NOTES AND COMMENTS ' 247 



the butter containers out of Siberian birch, which did not, how- 

 ever, prove satisfactory because of the fact that it imparts some 

 taste to the butter. Now the government is planning to produce 

 the necessary material on a large scale from the extensive beech 

 forests in the Caucasus. Beech constitutes approximately one-fourth 

 of the stand in these forests, which previously had been used 

 chiefly for supplying oil barrels, furniture materials, and railway 

 ties. According to investigations by Professor Philipow both the 

 white beech and red beech of the Caucasus are remarkably well 

 suited for this purpose. Present prices for this material are now 

 higher than prices formerly paid for imported material, but this is 

 considered to be a temporary condition due mainly to lack of trans- 

 portation facilities and to lack of men and horses during the war. It 

 is hoped that beech from the Caucasus will be able to supply all of 

 the needs of the Siberian butter producers and that private capital 

 will interest itself in this new industry, which owes its establishment 

 to the war. 



In 1915 a new foresty journal, Espana Forestal, w^as started in 

 Spain. A Spanish forestry association known as the Real Sociedad 

 Espanola de las Amigos del Arbol (Royal Spanish Society of Friends 

 of the Forest) had been established several years before under the 

 patronage of the King and Queen. This society, which had previously 

 published a yearly bulletin, now publishes also the new forestry journal. 

 The journal is issued every other month and is attractively gotten 

 up and well illustrated, with occasional colored photographs. It is 

 devoted primarily to emphasizing the importance of forests in Spain 

 and to attempting to arouse sentiment in favor of their preservation. 



The United States Bureau of Plant Industry announces the preva- 

 lence of another imported tree disease which infects Italian poplars 

 and Cottonwood. It appears to be imported from France, where it 

 was first discovered and described in 1884. In the United States it 

 was first reported in 1915 from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 

 and is now found spread in small areas as far as Nebraska and New 

 Mexico. The disease, caused by a fungus (Dothichiza populea), re- 

 sembles the chestnut blight in causing cankers or depressed areas in 

 the bark which spread and girdle branch or trunk, killing the part above 

 the canker, the trees becoming spike-topped. Especially nursery stock 

 suffers, and it is from nurseries that it is spread. 



