33 



pie, Hitchcock's ''Geology of Oahii" ) and experiment stations, 

 (for example, Maxwell's "Soils of Hawaii"). 



4. Compilation of climatic records from U. S. ^^>ather Bu- 

 reau, plotting" the geographic and seasonal variation at repre- 

 sentative stations. 



5. Compilation of faunal and floral "locality records" from 

 all available sources, and the plotting of zonal distribution of 

 representative or "Key" organisms. 



6. The formation of generalized statements and biologic 

 laws. 



The value of a survey of this kind, both scientific and 

 economic, would be very great. Moreover it would be cumu- 

 lative, the survey being a base record and guide for the con- 

 tinuation of similar scientific work. iVnd lastly, such a survey 

 would bring together in available and interpreted form a large 

 mass of widely scattered, inaccessible and uncorrelated natural 

 historv data. 



Forest fires in British Columbia covered more than 300,000 

 acres during the past year. 



Mention is made in the forest notes issued to the press from 

 Washington that there is a big market in Hawaii for box 

 shooks for packing canned pineapple and pineapple juice. 



There were 400 fires this year in the national forests of 

 Utah, southern Idaho, western Wyoming, and Nevada, or 15 

 more than in the most disastrous season of 1910. Yet the 

 cost of extinguishing them was only one-third and the dam- 

 age only one-thirtieth of that of the earlier year. The differ- 

 ence is due to better organization now, and to more roads, 

 trails and telephones. 



It is said that the German invaders of Belgium, whatever 

 else they may have destroyed, have been careful not to injure 

 park trees. The cavalrymen, so a report goes, are forbidden 

 to tie their horses to trees for fear that the animals will gnaw 

 the bark. Germany was the first nation to apply forestry on 

 a large scale, some of the crown forests having been under 

 scientific manasfement for over a hundred vears. 



A svirprisingly large number of substances, ranging all the 

 way from the condensed fumes of smelters to the skimmed 

 milk of creameries, have been tried or suggested as means of 

 preserving wood from decay. Most of them, however, have 

 been found to have little or no value for the purpose. Certain 

 forms of coal-tar creosote and zinc chloride are the most 

 widely used wood preservatives. 



