STATE NEWS 



1299 



MINNESOTA 

 'T'HE Minnesota Forest Service is just 

 closing a deal with the Pine Tree Lum- 

 ber Company for the purchase of approxi- 

 mately 6,000.000 feet of virgin pine timber 

 within the boundary of Itasca State Park, 

 the consideration. $13.00 per thousand for 

 white and Norway pine, $9.00 for spruce 

 and $5.00 for jack pine; the land, about 

 two thousand acres, together with the 

 miscellaneous timber will constitute a gift to 

 the State. It is valued at $2.5.000 to $30,000. 

 One of the groves on this land, a magnifi- 

 cent stand of Norway and white pine, has 

 been named the "Theodore Roosevelt 

 Grove." 



Itasca State Park and Forest was well 

 provided for by the 1919 Legislature. As 

 a result, the summer hotel property at 

 Douglas Lodge has been greatly improved, 

 a number of new buildings are being erect- 

 ed, including a large restaurant, to be known 

 as the "Forest Inn." An electric light 

 plant has been installed, thus reducing a 

 considerable element of fire danger, four- 

 teen sections of land on the west side of 

 the forest will be bought, the necessary 

 money being provided for the purpose. The 

 State Forester has just arranged for the 

 grazing of one bunch of sheep, twenty-two 

 hundred head, along the west edge of 

 Itasca Park and Forest. The Forester has 

 contended for some time that the grazing of 

 sheep in this kind of country, where there 

 is so much grass, weeds and brush, would 

 afford the best kind of fire protection. It 

 is believed also tliat little, if any, harm 

 would be done in the woods, since stock 

 will not eat the little coniferous trees so 

 long as there is an abundance of other 

 forage. There was some question as to 

 the advisability of permitting sheep graz- 

 ing because of the possible effect on game 

 range, but the location of the grazing area 

 with respect to the feeding grounds of the 

 deer safeguards this feature. Also, on ac- 

 count of the late entrance of the sheep, 

 there will be no danger of their trampling 

 the nests of ground-nesting birds. There 

 is another feature worth watching in this 

 connection. It has been difficult to obtain 

 natural reproduction of pine in portions 

 of Itasca Park owing to the dense growth 

 of brush and small vegetation. There is a 

 probability that sheep grazing will bring 

 about more favorable conditions for pine 

 reproduction through a partial removal of 

 the brush and trampling of the soil to 

 prepare it for the seed. 



If this experiment works out satisfac- 

 torily, it will be the beginning of a great 

 industry in that part of the State because 

 there is range for several millions of sheep 

 during the summer months. Sheep might 



STATE NEWS 



be brought from Montana and other Rocky 

 Mountain States about the first of July, 

 fattened on the abundant forage in the 

 timber country of northern Minnesota and 

 then sent to the stock yards of South St. 

 Paul and Chicago. The Forester is con- 

 vinced that the forest fire danger in Min- 

 nesota will be greatly reduced with the 

 increase of stock grazing in the wooded 

 districts. Fires in the woods do not run 

 readily and are easily controlled wherever 

 the grass, weeds and under brush has been 

 even moderately eaten down by stock. 



much for summer cottages have been hit a 

 body blow by free camp sites on Forest 

 Reserves. The State's five Forest Re- 

 serves are open with few and easy restric- 

 tions to those feeling the summertime call 

 of the wild. Camp sites have been selected, 

 marked, and made ready by the State. Get- 

 ting your "pick" is free of red tape; all the 

 camper has to do is sign an application, 

 send it in, and pitch his tent. 



MARYLAND 



VU ITH special war activities practically 

 concluded, the Maryland State Board 

 of Forestry has well under way numerous 

 new projects of prime importance to for- 

 est owners and timber users of that State. 

 The summer's field work has been arrang- 

 ed to develop various brand — new and use- 

 ful activities, and to push to completion 

 projects already undertaken. 



An intensive study of willow culture, with 

 new opportunities opened by the war, will 

 shortly be finished and published. Volume 

 tables have been or are being prepared for 

 every commercial tree species in Maryland. 

 Thousands of taper measurements of hard- 

 wood and softwood trees have been secured 

 in sections of the State where these varie- 

 ties reach commercial importance. Sets 

 of curves are built on these at headquarters, 

 and in the very near future Maryland will 

 have its own volume tables to use and 

 enjoy. These will be published, and made 

 available to all requiring accurate, and 

 localized, information in measuring, buy- 

 ing and selling forest products. They will 

 not only include, as usual, lumber and 

 cordwood, but will be made applicable also 

 to all forest products for which each tree 

 is fitted and used', in board feet or cubic 

 contents. State co-operation is being ex- 

 tended forest owners in the practical im- 

 provement of their timbered holdings, for- 

 esters from the Board directing marking 

 and estimating, and if necessary super- 

 vising cutting, on tracts from a few to sev- 

 eral hundred acres in size. This work is 

 well received, since it secures the owner 

 reproduction of the best, removal of the 

 poorest, and sale of material for what it 

 is worth. In connection with and in exten- 

 sion of this, experiments in cheap and 

 effective tree-killing are under way, meth- 

 ods employed, both old and new, being by 

 mechanical and chemical means. Proper 

 treatment of public trees is still assured 

 through application of Maryland's Roadside 

 Tree Law, and active supervision of all 

 operations by the Board. 



Profiteering landlords who charge too 



In co-operation with various private com- 

 panies and progressive individuals, experi- 

 ments in Loblolly pine reproduction on the 

 Eastern Shore are being carried out. In- 

 formation desired is on the best methods 

 of securing N. S. R. in Loblolly. Sample 

 plots are carefully laid out, and results will 

 be watched until conclusive. 



Ten years ago Maryland's wood-using 

 industries were the subject of research and 

 report. Recently, knowing these results to 

 be old and the data no longer authentic, 

 the Board took up a canvass of the sub- 

 ject. Much interest was manifested by the 

 various industries approached, and prac- 

 tically 100 per cent co-operation gain- 

 ed in the preparation of a new and com- 

 plete report, well illustrated, on "The 

 Wood-Using Industries of Maryland." It 

 is now in the hands of the printer, and 

 will be issued shortly. Both study and 

 subsequent report represent, exclusively, 

 State work. 



NEW JERSEY 



XpOR several years State Forester Alfred 

 Gaskill has been urging owners of 

 woodland to give their timber a little care 

 and attention, in order that its value and 

 productiveness might be increased. It has 

 been the practice in this State and else- 

 where to cut off the woods without care 

 or thought of the future, and then allow 

 Nature to do the best she can in replacing 

 the abused timber growth. The following 

 results of a "thinning" experiment in the 

 so-called "scrub oaks" of Burlington Coun- 

 ty prove that such attention is profitable. 



A portion of the Lebanon State Forest 

 was selected for the demonstration. The 

 tract consisted of a rather dense stand of 

 young oaks from ten to twenty feet tall, 

 growing on sandy soil of low fertility. 



Two similar plots of approximately one 

 acre each were laid out, and the trees on 

 each counted and measured. Then plot 

 No. I was "thinned" to relieve its over- 

 crowded condition. Enough crowded, 

 weakened and suppressed trees of the poor- 

 est species were removed to give the re- 

 maining trees the proper amount of light 

 and growing space for their best develop- 



