746 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ginia Conservation Commission it appears 

 that on the basis of 8,000,000 acres of land 

 permanentlj' devoted to productive forest, al- 

 lowing an annual growth of only 25 cubic 

 feet for each acre, the possible yearly harvest 

 from the whole state would be 1,^00,000 feet, 

 board measure. Twenty-five cubic feet of 

 annual growth per acre is a very conservative 

 estimate, and if an area of 8,000,000 acres in 

 the state can be protected from fire and be 

 kept in a productive state, the estimated 

 yearly increment for the whole state is none 

 too great. 



You can undoubtedly secure a copy of the 

 report of the Geological Survey from I. C. 

 White, State Geologist, Morgantown, W. Va., 

 and will be able to find more detailed infor- 

 mation concerning the timber resources of 

 West Virginia as each county is taken up 

 separately in that report. 



R.\PHAEL ZON, 



Chief of Sili'ics. 



Boston, Mass. 



Editor American Forestry. — Please de- 

 scribe to me a method for determining the 

 height of trees and estimating the amount 

 of standing timber? 



Abner H. Barker. 

 Mr. AbnEr H. Barker, 



146 Summer St., Boston, Mass. : 

 Dear Sir. — Your letter of September 18, ad- 

 dressed to the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion, was forwarded to the Forest Service 

 for reph'. I take pleasure in sending you, 

 under separate cover, Bulletin 36, '"The 

 Woodsman's Handbook," wTiich describes the 

 methods of determining the height of trees 



and estimating the amount of standing tim- 

 ber. I am also sending you Bulletin 76, 

 "How to Grow and Plant Conifers in the 

 Northeastern States," which will give you 

 information in regard to raising and plant- 

 ing forest trees. I am sorry to say that the 

 Forest Service has no publications dealing 

 with the grafting and spraying of trees. 

 This information can undoubtedly be ob- 

 tained by writing directly to the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, Washington, D. C. 



R.\phaEe Zon, 

 Chief of Silvtcs. 



Editor American Forestry. — Being in a 

 charcoal business, I would like to know if 

 you could secure me bulletins or books on the 

 subject. I am just starting a company in 

 Quebec, and I would be obliged to you if I 

 could get good hints and information on the 

 subject. 



H. KlEFER, C. E. 

 Dear Sir. — Your letter of October 9 to the 

 American Forestry Association has been for- 

 warded to this laboratory for reply. The 

 Office of Publication has been requested to 

 send you Forest Service Circular 114, which 

 is the only Forest Service publication deal- 

 ing with the production of charcoal. The 

 literature on this subject is very meager, and 

 there is practically nothing dealing with char- 

 coal production without the recovery of by- 

 products. It would be a pleasure to give 

 you any further information possible on spe- 

 cific points not mentioned in the above pub- 

 lication. 



McG.\KVEY Cline. 



Director. 



TO STUDY FLOODS 



fECRETARY WILSON of the 

 United States Department of 

 Agriculture has decided to estab- 

 lish an experiment station on the Manti 

 National Forest near Ephraim, Utah, 

 for the study of grazing and water 

 protection problems. Bids for the con- 

 struction of the necessary buildings 

 have been received and it is expected 

 to have the station in working order 

 before winter. Already the gathering 

 of observations on the relations of 

 erosion and run-olT to the forest cover 

 have begun. 



The Manti Naitonal forest was cho- 

 sen as the site for this experiment sta- 

 tion because it offers exceptionally good 

 opportunities for investigating problems 



of practical value in connection with 

 regulated grazing. Ephraim and other 

 towns in its neighborhood have suffered 

 severely from floods following violent 

 rainstorms in the mountains, and it has 

 already been proved conclusively that 

 the over-grazed condition of areas on 

 which the natural vegetative cover has 

 been seriously altered is responsible for 

 the formation of torrents and the rapid 

 discharge of debris-laden flood waters. 

 In a recent destructive storm the water 

 ran clear from a part of the watershed 

 which was within the National Forest, 

 and in good condition as a result of well 

 regulated grazing, while from other 

 areas it swept down sand and boulders. 



