8G4 JOURNAL or FORl'STKV 



Since the calculation is made with present (pre-war) prices, this will 

 unquestionably represent minimum returns. An increase of 2 cents per 

 cubic foot would be 19 per cent on the price of Norway spruce, while 

 in the 18 years before the war the price increment was 33 per cent. 



There remains the problem of organizing the agencies through which 

 to carry on the work, the institution of a "forest authority." The 

 (luestion whether to make this authority an attachment to existing de- 

 partments — agriculture, for instance — or independent central one is 

 decided in favor of the latter, after the unsatisfactory experience with 

 attached to territorial authorities made hitherto. But the machinery 

 proposed appears to us unnecessarily cumbersome. There is to be a 

 six-headed Forestry Commission, with three paid, one of them at least 

 a technically trained forester, and three unpaid commissioners, one of 

 the latter being a member of Parliament. Four assistant commissioners 

 are to look each after the interests of one of the four sections — Eng- 

 land, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In addition, consultative local 

 commissions, one for each section, are to be formed, on which county 

 councils, forestry societies, boards of agriculture, and private owners 

 are to be represented. 



To this organization a forestry fund to finance the operation for the 

 first ten years is to be made available — a wise provision. A summary 

 of this budget, totaling around 17 million dollars, covers the following 

 items : 



1. Scheme for afforesting 150,000 acres by direct State action £2,245,000 



2. Advances to local authorities and private owners 327,500 



3. Purchase and reconstruction of devastated hardwood areas 300,000 



4. Education 45.000 



5. Research and experiment 30,000 



6. Establishment charges 446,000 



7. Encouragement of forest industries 25,000 



£3,418,500 



The report itself has appended 8 appendices of memoranda, state- 

 ments, and details upon which the argumentation is based, the whole 

 being a businesslike document from cover to cover. B. E. F. 



Tests of t/ic Absorption and Penetration of Coal Tar and Creosote 

 in Longlcaf Pine. By Clyde H. Teesdale and J. D. MacLean. Bulle- 

 tin 607, Department of Agriculture, contribution from the Forest Serv- 

 ice, June 7, 1918. Pp. 42, illustrated. 



Mixtures of creosote and tar are being widely used at present for 

 wood-preservation purposes, especially in the case of paving blocks. 



