12 



Canadian Foreslr}) Journal, January, 1920 



SIlADt: AND ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



The object of the Department is to beautify 

 the Provincial Highway not to destroy beauty. 

 Existing shade and ornamental trees will not be 

 unnecessarily cut or injured. Trees will be con- 

 served — not wasted. 



Where no trees are now growing, the standard 

 cross-section can be closely followed in tree- 

 planting. Valuable standing trees, on the other 

 hand, will be preserved as far as possible, and 

 the general design of the road modified to this 

 end. A desirable variety will thereby be created 

 on tlie highway. 



The cutting and mutilating of trees by tele- 

 phone, telegraph and power companies will be 

 guarded against, and proper pruning insisted 

 upon. 



Trees are objectionable along a macadam or 

 gravel road only when so planted as to exclude 

 an amount of air and sunlight necessary to dry 

 the roadway, or when the roots interfere with 

 drainage. To this end trees planted by the 

 Department will be at the greatest possible dis- 

 tance from the roadway — at the margin of the 

 road allowance. They will not be planted too 

 close together, will be pruned upward to admit 

 air and sunlight, and the denser varieties of 

 shade trees will be avoided. 



NEWS OF FOREST ENGINEERS. 



Capt. L. M. Ellis has been appointed chief for- 

 ester of New Zealand, and will be in Canada 

 some time in January en route to the scene of 

 his new activities. Capt. Ellis, since his grad- 

 uation from the Faculty of Forestry at Toronto, 

 has been connected successively with the Do- 

 minion Forestry Branch, C.P.R. Forestry 

 Branch, the Canadian Forestry Corps in France, 

 and the forestry work of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture for Scotland. 



Capt. H. R. Christie, havmg returned from 

 service in France and in Siberia, has been ap- 

 pointed Assistant Provincial Forester of British 

 •^Columbia. 



The British Columbia Forest Branch has re- 

 cently undergone a reorganiation of its admm- 

 istrative machinery which will add greatly to 

 the efficiency of its work. The general salary 

 scale has been revised upward in a way which 

 sets the pace for all other forestry organizations 

 in Canada, and will tend strongly to attract 

 and hold able men, instead of compelling them 

 to seek employment elsewhere. 



WHAT ARTIFICIAL SILK IS. 



Artificial silk is practically the same substance 

 chemically as natural silk, the retort and test tube 

 of the chemist having been called upon to convert 

 wood pulp into cellulose and then into silk by 

 mechanical processes, just as the silk worm within 

 its body converts the mulberry leaf into cellulose 

 and then spins its cocoon. 



In general, wood pulp is converted mto cellulose 

 by treatment with causticc soda which forms a 

 sodium cellulose, and then is dissolved in carbon 

 bisulphide. This product, alkali-cellulosexanthate, 

 is popularly known as viscose, used in another form 

 for open-faced envelopes, and is ripened and filtered 

 then forced through minute openings in a metal 

 plate into a solidifying solution, the thread then 

 being about the same consistency and form as the 

 threads of the silk worm's cocoon. The artificial 

 silk goods are sometimes harsher in feeling than 

 the natural, but advanced manufacture is rapidly 

 eliminating this defect. 



B. C. DUES INCREASED. 



Royalties exacted by the British Columbia Pro- 

 vincial Government on cut timber and logs have 

 been increased to the amount of thirty-seven cents 

 per thousand feet, commencing with the new year. 



Following the compilation by the Forest Branch 

 of the Department of Lands of the average whole- 

 sale selling price of lumber over the period of the 

 past five years, the increase was was decided upon, 

 it being found that with the advance in lumber 

 prices by the mills the above increase was war- 

 ranted. 



The increase is made by virtue of the Timber 

 Royalty Act passed by the former Conservati-ze 

 Government in 1914, by which it was provided 

 that a definite plan of fixing the royalties to be paid 

 should be made effective, thus affording some secur- 

 ity to holders of timber areas and lumbermen who 

 would thereby have reasonable knowledge of ^vhat 

 royalties they would be called upon to pay into the 

 provincial exchequer. It was provided that the in- 

 crease in royalties in future would be based upon 

 the average wholesale selling price of lumber over 

 periods of five years each, the average selling price 

 to be ascertained each year f.o.b. at the mills. The 

 present increase is based upon the first five years' 

 period since the act came into effect. 



