742 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



in co-operation with the Department of Agriculture. The 

 Southern states have vast supplies of wood and activi- 

 ties are already under way in that section looking toward 

 the substitution of wood for coal. The Department of 

 Agriculture has volunteered to ])rovide the services of 

 expert foresters who will supervise the cutting of wood 

 so that no damage may be done to growing timber and in 

 order that the largest use may be obtained of the supply 

 of wood. In addition to this source of supply the govern- 

 ment has statistics to show that there is a large quantity 

 of dead wood in many sections of the country and that the 

 supply in many communities is large enough for the 

 entire needs for domestic purposes. In many instances 

 this wood is destroyed as waste. 



One cord of hardwood is declared to equal a ton of 

 hard coal in fuel value. This takes in such woods as 

 hickory, oak, hard maple, beech, ash, birch and apple. 

 Varieties of wood which equal three-quarters of a ton of 

 coal to the cord are basswood, soft maple, chestnut, gray 

 birch and poplar. A value of half a ton to the cord is 



imputed to pine, aspen, hemlock, cedar, spruce and 

 balsam. 



The government is making every effort to prevent the 

 creation in this country of fuel conditions such as those 

 with which Europe is confronted. In a single day early 

 in December Associated Press dispatches from London. 

 Paris and Rome detailed the serious fuel problems in 

 England, France and Italy. England has been forced to 

 establish fuel rations based on a weekly allowance of 200 

 pounds for a four-room house. France has issued coal 

 cards, with a limit of 264 pounds a month for families of 

 four persons or less. In Italy heating has been suppressed 

 except in public buildings and cooking is done with gas 

 or charcoal. The coal supply of Italy is so short that 

 during last summer more than 1,000 square miles of for- 

 ests were cut down for use as fuel and for making char 

 coal. 



Students of the situation in the United States agree 

 that the use of wood is the sole solution of a fuel crisis 

 which is constantly growing more acute. 



BLACK LOCUST NEEDED FOR SHIPS 



THE revival of the wooden-ship industry has occa- 

 sioned a considerable demand for black locust wood 

 for "treenails," which are used to fasten the plank- 

 ing to the ribs of the ship. Black locust originally oc- 

 curred only along the Appalachian Mountains and on the 

 adjacent highlands, from Pennsylvania to Georgia, but 

 it has spread until it now is found in merchantable sizes 

 over a large area. The wood is very hard and close 

 grained and is one of the most durable hard woods 

 known, particularly when in contact with the soil or in 

 other moist situations. 



In supplying black-locust wood for shipbuilding pur- 

 poses it is very important, experts of the Forest Service 

 say, to be able to distinguish it from that of the honey 

 locust, a tree quite similar in many respects but whose 

 wood has a coarser grain and is of inferior quality. The 

 danger of selecting the wrong tree is increased by the 

 fact that in some localities the names applied are exactly 

 reversed, the honey locust being known exclusively as 

 black locust and the true black locust being known as 

 honey locust. 



In the case of both trees the leaves are of the com- 

 pound type, that is they are composed of a number of 

 small leaflets arranged along the central leaf-stalk. The 

 true black locust (which is known bota.iically as Robinia 



psetidacacia) has leaflets with smooth or entire margins. 

 The leaves of the honey locust {Gleditsia triananthus), 

 however, are shallow-toothed or scalloped along the 

 edges, particularly toward the ends. 



The character of the thorns also furnishes a dependable 

 means of identification. The thorns of the black locust 

 are short and arranged in pairs. Those of the honey 

 locust, on the other hand, are frequently several inches 

 in length, are often divided into three or more branches, 

 and may be produced in great quantities. They often 

 occur in dense clusters along the main trunk of the tree. 

 The seed pods are also distinctive. Those of the honey 

 locust are, as a rule, from 10 to 18 inches long, while the 

 pods of the black locust are shorter and usually measure 

 from 2 to 4 inches. 



To the experienced woodsman all of these features, of 

 course, are very familiar, as is also the characteristic ap- 

 pearance of the black locust caused by the attacks of an 

 insect known as the locust borer, which causes a charac- 

 teristic swelling of the branches. 



The ofificials of the Forest Service at Washington will 

 identify specimens without charge. They pomt out that 

 samples of leaves, twigs and fruits are always more de- 

 pendable as a means of identification than the wood itself. 



W/"HILE the studies of the value of the grazing privi- 

 lege made this year have borne out the original po- 

 sition of the United States Forest Service that the fees 

 formerly in force should be doubled, the present difHcul- 

 ties of the western livestock industry and the necessity 

 for stimulating livestock production as a war measure 

 have caused the Secretary of Agriculture to defer for 

 the present any further increase in grazing fees, except 



minor changes to correlate the fees between certain for- 

 ests or groups of forests. 



T TNDER a contract with a film manufacturing com- 

 '^ pany, the Department of Agriculture will supply 

 motion pictures deaUng with its activities, every two 

 weeks. The first release was "The Work of a Forest 

 Ranger." 



