HARDWOOD RECORD 



41 



subjects with greater attention to surveying and engineering, and the 

 provision that students must find employment in the woods during the 

 summer mouths, the school to be located one year in the West and one 

 year in the eastern forests. • 



Participation in the European trips will be restricted to fifty men, and 

 the trips are open to graduates of Biltmore Forest School, graduates of 

 other American forest schools : national, state and municipal forestry 

 officers, and all lumbermen and owners of timberland. The trip will include 

 visits to the state communal and private forests in Prussia, Bavaria, 

 Hessen and Baden, and will occupy between the time of departing from 

 and arriving at New York City eight consecutive weeks from January to 

 March of each year. The total expenses inclusive of everything from New 

 York City aud return will be $350.00. 



Increasing Exports of British Guiana Timber 



Ir will be of iutorest to note that the export trade in wood in British 

 Guiana has increased considerably during the last few years. This has 

 been principally to the United Siates, where the value of British Guiana 

 woods seems at last to be receiving more recognition. Capitalists are 

 pushing their enterprises in British Guiana and are not confining their 

 trade to any one kind of wood, but arc beginning to handle quite a large 

 variety, some of it being suitable for cabinet and furniture work and 

 others for interior finish of fine residences. Considerable construction 

 timber was shipped, chiefly to England, during the last few years. 



The total export of timber in the rough during 1911 was 237,681 cubic 

 feet. During 1910, 216. SS7 cubic feet were exported. 



Quantities of greenheart. crabwood and mahogany are now shipped 

 in the form of lumber. The lumber exports during 1911 aggregated 385,615 

 board feet. Only 281. C68 board feet were exported during 1910. 



The comparison with regard to the following articles of the British 

 Guiana's exports are as follows : 



1909-10. 1910-11. 



Shingles 2,365,600 2,955,500 



Railwav sleepers 2.850 13,214 



Pirewood (tonsl ■ 9,673 10,228% 



Charcoal (bags) 78.231 79.344 



AVallaba and hardwood posts 4.750 6,337 



Wisconsin Forest Fires Light 



Although the forest fire danger in Wisconsin is not over and the 

 greatest danger is in fall after the leaves have fallen and the country is 

 dry. it is believed that this year's losses will be lower than in previous 

 years. Up to date there have been no large losses as a result of fires in 

 the forest reserve in northern Wisconsin, although there were a few 

 fires during the dry periods of May and June. State Forester Griffith 

 reports a jieavy loss as a result of forest fires during 1908, 1909 and 

 1910. In 1909 flre swept 166,000 acres of land, resulting in a loss of 

 $104,000. while in 1910 the fire extended over 892.000 acres, the loss 

 aggregating .|5. 343, 000. Since then the state has been more fortunate 

 and the fire loss has been greatly reduced. This is due in a measure 

 to the system of protection that has been developed. The forest reserve 

 is divided inio townships. Each township is made up of an area of six 

 square miles and has a ranger constantly on the lookout. These town- 

 ships are connected by a system of roads, trails and flre lines, and the 

 various fire stations by telephones. Five steel lookout towers have been 

 erected. News of a flre is promptly spread over the entire district and 

 preparations are made to fight any conflagration. The state has eleven 

 ranger.-!, twelve men constitute the federal patrol and five are paid by 

 private parties. The theory worked on in dividing the reserve into dis- 

 tricts is. if possible, to keep the fire within the smallest possible area 

 when it breaks out. 



Hydroelectric Fewer Development 



The development of electricity by water power is rapidly assuming 

 ^jnormous proportions in this and other countries. The great plant at 

 Keokuk. Iowa, by which the Mississippi will drive the street cars of St. 

 Louis, is about ready for business. A plant which will develop as much 

 power as the whole Mississippi at Keokuk, but use only one one-hundredth 

 as much water, is nearing completion in California, and will furnish 

 power for all purposes in Los Angeles, 300 miles away. Work has begun 

 on a plant in Finland which will supply power to St. Petersburg. In 

 Switzerland electricity will soon be generated under a "head" of 5,360 

 feet. The water will fall more than a perpendicular mile, and will strike 

 the wheels with a force of 2.47."j pounds per square inch. These enormous 

 plants have markets for their electricity : but the largest of all is build- 

 ing in the interior of Iceland. 000 miles from the nearest inhabited land — 

 except th? natives of Iceland itself and a few in Greenland. The factory 

 in far-away Iceland will extract nitrogen from the air and sell it for 

 fertilizers. 



Paper and 'Wood Pulp Industry 



The Bureau of the Census has published a report on the manufacture of 

 pulp and paper in the United States for 1909. A considerable part of 

 the data was published in the "Forest Products of the United States, 

 1909," issued more than two years ago ; but the present publication in- 

 cludes additional statistics. 



There were 777 establishments in the L^nited States in 1909 engaged in 

 the manufacture of paper, and eighty-one made pulp. The number of per- 

 sons employed was 81,473. and their annual pay was $50,314,643. The 

 cost of the materials used was $165,442,341, and the value of the product 

 was $267,056,964. 



