472 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



going to waste augments the amount of food that can be 

 spared for export. By providing its own winter stores 

 through canning or drying the household reduces the de- 

 mands which it must make on the open market. Every- 

 thing stored on the pantry slielf or saved from waste is 

 a factor in releasing other edibles for transmission to 

 war-ridden Europe. Conservation thus becomes a dis- 

 tinct service to the nation and to those who are engaged 

 with us in the fight for Democracy. Its practice is a 

 patriotic duty and in this time of war no true American 

 can afford to do less than his full share in bringing about 

 100 per cent efficiency in the use of the foodstuffs with 

 which nature has rewarded the labors of the Soldiers 

 of the Soil. 



To encourage, stimulate and render easy the practice 

 of food thrift through Home Canning and Home Drying 

 the National Emergency Food Garden Commission is 

 bending its every energy and resource. In the various 

 ramifications of the undertaking the Commission has 

 had in mind the one vital fact that a nation at war is 

 a nation with a food problem. This problem is funda- 

 mental. Its solution is essential to success at arms. With 

 all Europe aflame, her fields devastated and fruitless and 

 her population engaged in the pursuits of war, America 

 is confronted not merely with the obligation to feed 

 itself, but to feed its allies as well. The world supply 

 of food is abnormally short. If victory is to be achieved 

 in the battle for democracy America's food wealth must 

 be thriftily and intelligently utilized. Armies cannot fight 

 unless well fed. Countries at war cannot give their 

 armies adequate su])port if the home po])uIation is weak- 

 ened by hunger and want. America is the one country 

 among the allied nations which this year will product- 

 foodstuffs in excess of her own needs. The measure of 

 this excess will be the extent to which Food Thrift is prac- 

 ticed by every American citizen. If we permit waste to 

 go on as in the past the surplus will be reduced to zero. 

 If we engage in Food Conservation on a national scale 

 it will become an abundance with which we may jirevent 

 starvation in Europe. Food Thrift, therefore, is the one 

 true secret of success in the great war. With it we can 

 win the conflict. Without it the most brilliant achieve- 

 ments of our armed forces will be of no avail and Amer- 

 ica must face her first defeat. The choice must be of 

 our own making. 



THE lumber industry is doing its share in provid- 

 ing material for national defense," said John W. 

 Blodgett, Chairman of the Trade Extension Commit- 

 tee of the National Lumber Manufacturers Associa- 

 tion today. "Reports to the National Association of- 

 fice by 691 mills just tabulated, show that during the 

 month of June these mills cut 1,499,000,000 feet of 

 lumber and shipped 1,581,000,000 feet, the largest vol- 

 ume of shipments ever reported to this office during 

 any one month. Moreover, telegraphic reports from 

 300 representative Southern and Western mills show 

 that during the last four weeks these mills have cut 

 655,000,000 feet of lumber and shipped 784,000,000 feet, 

 of 20 per cent, more than they produced. 



A GIANT SASSAFRAS TREE 



FOLLOWING the publication in American Forestrv 

 for January of the photograph of a veteran sassafras 

 of unusual size at Horsham, Pennsylvania, Mr. 

 Beirne Lay, of Keswick, Virginia, sends the following in- 

 teresting account of a sassafras on the farm of Mr. Frank 

 M. Randolph, near Keswick : "I enclose the photogra])h 

 of the big sassafras. The measurements 20 feet 6 

 inches, at six inches above the ground, and 18 feet 4 

 inches, at five feet above the ground. show this to be a 

 good deal bigger than the Pennsylvania tree, and prob- 

 ably the largest in this country. Some years back this 

 tree was a hollow trunk, broken off at the top and 

 lanjjuishing. Someone built a fire in the interior which 



SASSAFR.AS TREE OK VIRGINIA FARM 



The rival ut the Hurshain Sassafras, which only measured 13 feet in cir- 

 cumference 16 inches from the ground, while this rejuvenated as the story 

 proves specimen measures 20 feet only 6 inches from the ground. 



was quenched with difficulty. It was thought that the 

 fire would finish the tree. Instead, it killed the bugs 

 and hardened the interior surface and the old tree stuni]) 

 branched out, like a dressy old woman, in a new Easter 

 bonnet, with the crown of strong, healthy boughs that 

 \ou see in the photograph." 



OAID the late Simon B. Elliott, one of the pioneer 

 *^ foresters of America: "I can come to no other 

 conclusion than that of the 10,000,000 acres of non- 

 agricultural land in Pennsylvania at least sixty per 

 cent, is now, or soon will be so devoid of uninjured 

 trees of valuable species that it must be planted to 

 justify the payment of taxes." 



