News and Notes 779 



A very readable and well illustrated article in Logging for 

 October describes the operations in securing chicle in Mexico; 

 the import of which material into the United States being in the 

 neighborhood of five million pounds. The Mexican trees which 

 are bled for the milky juice of chicle are Diospyrus ohtusijolia 

 and Achras sapota, of the Sapodilla family, both occurring in the 

 river forests of Mexico, especially Yucatan. Lately a new field 

 for chicle has been found in Brazil in Mimusopa glohosa, the 

 Bully tree. 



In the record of the Investigative Program of the Forest Ser- 

 vice for 1916, there are listed 162 problems, classified under 13 

 main headings, which are under investigation. It is interesting 

 to note that the lion's share (70) is still occupied by investigations 

 of products (which at one time were considered not within the 

 sphere of a forestry bureau). The next largest number of prob- 

 lems concerns itself with grazing (28). Real forestry problems, 

 to which we would count those in protection and mensuration, 

 occupy about the same number. The problems in dendrology, 

 tree studies (dendrology with a view to practical application) and 

 forest types, altogether 13, belong to the forest botanical field, 

 while the fire studies, forest influence, and other special studies 

 nvmiber 14. 



It is an enormous amount of work that is here undertaken, and 

 from the appearance of the record thoroughly organized. Such 

 work naturally leads to specialization, which some of the forest 

 schools should particularly be fitted to take care of. 



From a Bulletin of the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison 

 it would appear that the manufactiure of ethyl alcohol from saw- 

 dust can be accomplished profitably. If this can be done, as 

 claimed, at 20 cents per gallon, it would be a most welcome 

 method of using waste. Hitherto all attempts at commercial 

 manufacture seem to have failed. For success, it is claimed large 

 plants are needed, consiuning larger quantities than can be 

 cheaply enough brought to the distillery. 



At the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, the 

 Forest Service is carrying on a series of tests, in cooperation with 

 the American Society for Testing Materials and the National 



