164 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



7,500,000 tons of coal, or about 7 per cent of the coal used domestically. 

 The chief difficulty in stimulating the demand for wood was the un- 

 precedented high price asked for it in all parts of the East. This 

 was, of course, due to the scarcity of labor, and was largely justified 

 by the cost of production, but the feeling was prevalent that there must 

 be a good deal of profiteering in the wood business. The Lever law, 

 under which the Fuel Administration was organized and which pro- 

 vided for fixing the prices of coal, did not authorize the fixing of wood 

 prices. By many this was considered a serious objection to a wood 

 campaign. The writer has felt from the first that the best way to regu- 

 late the price of wood was to stimulate its production and increase 

 competition among sellers. Experience has shown that the old law of 

 "supply and demand" is a safe one to tie to. The experience of New 

 Haven, Connecticut, illustrates this point very nicely. The campaign 

 was organized there for the Fuel Administration under the direction of 

 Professor Hawley, of the forest school. In place of the 15 to 20 dealers 

 who were formerly selling wood in this city there are now (Jan., 1919) 

 from 25 to 40 dealers. Many of these men have only recently acquired 

 gasoline mills and gone into the business. Prices of stove wood have 

 dropped from $2 to $4 a cord, partly owing to the improved coal situa- 

 tion and partly to the greater competition among wood dealers. Thir- 

 teen of these dealers carried advertisements in one evening paper. 

 Prices mentioned for hardwood in stove lengths were: $10, $11, $12, 

 and $12.50. The consumers' interests had further been safeguarded by 

 the establishment, in agreement with the dealers, of a standard cord of 

 stove wood. Previously there had been no standard. Consumers had 

 supposed that they were buying 128 cubic feet of stacked wood for a 

 cord. On the other hand, dealers had claimed that a cord of stove wood 

 was the amount of wood sawed from 128 cubic feet of 4-foot wood, but 

 in many cases it was measured only roughly as thrown into the wagon. 

 The Fuel Administration after careful investigation- adopted 90 cubic 

 feet of stacked stove wood as a standard cord. This is slightly more 

 than has been commonly given. The campaign throughout Connecti- 

 cut has resulted in the small towns stocking up with wood to such an 

 extent that the coal situation in the cities would have been materially 

 relieved had the war continued. In the same way it is estimated that 

 wood production in Rhode Island was increased about 100 per cent. 



In contrast to this encouraging experience in New England, an un- 

 fortunate condition existed in Virginia at the time of the signing of the 

 armistice. During the summer of 1918 Mr. Montague, of the Fuel 

 Administration, organized an efficient campaign for stimulating the 



