NEWS AND NOTES 



479 



"I heard of an oak tree at Meggetts, S. C, 

 that was, and still is, the talk of the coun- 

 tryside. Conductors on the trains tell 

 strangers of its great size. I sent to Meg- 

 getts and had measurements of the tree 

 made. The trunk was only 25 feet in cir- 

 cumference and the spread 125 feet. 



Hanging Forest Fire Starters 



Up in Alaska there is a bitter feeling 

 against those who cause forest fires. This 

 is not strange, but the Alaskans are carrymg 

 things to the very extreme and a vigilance 

 committee has been formed whose duty it 

 shall be to hang every offender. The Yukon 

 Valley is described in press dispatches in 

 the latter part of May as being a roaring fur- 

 nace, and this means that great property 

 damage is being done. Now, what stirs these 

 dwellers of the North into such action is 

 the recognition of the fact that in the 

 greater number of cases these fires are 

 started by the carelessness of some individual. 

 They do not consider that it is right that 

 one man, because he did not use the discretion 

 that mature years ought to bring, should in- 

 flict on others such damage as a forest blaze 

 of any magnitude always entails. 



Fighting The Beetle 



The government is again taking up the 

 fight against the small beetles that have been 

 ravaging the forests of eastern Oregon. This 

 year, however, the official in charge of the 

 work expects to have a much easier task 

 than last season, when more than $15,000 was 

 expended near this city in the war on the 

 little insects. 



Last year in the work large numbers of 

 trees were cut down and burned and this 

 year the men will cruise the area worked 

 last year, making observations of the suc- 

 cess of the work. They say the work last 

 year was quite thorough and expect to find 

 it was quite successful, leaving this section 

 of the Whitman national forest practically 

 free from the bugs, with but few isolated 

 trees left standing for treatment. 



Pennsylvania Railroad Tree Planting 



The growing scarcity of timber suitable 

 for manufacture into railroad ties, which 

 has been responsible for a rapid increase 

 in the cost of ties in recent years, has 

 led the Pennsylvania to adopt a conservation 

 scheme which includes the production of 

 trees for its own use. 



More than four and a half million trees 

 have been planted by the Pennsylvania in 

 the past ten years. Last year alone 515,703 

 trees were transferred from the company's 

 nursery at Morrisville, Penn., to permanent 

 places on railroad property. In 1909 1,000,000 

 young trees were set out. 



At the nursery the Pennsylvania has in 

 operation 36 acres which are kept up to 

 practically maximum production. In 1911 

 483,148 forest trees were shipped from the 

 nursery for company use, while an additional 

 46,558 ornamental trees and shrubs were 

 used by the various divisions. The present 

 stock on hand at the nursery is 2,296,833, of 

 which 2,072,166 are forest trees, and 224.667 

 ornamental plants. 



Forest Experiments 



Plant Economologist A. W. Sampson, of 

 the government forest service, will have 

 charge of the establishment of a govern- 

 ment grazing experiment station at Manti, 

 Utah. 



Assistant District Forester O. M. Butler, 

 of the silviculture department, and Assistant 

 District Forester Homer E. Fenn, of the 

 grazing department, will accompany Mr. 

 Sampson to the Manti district. The foresters 

 will experiment in tree reproductions, sheep 

 grazing on streams, and establish a forest 

 plant nursery to raise seed for grasses that 

 are best adapted for that locality. 



Fast Growing Eucalyptus 



L. M. Pratt, president of the Pratt 

 Eucalyptus Investment Co., of Los Angeles, 

 Cal., sends a clipping which describes a 

 Eucalyptus tree three years old, grown with- 

 out irrigation in one of his plantations, 

 closely surrounded by other trees of the 

 same age. It measured 8J/2 inches in di- 

 ameter, breast high; 12^^^ inches in diameter 

 at the butt, and 55 feet in height at three 

 years of age. A half acre plot in which 

 this tree is located was measured when just 

 three years old. The trees showed an aver- 

 age diameter of 5^ inches, and an average 

 height of 55 feet. These trees are doubtless 

 the largest trees for their age ever produced 

 in a California plantation, if not in the 

 world. It is almost unbelievable that trees 

 growing so rapidly produce a timber as hard 

 and tough as hickory, which takes 90 years 

 to attain a 12-inch diameter. 



Raising Big Tree Seedlings 



The Forest Service is raising several acres 

 of big tree seedlings on the Tahoe National 

 Forest in California, at a more northerly 

 point than any natural big tree grove. While 

 the giant sequoias are found in the forests 

 of the Sierras at various points throughout 

 a total range of some 250 miles, in the north- 

 ern two-thirds of this range there is prac- 

 tically no natural reproduction. It has con- 

 sequently been a question whether the 

 species would not practically disappear from 

 this region when the present mature trees 

 die. 



The most northern existing grove of big 

 trees is on the Tahoe Forest, but about 34 



