212 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



I possess, and particularly for my attitude toward the 

 forestry movement as a whole. I consider it an excep- 

 tionally good fortune which permitted me to sit at the 

 feet of so great a teacher, with whom forestry was not 

 merely theory but a movement ever changing as life 

 itself, and for whom problems became soluble not in 

 ready-made formulas, but in the forces, economic and 

 natural, that are at work. 



Clyde Leavitt, Forester to the Commission of Conserva- 

 tion of Canada: 



While Dr. Fernow's invaluable services as the pioneer 

 of technical forestry in the United States are becoming 

 increasingly recognized, there is as yet but inadequate 

 public recognition of the similar part he has played in 

 Canada. It was through his course of lectures at Kings- 

 ton, Ontario, while he was still connected with Cornell 

 University, that a really wide public interest in forestry 

 first began to be aroused, resulting later in the establish- 

 ment of forest schools and leading up to the employment 

 of trained foresters by public and private agencies. In 

 his remarkably active work in the field of forestry in 

 Canada, Dr. Fernow has rendered notable public service 

 as Dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of 

 Toronto, as one of the members of the Commission of 

 Conservation of Canada, as a member and Director of 

 the Canadian Forestry Association, and as one of the 

 progenitors of the Canadian Society of Forest Engineers. 

 So extended have been his activities and so wide his in- 

 fluence that he may in all truth be termed the father of 

 technical forestry in Canada, as well as in the United 

 States. 



growth-activity to many times the normal rate. The 

 possibility of modifying the rate of growth was a matter 

 of great practical importance, for the world's supply of 

 food depended on the growth of plants. The rule-of- 

 thumb method hitherto employed in the application of a 

 few chemical stimulants and of electrictiy had not been 

 found uniformly successful. Researches by means of the 

 crescograph showed that a very important factor was 

 the dose of application, any excess above the critical point 

 bringing about a result diametrically opposite to what 

 was expected. Thus while a particular intensity of elec- 

 trical current accelerated growth an excess of current 

 retarded it. The same was true of chemical stimulants. 



ANAESTHETICS FOR TREES 



SIR Jagadis Chandra Bose gave recently at the India 

 Office some account of his investigations into the 

 secrets of plant life and of the discoveries he has made 

 therein, says the London Times. 



Sir Jagadis said he had discovered that it was possible 

 to transplant trees without injuring them if the operation 

 were performed while they were subject to the effects 

 of an anaesthetic. A tree so treated shed its leaves after 

 transplanting in the summer instead of in the autumn, 

 but it very soon recovers itself and became normal. 



The most intense activity of life was often inpercepti- 

 ble, and it was only by making the unseen visible that 

 the mystery of growth and movements of life would be- 

 come revealed. He showed that by the crescograph the 

 highest powers of the miscroscope were magnified 10,000 

 times. No experimental conditions for exhibition of 

 growth could have been more difficult than in the depth 

 of English winter, when plants were in their period of 

 hibernation. In spite of this they were made to shake off 

 their torpor, and the rate of growth was exhibited by the 

 indicating spot of light rushing across a ten-foot scale 

 in the course of twelve seconds, the actual rate being 

 about a hundred-thousandth part of an inch per second. 

 With the crescograph to guide him, the life-activity of 

 the plant became subservient to the will of the experi- 

 menter. 



A depressing chemical agent was applied and the march 

 of life was slowed down ; a timely application of a suit- 

 able stimulant revived the dying plant and exalted the 



GREAT BRITAIN'S FORESTRY 



COMMISSION 



TN a letter to the editor of American Forestry Maga- 

 * zine, Colonel John Sutherland, of the Forestry Com- 

 mission at Edinburgh, says : "We have now had 

 the Forestry Commission established in Britain, consist- 

 ing of Lord Lovat, chairman; Right Hon. E. D. Acland, 

 Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, Col. W. Steuart Fothring- 

 ham, Lord Clinton, Mr. L. Forestier-Walker, Mr. T. B. 

 Ponsonby and Mr. R. L. Robinson. We are now engaged 

 in preparing afforestation schemes and hope that by 

 April we may have some acres planted, but we cannot 

 achieve nearly as much as we would like in the first year 

 as we have only now really got to work. 



"I hope the proposals which are so admirably de- 

 scribed in the American Forestry Magazine for the 

 reafforestment of the United States may take root and 

 that Colonel Graves may receive all the support that is 

 necessary to assure America of a good crop of trees for 

 the future. It seems to me that it is very necessary both 

 for America and for Britain that afforestation should 

 be well established so that a sufficient supply of timber 

 in both countries will be available within the next fifty 

 years. 



"It is very desirable that we should keep in touch with 

 your work in America, and I will be glad, if you desire 

 it, from time to time to let you know what we are doing 

 at home. 



"I retain many pleasant recollections of my association 

 with the Forestry Engineers in France, and will always 

 remember the excellent co-operation and assistance which 

 was rendered to us by Colonel Graves, Colonel Greeley, 

 Colonel Woolsey, Major Bruce and many others who 

 were associated with us in procuring timber for the 

 armies. Major Frederick S. Kellogg was the Officer in 

 Charge of the First Company of Engineers which were 

 lent to the British Directorate of Forestry, and to him 

 and his staff we were indebted for the formation of an 

 excellent operation in Les Landes. 



"If you are in touch with any of these officers, I will 

 be glad if you will convey to them my best wishes 

 for 1920." 