Paper was manufactured iu this country near Philadelphia as early as 

 1690. The growth of the industry, however, was slow until within the 

 last forty years, during which time the introduction of improved machinery 

 and the u.-^e of wood fiber as a material have brought about a remarkable 

 growth in the industry. In the decade 1899-1909 the value of products 

 increased $140,330,802. 



Thirty-one states are represented in the paper and pulp industry. New 

 York leads. Massachusetts follows, and Maine is third. Michigan, Virginia 

 and West Virginia show the most rapid increase. 



Spruce, poplar {aspen, balm of Gilead, etc.), and hemlock are used in 

 larger amounts than any other woods. The total amount of pulp^used in 

 the paper mills in 1909 was 2,826.951 tons. 



Of the 4,216,708 tons of paper of all kinds manufactured during the year 

 » 1909, l,17o,5.j4 tons, or 27.9 per cent, was news paper. Book paper 

 forme-d 16.5 per cent : cardboard. 1.2 per cent ; fine paper, 4.7 per cent : 

 wrapping paper, 18.1 per cent; boards, 19.7 per. cent ; tissue paper, 1.8 

 per cent; blotting paper, two-tenths of 1 per cent; building (roofing, 

 asbestos, and shepthing) papers, 5.4 per cent ; hanging papers, 2.2 per 

 cent ; and miscellaneous paper products, 2.3 per cent. 



First Sawmill in Mukden 



A recent consular report gives an account of the first sawmill installed 

 in Mukden, JIanchuria. A Japanese has set it up and is operating it. 

 The power is supplied by the city electrical power plant, and in that 

 respect the mill is up-to-date ; but It is primitive in other particulars. 

 For instance, the mill has no log carriage. The log is pushed and pulled 

 by hand power forward and backward in cutting boards. Crude though 

 that method is, it is an improvement over the common wa.v of sawing 

 lumber in that region, where the whip saw, operated by hand power, is 

 used. 



Farm Implement Prospects in India 



American manufacturers of agricultural iuipleracnts ought to profit by 

 the change in methods of working land now taking place in India. The 

 change is just beginning and it will be very slow ; but a great deal is 

 involved. India's hundreds of millions of people have cuUfvated the soil 

 from time immemorial, and have used the most primitive tools. There 

 was scarcely any change in methods from the time of Alexander the Great 

 until a few years ago. It takes four hundred men with their crude and 

 antiquated tools to produce as much rice in India as one man with modern 

 tools can grow in Louisiana. It is much the same with other grains. 



U. S. Consul Henry D. Baker in a recent report to this government 

 described the tendency to break away from the slow methods of thg past 

 and take up agriculture according to modern ways. The change, however, 

 will not be sudden. It must be brought about a little at a time. The 

 tillers of the soil in India are very poor and few of them are able to buy 

 machines, and such as can buy them do not know how to use them. 



The British government in India has established depots and is assisting 

 the nativfs to buy and to use modern farm machinery. The assistance 

 thus far has been small. It consists in loaning a little money to those 

 who wish to buy machinery and who are considered responsible : but that 

 is not the end of the assistance given. The buyer is carefully instructed 

 how to use the machine he buys. Instruction is given also to prospective 

 purchasers. 



The government agents investigate various implements on the market 

 and decide which are best adapted to the various districts of India. In 

 some instances (he government manufactures implements and sells them 

 to the natives ; other implements are bought by the government agents 

 from the manufacturer, and resold to the natives ; and sometimes an 

 order from a native farmer is simply passed on to the manufacturer with 

 the request that he deal directly with the prospective purchaser. 



"The work of the various state farm-implement depots." says the con- 

 sular report above referred to, "deserves the serious attention of American 

 manufacturers who wish to find a good field in India for the sale of their 

 implements, for it is apparently only possible, at present at least, to gain 

 much success in (his market by working in co-operation with these govern- 

 ment depots and securing oflScial approval and patronage of the various 

 implements whose sale here is desired. The officers of these implement 

 depots should be kept in close touch with, and their suggestions and criti- 

 cism should be earnestly considered if any great measure of success is to 

 be expected." 



Silk Made of Wood 



At a recent forest products exhibit in I'hil.idelphia considerable interest 

 was shown in a sample of wood. silk. Although it might readily pass for 

 the genuine article, there was not a thread of real silk in it. They were 

 wholly of wood. The article is not a new invention, but has been known 

 for a number of years. It has never become commercially important. 

 The wood is reduced by chemical means to a viscous mass and is then 

 drawn into threads which look like silk. They may be woven into cloth, 

 but i(s weariug qualities lack much of equaling the genuine article. 

 Forestry on Lighthouse Land 



The United States Lighthouse Bureau and the Forest Service are co- 

 operating to the extent that the reservations on which government light- 

 houses are standing along the shores of the Great Lakes will hereafter 

 be supervised, as far as their standing timber is concerned, by the Forest 

 Service. The lighthouse reservations along Michigan and Wisconsin 

 shores include a'total of 5.500 acres. An examination is just being started 

 to determine the l)cst methods to pursue. 



