REVIEWS 113 



Report of the Forester for ipi6 (being the Ninth Report of the 

 State Forester). Part VI of the Annual Report of the Connecticut 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. Pp. 379-427. 



It is not quite clear in what capacity this report is made by W. O. 

 Filley, who holds three titles, namely. Forester (of the station), State 

 Forester, and State Forest Fire Warden. Outside of a short reference 

 to the attempts at control of the white-pine Mister rust, the three pages 

 he contributes refer to the forest-fire situation in his State. 



Due to favorable weather conditions, fires were relatively few and 

 small, and while in the preceding two years the losses were valued at 

 around $20,000, in 19 16 they were reduced to $4,500. This is not to 

 the credit of any efficient protective arrangements, for evidently such 

 do not exist. A radical change in the existing fire-warden system 

 would be necessary to accomplish results. We note particularly that 

 45 per cent of the fires are charged to railroads — a cause which can be 

 almost absolutely removed, as the experience in Canada has proved. 



The bulk of the report is contributed by the Assistant Forester, A. E. 

 Moss, and consists of an account of a descriptive forest survey of one 

 town, that of Redding, located in the hill country of the southwest por- 

 tion of the State, as a sample of similar conditions in the more heavily 

 wooded counties of the State. 



With 8,880 acres or 43 per cent of the town forest-covered (64 per 

 cent) or waste land only fit for wood crops (36 per cent), the town 

 should be interested, from the tax point of view, in a better utilization 

 of the soil. The present condition of the area, mostly in farmers' 

 woodlots and mostly coppice, is quite hopeless and planting alone prom- 

 ises satisfaction. The exi.sting forest, more than half the composition 

 being of weed trees, does not seem to be much more than paying taxes 

 at present. A somewhat unclear and, we are afraid, unsafe calculation 

 under various assumptions, among them a rotation of 50 years, brings 

 the possible annual cut from the possible acreage of 6.900 acres changed 

 to pine to 4,800,000 feet b. m. The absence of a market for cordwood 

 would make this change to pine (without considering blister rust") 

 rather a doul)tful procedure. 



P.. E. F. 



The Forests of Maryland. By F. W. Besley. Maryland State I'oard 

 of Forestry. P>altimore, Md. 1916. Pp. 152. 



In a magnificent, well illustrated, quarto volunu', worthy of the State, 

 here are presented the final results of a forest survev of the State, 



