NOTES AND QUERIES. 229 



forests are termed "protective," and may not be disaflforested. 

 Another important feature of the law is the creation in each 

 government of a committee, comprising both officials and forest 

 owners, having for its object the conservation of forests. It is 

 the duty of these committees to decide what forests are to be 

 declared " protective," to put a stop to reckless or wasteful 

 felling, to approve or modify plans of management which have 

 been submitted by private owners, etc. Owners of forests not 

 declared "protective" may draw up plans of management in 

 accordance with certain regulations laid down, and, if the plans 

 are sanctioned, the owner is not subject, in the development of 

 his timber, to any other restrictions than those designated and 

 sanctioned in his plan of management. The regulations provide 

 that cycles of felling shall be for plantations of conifers not less 

 than forty years. In plantations of conifers with fir trees pre- 

 dominating, if among the latter there are not less than a thirtieth 

 reproductive more or less regularly distributed over the area for 

 cutting, the breadth of the annual felling is decided by the 

 owner. — Abridged from the Timber Trades Jcntrnal, July 23, 1904. 



The Forests of the United States. 



Some interesting information has been received respecting the 

 timber resources of the United States. Two or three years 

 ago there was, we believe, an official inquiry into the rate at 

 which certain districts were being denuded of their timber. The 

 report containing the results of investigations which were then 

 set on foot has produced a growing sense of the importance of 

 forest preservation. As throwing a light upon this feature of 

 American forestry, it is interesting to learn that during the last 

 Congressional year, very nearly three million acres were added to 

 the national forest reserves, which at the end of the year covered, 

 it is said, something like sixty-three million acres. — Timber 

 Trades Journal, August 6, 1904. 



American Forestrv Congress. 



The meeting of the American Forestry Congress, held at 

 Washington, D.C., 2nd to 6th January 1905, undoubtedly marks 



