780 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



institute State reserves with economic management in view. Indeed, 

 the Stokes Reserve, in the northern part, with nearly 7,000 acres, 

 should also lend itself to such management as a unit without losing its 

 recreation value, which is accentuated as representing the special value 

 of the reserves outside their demonstration value. 



From a business point of view, the report is faulty in not giving any 

 statement of budget and detail disbursement, which would give an 

 insight into the cost of the service. 



This fault is not to be found in the State Fire Warden's report, 

 which carefully analyzes the detailed statistics of number of fires, use- 

 fully divided into larger and embryo fires, of acres burnt, loss, cost 

 of extinguishing, and allotment of charges to townships, State, and 

 offenders. It appears that 292 forest fires and 317 embryo (below five 

 acres) fires burned over 51,654 acres, causing a loss of $69,000 and 

 requiring an expenditure of $7,223, of which $2,063 could be recovered 

 from offenders, the balance nearly equally divided between townships 

 and State. An analysis of causes leads to the interesting conclusion 

 that physical conditions are not the only, or indeed the major, factor, 

 but that personal, not climatological, conditions are responsible for the 

 majority of fires. Locomotives still are the most frequent cause (38 

 per cent). Statistical proof is brought, however, that matters are im- 

 proving with improved organization. 



B. E. F. 



Die Hdrte der Holser. By G. Janka. Mitteilungen aus dem forst- 

 lichen Versuchswesen Osterreichs, No. XXXIX. Vienna. 191 5. Pp. 

 114. 



Janka, whose tests of hardness were described in Forestry Quar- 

 terly, Vol. VII, loi, has used as a measure of the hardness of wood 

 the power that is required, expressed in kilograms, to press a steel 

 hemisphere having an area of one square centimeter on its flat surface 

 into the wood to a depth equivalent to the radius of the hemisphere, or 

 5.642 mm. This is accomplished through the use of the standard 

 Brinell apparatus. The impression is made on a smoothened section 

 of the wood that is parallel with the wood fibers. He makes the fol- 

 lowing classification : 



I. Very soft wood, power required less than 35 kg/cm.^ 

 II. Soft wood, power required from 351 to 500 kg/cm.^ 

 III. Medium hard wood, power required from 501 to 650 kg/cm.^ 



