

 forestry ; compile and disseminate in- 

 formation relatixe thereto, and publish 

 the results of such work by issuing and 

 distributing bulletins, lecturing before 

 farmers, institutes, associations, and 

 other ways as would most practically 

 reach the public. 



.\ cooperative fire agreement which 

 has been entered into between the 

 United States Department of .Agricul- 

 ture and the State of Michigan pro- 

 vides for an expenditure by the Gov- 

 ernment of not to exceed $-"),000 a year, 

 under ])rovisions of the Weeks law, 

 toward meeting the expenses of forest 

 fire protection in Michigan. 



