10 



the new lands will be exhausted long before the supply of coal from 

 the more accessible and important veins are gone. 



From the standpoint of the ownership and use of the land the 

 opportunity of forest planting presented to the coal companies is a 

 remarkable one. In acquiring the land for a mining plant and its 

 accessory properties a coal company gains title to considerable sur- 

 face. It is sometimes necessary to purchase the whole farm in order 

 to secure ownership of the underlying coal vein. The majority of 

 such properties must be retained by the company until the coal has 

 all been worked out. The use of these farms is sometimes a perplex- 

 ing problem. Many coal companies do not care to enter into a sys- 

 tem of farming, especially if only a small number of farms are ac- 

 quired. Others find that their holdings steadily deteriorate through 

 wasteful management of the farms by tenants, and that the income 

 under such a system is relatively small. Still other companies raise 

 crops on the better soils, and allow the poor portions of the farms or 

 the areas covered by sink holes to lie idle except for a little grazing. 



Under these conditions not only is forest planting advisable from 

 the standpoint of complete utilization and productiveness of all the 

 land, but a great opportunity is presented to improve the final sale 

 value of such lands when their possession is no longer essential to 

 mining operations. In addition, forest planting will furnish a valu- 

 able supply of pit props before the underlying coal veins are gener- 

 ally exhausted. Several coal companies have had this matter under 

 consideration, and have begun to make plans for forest planting. 

 One of these is the H. C. Frick Coke Company, which has sought the 

 assistance of the Forest Service in making a forest planting plan for 

 several hundred acres of waste land. An account of this plan follows 

 later. 



INSECTS AN OBSTACLE TO PLANTING. 



INJURY BY A DEFOLIATING CATERPILLAR. 



In southwestern Pennsylvania the forests, woodlots, and orchards 

 have been severely damaged by a measuring worm which defoliates 

 the trees early in the spring. In 1905 its destructive work was 

 observed in Somerset, Westmoreland, Fayette, Allegheny, Armstrong, 

 Butler, Washington, and Greene counties, Pa. The State zoologist, 

 Mr. H. A. Surface, reports damage also in Cambria, Bedford, Blair, 

 Huntingdon, and Indiana counties. This defoliation of the trees has 

 been a serious trouble for several years throughout the forests of 

 Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge. In the open agricultural country 

 west of these ridges exceptional damage has occurred in local spots in 

 the counties already named. This measuring worm appears to attack 

 all hardwood trees, except locust and walnut, and is especially injuri- 

 ous to red and chestnut oak, chestnut, hickory, ash, and maple. 



