464 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



the State should take the lead in supplying cheap machines to forest 

 workers as a means of increasing their efficiency and improving their 

 living conditions. 



The manufacture of shoes in Germany from substitutes for 

 leather, among which wood is the chief material used, has 

 become an irnportant^ industry. Twenty-five large firms now manufac- 

 ture such shoes with an estimated capacity of lOO million pairs per 

 year. Beech is the principal species used, but all hardwoods, except 

 oak, are utilized. 



Carrier pigeons used in fire protection on the Forests in Oregon and 

 Washington is the latest. Forest Examiner W. J- Sproat will inaug- 

 urate the experiment on the Deschutes Forest. He has five pairs of 

 birds. Similar experiments will be tried on the Cascade. The plan 

 is to use the pigeons as a means of communication in emergencies 

 and for carrying fire reports. 



Last year, according to the report of C. J. Hall, Superintendent of 

 the Provincial Forest Protection Service, there were 430 forest fires in 

 Quebec, which devastated 23 square miles of forest out of 48,800,000 

 square miles, operated for forestry work, the total damage amounting 

 to only $5,557. The splendid results achieved are attributed largely 

 to the efficiency of the work of the private fire protective associations. 



On December 28, 1918, the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences 

 awarded a prize of 1,500 francs to M. Fabre, Inspector of Waters and 

 Forests and Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences, Arts, and 

 Belles-Lettres of Dijon, for his collection of "economic and sociological 

 studies in the high French mountains." 



Prof. Raymond J. Becraft, formerly with the Forest Service, has 

 been placed in charge of the department of range management just 

 established by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. One of the 

 first undertakings of the department will be to increase the carrying 

 capacity of Utah ranges by scientific management. 



