468 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



New Hampshire, by A. K. Chittenden ; then the bulletin of forest con- 

 ditions in central and southern New Hampshire, including notable 

 yield tables, by C. A. Lyford and Louis Margolin. The report by 

 J. H. Foster covered the subject of forest taxation. The last report for 

 the year 1915-16 covers the forest fire service, reforestation, public 

 forest, and educational and other special projects. The review of 

 forest protection is a notable one, and doubtless the results in the field 

 are as efficient as they appear on paper. Lookout stations, patrol serv- 

 ice, prevention of railroad fires, disposal of slash, and fire organiza- 

 tions are all treated in some detail. The recommendations for better 

 forest protection (pages 44-45) are specially interesting, and include 

 plans for more fire lookout stations, even more active cooperation 

 with other protective agencies, more general fire educational work, 

 licensing of portable steam sawmills, and authorizing the use of town 

 wardens, deputies and regular employes in forest administration. The 

 article on possibilities of timber insurance, by W. R. Brown, is interest- 

 ing, but unquestionably the problem of forest fire insurance is a deli- 

 cate one. It has met with setbacks, even with the well-organized fire 

 protection of a European country like France. The statement on 

 National Forests, by Forest Supervisor Benedict, is of wide interest, 

 and shows what the national Government is doing in New Hampshire 

 in the improvement, protection, and management of the National For- 

 est in that region, acquired by purchase under the Weeks act. Already 

 there is more than 325,000 acres in the White Mountain National 

 Forest in New Hampshire. It is interesting to note the increasing 

 number of State and municipal demonstration forests, as well as the 

 examples of private forestry practiced with commercial success. Un- 

 questionably, the State Forester is to-be congratulated on the excellence 

 of this showing. 



The Sixth Biennial Report of State Forester Homans of California 

 is somewhat disappointing. It does not compare in quality or in 

 interest with that of New Hampshire, but withal it contains some data 

 of interest. The fire data for 1915 show that outside the National 

 Forests there were 434 fires. (U4,038 acres burred over, with a total 

 damage of more than $220,000. It is presumed that this is not a com- 

 plete list of all fires, but rather the more important ones, and it is 

 encouraging to note that there were 114 fire investigations "made 

 during the past two seasons. . . . Wherever we have made inves- 

 tigations of fires, the sentiment throughout the community has been 



