WOOD FUEL AS A NATIONAL NEED 



89 



Photograph by Western Newspaper Union. 



THE CUT-A-CORD CLUB IN FULL ACTION 



These earnest workers are as busy as the men in the trenches and as necessary to national welfare. They are producing fuel on a large scale 

 and if enough of us follow their example next winter's cold weather will be robbed of much of the terror experienced this winter. The Cut-a-Cord 

 Club was a Massachusetts enterprise originally and its example has been widely followed. 



The use of dynamite in converting standing stumps 

 into fuel is receiving attention. An experiment recently 

 worked out by Professor Mandenburg, Forestry Special- 

 ist of the Michigan Agricultural College in conjunction 

 with the Agricultural Agent of the G. R. & I. Railway 

 Company will prove of interest. It was demonstrated 

 that there was a large demand for stump wood in the 

 larger cities of Michigan, especially Grand Rapids and 

 Detroit, and that $2.15 per cord was offered for it by the 

 dealers ; that about three dollars' worth of dynamite 

 would blast out and break up stumps containing an aver- 

 age of eight cords of wood. 



There are a good many advantages connected with this 

 idea. The clearing of stump land represents an economic 

 gain because after the wood is burned, there still remains 

 the virgin farm land to be used in increasing the nation's 

 food products. Some of the stump wood would have 

 to be hauled by rail but most of such haulage would be 

 purely local and probably mostly by team. 



The New York authorities have estimated that the 

 cutting of one cord of wood from each acre of farm 

 wood lots in New York State would in itself save 1,125,- 

 000 tons of coal. If coal could be saved proportionately 

 in other states, it can readily be seen that the coal con- 

 servation would foot up an immense aggregate and that 

 railroad equipment that could be used for other purposes 

 would be released to the extent of thousands of cars and 

 many locomotives. 



At the recent annual meeting of the Massachusetts 

 Association of Golf Clubs, the plan to substitute the axe 

 for the golf club during the winter months was unani- 

 mously adopted with a strong endorsement by their Presi- 



dent, Henry H. Wilder. The Concord Country Club has 

 acquired woodland adjacent to its course, and the mem- 

 bers have cut and stacked 125 cords. Other golf clubs 

 are making arrangements with owners of accessible 

 wood lots, and are cutting in parties in the same manner 

 in which they play golf. Many factories in Massachu- 

 setts are sending their employes out to chop wood on 

 workless Mondays. 



The College of Forestry at Syracuse University has 

 just called the attention of the county fuel administrator 

 and the president of the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce 

 to an opportunity for securing several thousand cords 

 of wood for local use. A hardwood operator within 25 

 miles of Syracuse has 3,000 cords of beech, birch and 

 maple slabs which can be loaded at a price not to ex- 

 ceed $7.00 per cord, provided some additional labor can 

 be secured. In view of the recent order closing the 

 local industries, it is believed that surplus labor may be 

 provided for this operation, in order to secure a con- 

 tinuous stream of hardwood for use in Syracuse as an 

 accessory fuel. 



One method of utilizing the vast amount of cordwood 

 material which is found near many towns and cities is 

 suggested in the organization of "logging bees" such as 

 were common a generation ago in some parts of the 

 country. The men of a neighborhood get together with 

 axes and saws and in a short time clear up the dead and 

 down timber on a considerable tract of woodland. In 

 the old days such material was usually piled and burned 

 to get rid of it. It is a fairly simple task now to collect 

 the wood at a central point and saw it up for fuel. 



A woodcutting bee was recently held in Old Lyme, 



