NEWS AND NOTES 



605 



ing trees of the tropics. It is called the 

 candle tree, and it is quite worthy of its 

 name, for when its fruit is ripe its branches 

 appear as thoufth covered with candles, for 

 all the world like an old-fashioned Christ- 

 mas tree. 



A New Surrender Tree 



The famous old apple tree near Appo- 

 mattox Courthouse, Virginia, under which 

 Lee surrendered to Grant, long since car- 

 ried away piece by piece by souvenir hunters, 

 is to be replaced by a tree planted by Wood- 

 row Wilson, Colonel Armes, U S. A., owner 

 of the Appomattox farm announced that 

 the Democratic presidential nominee had 

 accepted an invitation to visit the historical 

 place to plant the new tree within the next 

 few weeks. 



National Forest Changes 



President Taft has just made consider- 

 able changes in national forests in Mon- 

 tana, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and California 

 through presidential proclamations modify- 

 ing the boundary lines. By these changes 

 nearly 27.5,000 acres of land are eliminated 

 from the forests, about 65,000 acres are 

 added, and about 55,000 acres are trans- 

 ferred between two forests, while a new 

 forest is created by the division of an old 

 unit into two. 



The net result is to bring down the total 

 gross area of the national forests to about 

 187,400,000 acres, of which nearly 27,000,000 

 acres are in Alaska. To a considerable ex- 

 tent, however, the reduction, so far as land 

 actually owned by the government is con- 

 cerned, are apparent rather than real, owing 

 to heavy alienations in the tracts eliminated. 

 Some 22,000,0000 acres of the national forest 

 gross area are not owned by the government. 



Japan is Years Ahead 



Just at the time when this country is 

 beginning to struggle with the problem cf 

 husbanding its forest resources, of protect- 

 ing its mountain slopes, and of improving 

 the waterways, it is interesting to know tiiat 

 the Japanese have successfully attacked the 

 same problem, before the land .>ufi"ercd 

 severely from the evil effects following de- 

 forestation. The far-sighted people of Nip- 

 pon have foreseen results of the destruction 

 of their extensive mountain forests, and 

 have safeguarded themselves by placmg all 

 of these under govemmmt <'ont;oI. 



The practice of forestry has been carried 

 on in Japan for a longer time than in any 

 other country. For 1,200 years the people 

 of Japan have been planting and grovving 

 forests, with a success that has been a little 

 short of marvelous. Under careful manage- 



ment, the Japanese forests yield very high 

 financial returns. This high yield is only 

 made possible by the close utilization of 

 every bit of the trees so that scarcely a twig 

 is wasted, and by the improvement of the 

 growth of their forests by carefully con- 

 ducted thinning and tending. The woods 

 are first thinned at the age of thirteen years, 

 and then every five years after that up to 

 the time of the final harvest, at 120 years. 



Seeking German Bugs 



Germany's forests are being searched by 

 the officials of the American Forestry 

 Service for ichneumon fly eggs. It is pur- 

 posed to breed these flies in American for- 

 ests in the hope of killing off gypsy moths. 



The ichneumons lay eggs in the larvae 

 of other insects, especially of the gypsy 

 moth, and it is hoped that they will rid the 

 United States of these pests. 



Sequoia Sempervirens 



Walter B. Parks, of the California Nur- 

 sery Company of Niles, Cal., writes to 

 American Forestry as follows : On page 

 414, June issue, you speak of transplanting 

 young trees of Sequoia gigantea from our 

 State Redwood Park in Santa Cruz County 

 to Florida. There are no native trees of 

 Sequoia gigrntea within a hundred miles 

 or more of there as the only Sequoia in the 

 Coast Ranges is Sequoia sempervirens or 

 "Redwood," the Sequoia gigantea or "Cali- 

 fornia Big Tree," as it is commonly called 

 here, growing naturally only in the Sierra 

 Nevadas. So if the trees came from the 

 State Redwood Park or "Big Basin" they 

 are, of course. Sequoia sempervirens. 



Conserving Alabama's Forests 



Alabama contemplates the enactment of 

 measures conserving the forests, mines, 

 waterways, and other kindred natural re- 

 sources and Commissioner John H. Wallace, 

 Jr., has written to the Secretary of Com- 

 merce and Labor for Federal Statutes and 

 State Laws bearing on the subject. In an- 

 swer to him Philip P. Wells, chief law- 

 officer of the U. S. Reclamation Service, 

 has sent him general information on the 

 subject, and in addition says : 



"Further information may be obtainable 

 from the columns of American Forestry, 

 the organ of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, Maryland Building, this city. 



"There has been much activity by the 

 states in forest legislation, and some in 

 other conservation legislation. Most of the 

 advanced State forest laws have been 

 drafted in co-operation with the United 

 States Forest Service. Such a law was 



