ARMENIA AS SEEN BY AN AMERICAN FORESTER 



49 



an element of excitement that adds zest to things, too. 

 For instance, nobody who doesn't have to goes out at 

 night. There are too many bandits around. And every 

 day you hear of murder, assault, robbery, holding for 

 ransom, and such little things. Add to this the fact that 

 typhoid is always epidemic, that cholera is rampant only 

 a few miles away and that there is a regular leprosy vil-' 

 lage over near Tabriz and you see that this is an inter- 

 esting country. One does not grow bored with life here 

 by any means. He may be sitting quietly some evening 

 and allowing his mind to drift into idle thought realms, 

 but a couple of rifle shots in the dark out on the road 

 will probably wake him up. 



"There is one thing that makes one glad that he came 

 here. That is the way the American missionaries have 

 stuck to their posts. As I write there are more than nine 

 American women and their children right here in the 

 middle of things. And most of them went through the 

 siege of two years ago when this compound contained 

 some thousands of refugees and when typhus fever car- 

 ried off dozens of them a day. One doctor told me of the 

 rescue of the Christians of Goeg-Taper when one mis- 

 sionary went in among the Kurds while the bullets were 

 flying all around him, talked the Kurds around, stopped 

 the fight, and got the sixteen hundred cornered Chris- 

 tians to surrender their arms and then led them right 

 through the Kurdish troops five miles to the city and 

 safety. 



"I assure you that it is a pleasure and an inspiration to 

 be working with that fellow. And the women were just 

 as fine, too. And now this whole region just loves these 

 American missionaries. The day I got here I saw a big, 

 evil-looking mountaineer, who looked like a terror, run 

 up to Dr. Shedd and try to kiss his hand, while tears 

 stood in his eyes. But one can easily understand it, for 

 there would be no Urumia, and nothing but a barren 

 waste on all sides if these men and women had not stuck 

 to their posts. They saved the lives, property and coun- 

 try of probably 40,000 people, more or less. So you see I 

 am glad to be here and I hope that I may have the chance 

 to do my bit here where the need is so terrible. Surely I 

 have the very best of company." 



BUTTRICK'S NEW ASSIGNMENT 



W7"ORD has just been received that Mr. P. L. But- 

 " trick, whose interesting article, "A Forester at the 

 Fighting Front," appeared in the December issue of 

 American Forestry, has been appointed supervisor of 

 construction of barracks, huts, storehouses, etc., for the 

 American Red Cross and the Y. M. C. A. in all France. 

 This work will call him to all the mills where the build- 

 ings are put out in lots of 50 to 100, and very likely he 

 will have much of interest to report a little later rela- 

 tive to lumber industries in war times. 



W/"HAT is said to be the smallest species of tree in the 

 world is the Greenland birch. It reaches a height of 

 less than three inches, though it covers a radius of two or 

 three feet. 



TREE SURGEON SAVES LEMON TREE 



BY V. W. KILKECK 

 ly/T R. G. W. BECK, at La Habra, California, recently 

 - L '- 1 - saved a lemon tree, the root of which had been rot- 

 ted with the gum disease called Lemon Gumosis. This 

 disease usually starts in a small hole on the trunk near 

 the ground and steadily grows worse until it encircles the 

 trunk, cutting off the supply of nourishment from the 

 root to the tree entirely and causing death. 





IE 



SAVED BY ARCH-GRAFTING 



Though this little tree seemed to be doomed, it is responding valiantly 

 to Arch-Grafting and promises to be a valuable member of the community 

 for many years to come. 



By arch-grafting sucker twigs, which grew up from a 

 lower part of the root, to the trunk of a small lemon tree, 

 above the region which was diseased, the sick tree de- 

 rived its plant food and has continued growing and pro- 

 ducing fruit. The grafted suckers will eventually in- 

 crease in size until able to support the tree after the 

 lower part of its trunk is cut completely off its old root. 



In cases where suckers do. not naturally sprout from 

 the old root a few seeds planted close to the tree may be 

 used to create a new root system. When the seedlings 

 are large enough they may be arch-grafted into the trunk 

 of the sick tree in the manner described above. 



rp WO large mining and concentrating companies have 

 -*- made small-scale tests on hardwood tar as a flota- 

 tion oil and have reported very satisfactory results. 



