News and Notes. 565 



combination fire tool looks as if it should become known to 

 wider circles. It combines a scratching rake with a spade-like 

 blade, or hoe. Hoe and rake weighing 5 pounds, 6 ounces. 



Another publication of very neat make-up that comes to our 

 desk is The Pine Cone. It is sometimes amusing, as when writing 

 on Low Price of White Pine, but it appears always frankly as an 

 advertising scheme. It is rather interesting to note that white 

 pine manufacturers find it necessary to make this special eflfort 

 to praise their ware. The probability is that just because White 

 Pine is not so low in price, wavering between Cherry and Walnut 

 in market value, many wood users look for cheaper substitutes, 

 and hence must be shown the error of their ways. In the article 

 referred to it is asserted that in the early days of lumbering 

 white pine lumber could be sold at the mills for $7.50 to $9.00, 

 while this latter figure now represents the stumpage price alone, 

 and the cost of lumber at the mill $19 to $20. It sells, how- 

 ever, for different grades at from $23 to $99. 



A PROPOSED COLLECTION OF FOREST VERSE. 



It may be known to some few of the readers of the Forestry 

 Quarterly that the writer has been for some years making a col- 

 lection of verses and songs relating to the life in the Forest Ser- 

 vice and the life and work of the American forester. This col- 

 lection now includes some one hundred or more selections, good, 

 bad, and indifferent. During the past two years, since the 

 practice has become common of issuing news letters from most 

 of the National Forest headquarters, the quantity of this verse 

 has greatly increased. Some of it may be considered of high 

 merit ; some of it is too crude to be considered. While the appeal 

 of the greater part of what has been written is local, still the work 

 on all of the National Forests is, in general, so similar, the duties 

 of forest officers so much alike, whether the National Forest be 

 located in Alaska or Florida, that it is believed that the time has 

 come to bring together and issue in a small volume the verse 

 that can be brought together and that may be considered worthy. 

 It is believed that such a volume, modest though it may be, will 

 tend to further increase the esprit de corps that has characterized 



