294 Forestry Quarterly 



Most of the legislation one would hardly refer to as being 

 inspired by the modern conservative thought, but it is rather 

 dictated by property interests, although conservation ideas were 

 not absent, as e. g., when in the Plymouth colony, as early as 1626, 

 no man was allowed to sell or transport any timber out of the 

 colony without approval of governor and council, the inconveni- 

 ence from lack of timber being given as a reason. 



Later legislation regarding wood exports, except of manufac- 

 tured materials might, however, be construed as merely a result 

 of economic policy. Similarly, the Massachusetts law forbidding 

 the cutting of White pine trees above 24 inch diameter was based 

 on property considerations, such mast trees being reserved for 

 the royal navy. But the restriction of a lowest diameter for 

 fuelwood to six inches in the Albany market may perhaps have 

 been true conservation policy. 



The most interesting developments mentioned are the control 

 of the Cape Cod sand dunes, which began as early as 1709 and 

 continued to be an object of legislation by many successive acts 

 until 1797, and the encouragement of cooperative forestry. The 

 wisdom which lay behind the legislation of Massachusetts (1744) 

 of permitting a number of woodlot owners to cooperate in man- 

 aging their forest properties calls for re-enactment in our times. 

 Also the re-establishment of communal or municipal forests, 

 which were common in those early times, recommends itself. 



We congratulate Mr. Kinney on having made such a good start 

 for a history of forestry in the United States based on a 

 systematic study of original sources. 



B. E. F. 



The Red Rot of Conifers. By F. H. Abbott. Bulletin No. 191, 

 Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station. 1915. Pp. 20. 



Trametes pini, the cause of red rot, a decay characterized by a 

 darkening of the wood and the formation in it of white spots or 

 "pockets," is one of the most destructive of the parasitic and 

 wood-destroying fungi, and from this standpoint has been the 

 subject of numerous investigations. Few conifers are immune 

 to its depredations; of our eastern species tamarack is most 



