REVIEWS 649 



tliis time planted, and somewhat over 2U0,000 plants were furnished 

 for private planting. We note that in order to encourage real forest 

 planting no order of less than 1<>U trees is granted and for orders of 

 less than 1,000 trees an extra charge of 50 cents is made ; the price per 

 thousand ranging between $2.50 and $5, the latter for four-year trans- 

 plants — hardly good stock to handle. 



The main discussion in the forestry part of the report is placed 

 upon forest protection. The existing organization, under which town 

 chairmen are made fire wardens and road superintendents assistant 

 fire wardens, is criticized because fighting fires, rather than detection 

 and prevention, is their duty. A real protective service, with lookout 

 towers, telephones, and trails, is provided only on the sections which 

 contain State lands, comprising 17 districts, aggregating some one 

 und a quarter million acres. The cost on this area was 1 1/3 cents 

 per acre in 1915. To give point to this discussion a special forest fire 

 plan for an area comprising the headwaters of the Wisconsin and 

 Chippeway Rivers, some 74 townships, is elaborated in all detail on 

 12 pages, in which the accumulated experience of fire fighting in other 

 parts is fully utilized. 



Since the change of administration to the new commission took 

 place one year after the biennial period ending 1914, the first half of 

 the period which the present report ought to cover was reported upon 

 by the previous board. But the present commission has not seen fit to 

 publish that report, a procedure which is, to say the least, strange from 

 the administrative point of view of a great State. This omission might 

 almost be construed as a reflection of the previous board and of its 

 work, which it certainly does not deserve. 



In a year, of course, the new commission could hardly have made 

 any striking progress. The one notable project is that of extending 

 the limits of close fire protection over another million acres, in co- 

 operation with private owners and the Federal government. 



B. E. F. 



The Flora of Canada. By J. M. Macoun and M. O. Malte. Museum 

 Bulletin No. 26, Geological Survey. Ottawa, Canada. 1917. Pp. 14. 



In 14 pages it would be impossible to discuss a flora of nearly 

 6,000 species, distributed over more than three million square miles, 

 in much detail, and one is tempted to ask what useful purpose could 

 be served by such a wholesale treatment as the limited space allows. 

 The principal, or we might say only, value lies in the enumeration 



