NOTES 89 



tliat while fuel wood, particularly beech, was high in price, beech and 

 fir lumber was very little in demand, but p<ine lumber was rather high 

 because needed for car building. Many beech logs cut during 1918 

 were still in the woods, because of lack of transportation facilities, 

 while the factories had supplies on hand to last until the fall. Beech 

 boards were worth from 33 to 50 marks per cubic meter ; beech logs 

 of 30 cm. diameter and upward, 25 marks per cubic meter where less 

 easy to get out, and logs of 40 cm. and up, 46 marks in the more 

 accessible situations. 



In Hesse wood cutters received T.5 marks per cubic meter for cutting 

 fir stem wood, and o marks per cubic meter for firewood, and were 

 asking for still higher wages. 



Sales of oak in the Spessart recently brought record prices. One 

 cubic meter of stem wood for furniture brought 3, GOO marks, while 

 the average price received for all stem wood (1,229 cubic meters sold) 

 was 916.27 marks. Stacked wood averaged 54.39 marks per cubic 

 meter. Beech also brought three times the pre-war prices. 



Sea-Going Log Rafts. — The lack of shipping in 1918 led a Swedish 

 company to undertake the rafting of logs from Haparanda to Copen- 

 hagen. The raft was 112 meters long, 16 meters broad, and 8 meters 

 high, with a draught of 5 meters, and contained about 9,000 cubic 

 meters of wood. It was propelled by two steam engines, and made an 

 average speed of 1 kilometer per hour. The cost w^as about 100,000 

 kroner, as compared with 130.000 to 140,000 by ship at prevailing 

 rates. The same company expected to ship about 40 more similar rafts. 



FoRKST Fires in Montana and Idaho 



Following the disastrous fire season of 1919, District Forester R. 

 H. Rutledge selected a board of nine men to review the record and 

 ascertain, if possible, what could be done to remedy the situation. 

 This board visited each Forest, by splitting up in three sub-boards of 

 three men each, who went over the fire records with the supervisors 

 and rangers. Following this two weeks were spent as a general review 

 of the situation, after which a final report was prepared. The most 

 important recommendations of the board follow : 



1. A very aggressive campaign of fire prevention will be inaugurated. 

 Man-caused fires have increased at an alarming rate. This is probably 

 due to the greater use of the Forests, but the curve should be going 

 down instead of up. Various methods of attack are proposed, such as 

 building camp sites, where fires can be built with safety, and require- 



