News and Views of the Woods 



THE big tree supremacy of California is being disputed 

 by Australia. The tallest tree yet discovered in Cali- 

 fornia was found by actual measurement to be 340 feet 

 high. Australia's record gum tree can beat this by 140 feet. 

 Baron Mueller, formerly government botanist of Victoria, is 

 quoted as saying that Australian gum trees attain a height 

 of 500 feet. But the tallest tree the baron measured was a 

 prostrate one on the Blacks' Spur, ten miles from Heales- 

 ville, totalling 480 feet. This tree was 81 feet in girth near 

 the root. Another found in the same locality was 415 feet 

 high, with a circumference of 69 feet at the base. Mueller 

 refers to this species as "the highest tree on the globe, sur- 

 passing the famous California sequoia and Wellington pine." 

 In 1889, G. W. Robinson, civil engineer of Berwick, in a jour- 

 ney from Gippsland to Mount Baw, measured a tree 471 feet 

 high. The height of this specimen had previously been esti- 

 mated at not less than 500 feet. American Forestry. 



Politics prevented a general observance of Fire Prevention 

 Day, October 9, as designated by Governor Eberhart in a 

 proclamation issued in September. Friends of the governor 

 feared that if he called for a big meeting such as was held 

 in St. Paul on Fire Prevention Day last year, it would be de- 

 clared by some to be a political move. Accordingly, the day 

 was but little observed. It is planned, however, to set aside 

 a day during the meeting of the state conservation congress 

 in Minneapolis in November. At that time, the question will 

 be taken up in all its phases. 



The Minnesota forest rangers will meet with W. T. Cox, 

 state forester and D. P. Tierney, his assistant, at Cloquet, 

 November 1, to review the work of the past year and make 

 plans for 1913. Many qeustions of importance relative to fire 

 prevention and forest conservation, will be taken up. 



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