152 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ground conduits for electric wires and for resisting the 

 action of various corrosive acids, especially in coal mines. 

 Kraft paper could be easily adapted to the same use 

 discovered by a Japanese during the Russian war, who 

 invented a soft, tough and waterproof paper which was 

 used as a pellicular peignoir. They also made it into 

 paper sheets which could be folded into a small package 

 and which would keep out dampness. There are other 

 uses for this paper, such as for napkins, handkerchiefs, 

 paper plates, cups, pails and other articles too numerous 

 to mention, but the most surprising use it has been put 

 to is that one-eighth-inch strips, shellacked and twisted, 

 are used in manufacturing articles of furniture in the 

 place of or in conjunction with rattan, such as chairs, 

 tables and baby carriages. So it would appear that 

 there was a profit in changing wood into pulp, making 

 the pulp into paper, and turning the paper back again 

 into wood. 



T. C. LUTHER CUTS LARGEST ELM 



ON one of his lumber jobs in the town of Putnam, 

 Washington County, New York, and within sight 

 of the historic Fort Ticonderoga, T. C. Luther, 

 of Saratoga Lake, has had cut and drawn to his sawmill, 

 located on the shore of Lake Champlain, an elm tree that 

 will make 5,600 board feet of lumber. 



The trunk of the tree measures 68 feet to the limbs, is 

 (iO inches in diameter at the butt and 37 inches at the top, 

 which, by Scribner's log rule, will cut 5,100 feet, and 

 some of the limbs, which are as large as good-sized trees, 

 will cut 500 feet more, making a total of 5,600 feet. 



There was so little taper to the tree that the first two 

 12-foot logs will cut 1,334 feet each. A rare thing in a 

 tree of this size is that it is perfectly sound and without 

 a check or blemish on the surface the entire length of the 

 trunk. 



The rings of the tree indicate it is 720 years old, which 

 shows it started long before the discovery of America. 



On account of its enormous size, the ordinary sawmills 

 that are in common use nowadays cannot manufacture it 

 into lumber, and Mr. Luther is now making special 

 arrangements for manufacturing this and some other 

 extremely large logs he has in stock. 



Foresters and lumbermen who have seen this tree in 

 the mill yard pronounce it the finest and largest specimen 

 of the elm they have ever seen. 



WHAT MAKES "BIRD'S EYE" MAPLE? 



A:\fKRICAN FORESTRY' was recently asked, 

 /\ -What makes bird's-eye maple?" And more than 

 one reader will be interested in knowing. Though 

 the figures of few woods are better known, the cause 

 of the bird's-eye has been the subject of interminable 

 guessing and theorizing. It has been accounted for in 

 more ways than nearly any other phenomenon of the for- 

 est. The favorite theory has been that sapsuckcrs. by 

 pecking holes through the bark of young maples, make 

 scars which produce the bird's-eye figure in the wood 

 during succeeding years. Bird-pecked hickory is often 

 cited as an analogous case, yet who ever saw bird's-eye 

 figure in hickory, though the bark may have been per- 

 forated like a coUender by the bills of energetic sap- 

 suckers? The efifect in the case of hickory is the oppo- 

 site of bird's-eye in maple: the wood is discolored and 

 unsightly. 



Some account for the bird's-eye figure by attributing 

 it to the action of frost, but the connection between cause 

 and effect has never been shown to exist, even by the 

 most ardent advocates of the theory. 



The explanation of the phenomenon is simple, and a 

 person with a good magnifying glass can work it out for 

 himself. The bird's-eye figure is produced by adventi- 

 tious buds. These have their origin tmder the bark of 

 the trunk. The first buds of that kind may develop when 

 the tree is quite small. They are rarely able to force 

 their way through the bark and become branches, but 

 they may li\e many years just under the bark, growing in 

 length as the trunk increases in size, but seldom appear- 

 ing on the outside of the bark. If one such bud dies, 

 another will likely rise near it and continue the irritation 

 which produces the fantastic growth known as bird's-eye. 

 It is said that the Japanese produce artificial bird's-eye 

 growth in certain trees by inserting buds beneath the 

 bark. The Field Museum, Chicago, has a sample of 

 what is claimed to be artificially produced bird's-eye wood 

 from Japan. 



PRIZES FOR FORESTRY ESSAYS 



THE Kentucky State Board of Forestry is offering 

 prizes for essays by the children of the public 

 schools on forestry. The special subject set for 

 this year is, "A Plan for Beautifying the Grounds of the 

 School by Planting Trees and Shrubs." Prizes of $12.50 

 and $7.50 are offered for high school students and similar 

 prizes are offered for the grade pupils. The grading is 

 to be based on English, 40 per cent : selection of species 

 of trees and shrubs, 30 per cent, and maps and sketches, 

 30 per cent. 



CANKER WORMS AFTER ELM TREES 



C.VXKER worms, which within the past few years 

 have killed thousands of elm trees in Kansas, are 

 again active, according to S. J. Hunter, professor 

 of entomology in the University of Kansas. 



The best treatment to halt the ravages of the little pest. 

 Professor Hunter says, is to bind the trees with a layer 

 of cotton to fill the crevices in the bark, and outside of 

 this wrap a layer of stout tar paper, tying it firmly. 

 Cover the paper with some sticky substance that will 

 stop the spiderlike creatures in their upward course. 



The insects will have finished their upward course on 

 the trees by the first week in February, Professor Hunter 

 says, but unless the trees are looked after immediately 

 they will be all over the branches in a few days. 



