FORESTRY NOTES AND COMMENTS 



'TUIE construction of wooden ships has caused such 

 -- a heavy demand for locust tree-nails that the price 

 has jumped to considerably beyond the normal figure. 

 One of the consequences of this has been widely varying 

 prices asked for suitable locust stumpage, with a marked 

 upward tendency. The Forest Service is selling locust 

 stumpage from the Pisgah Forest, for some of which 

 very high prices have been bid. Prior to the development 

 of the demand for tree-nails locust posts were being sold 

 at 5 cents apiece. Tree-nail material is ordinarily sold 

 by the cord, and the equivalent of 5 cents apiece for 

 posts would be about $5 a cord. The class of material 

 required for tree-nails, however, is much higher. After 

 careful consideration of all the factors the Forest Serv- 

 ice has reached the conclusion that a stumpage charge for 

 locust suitable for tree-nails varying from $5 to $15 a 

 cord, according to the accessibility and other determining 

 factors, is justified. On the Pisgah Forest recent sales 

 have been made at $7 per cord. 



"|%yTONEY has been subscribed by members of the 

 -*-"*- Washington office for a service flag to show for 

 the entire United States Forest Service the number of 

 men who have gone into the Army and Navy. The 

 dimensions of the flag are 6 by 10 feet; it will have 255 

 stars, with room for additions. The presence of the flag 

 on the front of the Atlantic Building will serve to remind 

 the people of Washington that the Forest Service is do- 

 ing its share in the military branches as well as in the 

 investigative work relating to war problems. 



\ LETTER and telegram received by the Forest Serv- 

 -^*- ice in one day from District 5 described an alarm- 

 ing outlook and furnished a happy ending, for the 

 drought situation in California. At the time the letter 

 was written no rain had fallen in southern California, 

 and very little over the rest of the State. Losses of 

 stock were already severe and promised to become sweep- 

 ing. A few bits of feed had been opened up to the Santa 

 Barbara Forest, but beyond this the Service was power- 

 less to help. The telegram, however, which was sent 

 five days after the letter, reported that, beginning the 

 day after the letter had been mailed, a general rain had 

 fallen throughout the State. 



rpHAT the war farming propaganda of last spring 

 * met with a response from the farmers of at least 

 one State, which was related in a novel way with the 

 working of the Weeks law, is shown by the report of the 

 State Forester of Kentucky on fire co-operation for 

 1 91 7. According to the report, there was an unpreced- 

 ented number of fires in Kentucky last spring caused by 

 farmers burning brush while clearing land for cultiva- 

 tion. Over half the forest fires reported in the State 

 last year, the State Forester says, were from this cause 

 alone. 



112 



TjMFTY species of South American woods are now un- 

 * dergoing tests at the Forest Products laboratory. 

 They constitute probably the first large group of tropical 

 woods to be tested in this country for commercial pur- 

 poses. The question of primary interest in the present 

 investigation, is the war value of each of the woods, 

 but data gathered may point to the advisability of perma- 

 nently correlating these species with the commercial tim- 

 bers of the United States. Many of them exist in 

 enormous quantities, and can be cheaply exported ; and 

 with a knowledge of their characteristics it should be 

 possible for us to use them to replace some of our 

 scarcer native woods. Through the installation of a 

 hydraulic press in the section of preservation, the labo- 

 ratory is enabled to manufacture its own veneer panels 

 for testing purposes. This new equipment will greatly 

 facilitate the study of veneer airplane parts and of water- 

 proof glues. 



T^HE Saginaw & Manistee Lumber Company has exe- 

 -*- cuted a contract for the purchase of the remaining 

 timber on the Kendrick Park and Kendrick Mountain 

 units within the Tusayan and Coconino National For- 

 ests, thus concluding negotiations begun in 191 5. The 

 Company had previously purchased in small sales some 

 timber within these units, but delayed taking all, on the 

 ground that it could not do so until Congress passed the 

 bill extending the time within which the timber rights 

 could be exercised on a large number of odd-numbered 

 sections within the same Forest. The Department of 

 Agriculture has reported favorably upon this bill and 

 there is good prospect that it will pass. Meanwhile, the 

 new sale involving some 40,000,000 feet, will enable the 

 Company to operate with logical extensions of its pres- 

 ent railroad system. 



/^|VER 1,000 pounds of western white pine seed were 

 ^^ extracted last year on the Kaniksu National Forest 

 at an approximate cost of $3.75 per pound. The high 

 cost was accounted for by the fact that the dry weather 

 opened up cones on the trees, so that nine-tenths of the 

 seed was lost before the cones could be gathered. The 

 survey crew, under G. W. Jones, covered during the 

 season 14,105 acres of intensive topographic surveying, 

 and 169,495 acres under extensive survey on the Coeur 

 d'Alene, Pend Oreille, and St. Joe Forests. 



A NUMBER of men formerly engaged in Acquisition 

 -^*- work in the United States Forest Service are now 

 in the army. E. L. Lindsey is in France as first lieuten- 

 ant in the Tenth Engineers and is in command of the 

 first detachment of that regiment. H. L. Cooper, a 

 former transitman, is a second lieutenant at the Camp 

 Lee Training School ; J. F. Quisenbery is a first lieuten- 

 ant in the Engineer Corps ; W. A. Mattoon is at Camp 

 Slocum; while C. H. Burrage and John H. Keener are 

 in the Twentieth Engineers (Forest). 



