NOTES AND COMMENTS 685 



the period 1907 to 1912 the match market was unfavorable, the stopping 

 by the war of several sources of supply has given an impetus, espe- 

 cially to Swedish manufacturers, and prices have been very high, due 

 in part to increase in value of raw products. 



In an interesting article on food-producing trees, by Prof. J. 

 Russell Smith, appearing in American Forestry, the following are 

 enumerated as available in some parts of the States : Chestnut, oak 

 (for pig food), hickory, persimmon, black walnut, mulberry, olive, 

 honey locust, mesquite. In most cases it would be desirable to graft 

 the wild trees in order to stimulate more prolific fruit production. The 

 author suggests the possibility of combining fruit and wood produc- 

 tion and at the same time utilization of waste acres on the farm. Some 

 interesting statements are made regarding the use of black locust or 

 other leguminous species to stimulate the production of fruit in 

 neighbors. 



In the discussions of efficiency it is a common experience that 

 greater efficiency is claimed for private business as compared with 

 government business. In this connection the following extract of a 

 letter is significant, which comes from one of the brightest and most 

 efficient foresters on this continent, the most successful organizer of 

 a forest service, who changed into private employ with a large oper- 

 ating company. 



Describing the character of the work he is doing, he continues: 

 "The greatest surprise to me is the extraordinary difference in response 

 one receives from an industrial organization and from a forestry or- 

 ganization. The latter I found immeasurably superior in initiative, 

 interest, inventive resource, and application to their jobs. The class 

 of tools one has to work with in industrial work is a discouragement." 



North American Trees for Norway 



During the past year Mr. Anton Smitt, a Norwegian forester, has 

 been studying forest conditions in western North America as a repre- 

 sentative of the recently established West Coast Forest Experiment 

 Station in Norway. The greater portion of western Norway is now 

 treeless, and plans for its forestation have been seriously considered. 

 Norway spruce and Scotch pine have already been used quite largely 

 for the purpose and also to a much smaller extent the North Ameri- 



