332 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



To facilitate handling the logs, the bark is removed 

 from them and the debris is usually cleared awav by 

 burning. These fires frequently damage the logs and may 

 also injure or kill standing trees. If the logs are very 

 large, they must be split with dynamite before they can 

 be transported to the saw mill and some of the best 

 wood is shattered by the e.xplosion. Other waste occurs 

 in the woods through leaving crooked logs and wind 

 shaken or otherwise defective trees when part of them 

 might be used. Shak'c makincr is an especialh- wasteful 



A REDWOOD LOG 



This is an average specimen, and hundreds like it may be seen at 

 redwood logging camps in the northwestern section of California. 

 This log is stripped of bark and it shows the preponderance of 

 lieart wood over sapwood. 



process. However, as the price of lumljer increases, a 

 premium is placed on the more conservative handling of 

 logging operations, with benefit both to the lumberman 

 and the public. Lath, shingles, ties and similar minor 

 ]iroducts are now being manufactured from much of the 

 material that was formerly left in the woods. 



American F(:)RKSTR^■ is indebted to the California Red- 

 wood -Association, Col. A. A. Taylor, secretary of Cali- 

 fornia Redwood Park Commission, and others for photo- 

 graphs accompanying this article. 



OPERATIONS ON PENNSYLVANIA FORESTS 



FROM reports submitted by its foresters the Penn- 

 sylvania Department of Forestry has made up to 

 date a summary of cost and extent of major opera- 

 tions conducted on the State Forests. 



The total area owned by the Commonwealth for for- 

 estry purposes is now a trifle over a million acres, ac- 

 quired by purchase at an average cost of about $2.27 

 per acre. Since the first land was bought, eighteen years 

 ago, about $2.2-'i per acre has been spent by the Depart- 

 ment for all work connected with the State Forests, 

 exclusive of purchase price. 



Four large nurseries and twenty small ones liave been 

 established, in which are now growing almost 20,000,000 

 seedlings. Woods roads existing when the forests were 

 established have been opened by the Department to the 

 extent of l,2-")0 miles; 316 miles of new roads h.wti Ijeen 

 built at an average cost of about $200 per mile; .i2.") miles 

 of trails ha\'e been opened; 1,0.")0 miles of bounilary 



lines have been brushed out to trail width; T2.j miles of 

 fire lanes have been brushed and burned, ranging in 

 width from 4 feet to 00 feet ; the total numlier of 

 miles of roads, trails, fire lanes, and boundary lines 

 opened is almost 4,000. In addition to this, l,ii00 miles 

 of boundary line are surveyed but not yet opened. 



One hundred wood, steel, and tree observation towers 

 have been built at a total cost of a trifle over $3,000. 

 Oven 2-">0 miles of telephone line have been built to con- 

 nect the towers with foresters' headquarters. Houses, 

 barns, and other buildings to the number of 122 have 

 been Iniilt for the Department's field force; 1,168 springs 

 have been cleaned, walled, and made accessible for camp 

 sites ; over SOO fires have been extinguished on State 

 land only ; 825,000 fish have been [ilanted in streams 

 which originate in State Forests; 180 miles of compart- 

 ment lines are opened ; chestnut blight has been removed 

 from o\er 40,000 acres. In this connection it is inter- 

 esting to note that 28 foresters report the blight spread- 

 ing rapidly in their districts ; 8 report it apparently sta- 

 tionary ; 14 report no blight, or do not report; and Ijut 

 one reports it receding. The infections reported are 

 found from the New York line to the Marylaiul line, and 

 from the New Jersey line to the extreme northwestern 

 part of Clearfield County. This eft'ectively nails the 

 statement that the blight is dying out in the State. 



Exact figures are not yet aAailable for the reforesting 

 done by the Department. However, at a low estimate, 

 at least 16,000,000 seedlings have been planted to date 

 on about 8,000 acres of the State Forests. It is esti- 

 mated that about 3.')0,000 acres of their present area must 

 be artificially reforested, and special eft'ort is being made 

 to enlarge this branch of the work. This year about 

 ^,000,000 seetllings will be available for spring planting, 

 and at the present rate of increase in nursery production, 

 it will be only a few years until from 10,000,000 to 

 20,000,000 will be planted every spring. Counting 2.000 

 trees to the acre, this will mean the annual reforesting 

 of from ."i,000 to 10.000 acres, and the completion of the 

 work in about thirty-five years. 



The total income from the forests to date is $12."),000. 

 Most of the revenue is derived from the sale of fire- 

 scarred or otherwise damaged timber, and from the sale 

 of stone. The whole sum has been paid into the State 

 School Fund, in accordance with a recent act of the 

 Legislature. 



MAINE BALSAM FIR DYING 



IT IS reported that the balsam fir in Alaine is grad- 

 ually dying out from some unknown disease. This 

 tree is \ery susceptible to attacks of fungi and begins 

 to snft'er from heart rot at an early age. Much of it is 

 diseased in this country, and its gradual elimination and 

 replacement liy spruce would be perhaps a good thing. 

 Of course, from the standpoint of the camper this would 

 be a hardship, as a bed of spruce boughs is neither so 

 fragrant nor so comfortable as one of balsam. It is a curi- 

 ous fact that bears like to sharpen their claws on balsam 

 trees, and it is very common to see the marks of their 

 claws, and in this way many trees are injured. 



