With The Forest Engineers 



141 



and, if fire should start, it would be much 

 easier to extinguish. 



On July 15th Mr. Wilson left to attend 

 the meeting of the Society of Eastern For- 

 estors as the guest of Dr. Hugh P. Baker, 

 Dean of the forestry Faculty at the Uni- 

 versity of Syracuse. Foresters from all 

 the Eastern States were present, as well as 

 professors from Yale, Cornell and Syra- 

 cuse Universities. The meetings were held 

 at the fine new Ranger School at Wana- 

 kena, on Cranberry Lake, and were of the 

 greatest interest, the discussion on top- 

 lopping being especially so. It was agreed 

 that top-lopping was absolutely essential 

 from the standpoint of fire protection and 

 reproduction, both in soft woods and hard- 

 woods and it was the general opinion that 

 it was not feasible or necessary to pile or 

 burn the brush. The cost derived from a 

 number of experimental plots and from the 

 experience of the Adirondack lumbermen, 

 who are compelled by law to lop their tops, 

 was from 20 to 30 cents per thousand feet, 

 board measure. 



A very interesting experiment was tried 

 by representatives of the Dupont Nemours 

 Powder Company for the benefit of the as- 

 sembled foresters. In an old lumber slash 

 piled with debris, which had once been 

 run over by fire, dynamite cartridges were 

 placed in the ground for a distance of over 

 250 feet, spaced about two feet apart and 

 set by making a hole, by hand, with a 

 crow-bar and putting in the cartridge, 

 then tamping with earth rammed down 

 with a piece of broomstick. The depth 

 of the holes was about 15 to 18 inches. It 

 took about an hour to set the cartridges. 

 The slash and ground were then sprinkled 

 with kerosene oil from watering cans and 

 set on fire. As the flames reached the line 

 of dynamite, the latter was exploded by 

 electricity, and when the smoke had clear- 

 ed away the fire was found to be stopped 

 by a trench about three feet wide and 

 nearly three feet deep, blown right down 

 into the mineral soil, and leaving the soil 

 so loose that, had it been necessary, earth 

 and sand in any quantity was available 

 for throwing on the fire. Dead and-down 

 logs and stumps were blown out of the 

 way. For all but a very bad top fire this 

 method would have proved eminently sat- 

 isfactory for stopping it and by going 

 sufficiently far ahead of a forest fire and 

 laying dynamite the fire could either be 

 completely stopped or could be narrowed 

 down very quickly, cheaply and surely. 

 Experiments were tried by laying the 

 dynamite on top of the ground, but the re- 

 sults were without value. 



Mr. Wilson then went to the meetitag 

 of the Society for the Protection of New 

 Hampshire Forests in connection with the 

 Directors of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation at Soo-nipi Lodge, Lake Sunapee, 

 N.H. This was a most interesting and in- 



sa'uctive meeting and many notable peo- 

 ple were present and spoke, including the 

 Governors of Vermont and Maine, the 

 Bishop of New Hampshire, Drs. Fernow 

 and Roth, Profs. Tourney and Chapman, Dr. 

 Rothrock and S. B. Elliot, of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Forestry Commission, Dr. Henry S. 

 Drinker, President of the American For- 

 estry Association, and members of the 

 U. S. Government Service and foresters 

 from several States. 



Dr. Fernow 's address in which he advo- 

 cated planting rather than natural repro- 

 duction was very important and interest- 

 injT. He discussed this question at length, 

 (luoting German experience on the subject 

 and concluded that it was the duty of the 

 National and State Governments to take 

 up planting on a large scale, and that vig- 

 orously. 



Dr. Roth's address on conditions in 

 Michigan and Wisconsin was very inter- 

 esting, as was that of Professor Toumey 

 on European conditions. 



Mr. Wilson spoke on Commercial For- 

 estry, and advocated planting for large 

 corporations and especially for pulp and 

 paper companies, and discussed the future 

 supply of pulpwood and the increasing use 

 of balsam fir in pulp-making. He also de- 

 scribed the planting experiments of the 

 Laurentide Co., Ltd. 



Mr. G. C. Piche, Chief of the Quebec 

 Forestry Service, Mr. Wilson reports, has 

 fourteen parties at work making estim- 

 ates and growth studies. A report has 

 been made on forty square miles show- 

 ing the amount of timber, the different 

 species and their rates of growth, etc., 

 and is a very important piece of work. 

 The report shows that we must modify our 

 ideas as to the amount of standing timber 

 and lower them considerably. 



LUMBERMEN AND FORESTRY. 



Lumbermen are eonietimes accused of hos- 

 tility or at least indifference towards scien- 

 tific forestry, but this, as everyone knows 

 who is acquainted with the facts, is not 

 the case. At a recent meeting of the North 

 Idaho Forestry Association, composed of 

 lumbermen and timber owners, the sum of 

 $58,000 was placed to the University of 

 Idaho for a new forestry building and 

 equipment. Officials of the University de- 

 (!lare that sixty per cent of the timber now 

 wasted in manufacture may be saved, and 

 it is to devise methods to show this that 

 the new building is required. The equip- 

 ment includes a saw-mill plant for the use 

 of students in learning the i)ractical side 

 of the industry. This is in harmony with 

 the action of the Massachusetts Lumber 

 Manufacturers' Association in supporting 

 a chair of applied forestry and practical 

 lumbering in the Yale University Forest 

 School, for which the Association has votejl 

 $100,000. 



