AMERICAN FORESTRY 



639 



TIMBER FROM LIVE AND DEAD 

 TREES 



"PREJUDICE exists in certain quarters 

 against the use of timber cut from 

 dead trees, and some purchase specifications 

 insist that only timber cut from live trees 

 will be acceptable. As a matter of fact 

 when sound dead trees are sawed into 

 lumber, and the weathered or charred out- 

 side is cut away, there is no method known 

 to the Forest Products Laboratory by 

 which the lumber can be distinguished from 

 that cut from live trees, except that the 

 lumber from dead trees may be partly 

 seasoned when sawed. 



All the information available at the labo- 

 ratory indicates that timber cut from insect 

 or fire killed trees is just as good for any 

 structural purpose as that cut from live 

 trees of similar quality, providing the wood 

 has not been subsequently injured by decay 

 or further insect attack. If a tree stands 

 on the stump too long after it is killed, the 

 sapwood is likely to become decayed or 

 badly infested by wood-boring insects; and 

 in time the heartwood also will be similar- 

 ly affected. The same thing is true of logs 

 cut from live trees and not properly cared 

 for. Until the wood becomes affected by 

 these destructive agents, dead tree wood 

 should be just as strong and just as durable 

 as sound live tree wood. 



In considering the subject it may be use- 

 ful to remember that the heartwood of a 

 living tree is entirely dead, and in the sap- 

 wood only a comparatively few cells are 

 living. Most of the wood cut from trees is 

 dead, therefore, regardless of whether the 

 tree itself is living or not. Such being the 

 case, purchase specifications, instead of 

 providing that material must not be from 

 dead trees, should state that material 

 showing evidence of decay or insect in- 

 festation exceeding a specified limit will 

 not be accepted. 



BRITISH IMPERIAL FOREST POLICY 

 A T the recent British Forestry Confer- 

 ence in London, attended by delegates 

 from all parts of the Empire, it was em- 

 phasized that "the foundation of a stable 

 forest policy for the Empire and for its 

 component parts must be the collection, co- 

 ordination and dissemination of facts as 

 to the existing state of the forests and the 

 current and prospective demands on them. 

 To this end it is of the first importance 

 that a systematic survey be undertaken in 

 each part of the Empire which will not 

 only serve as the basis of the forest policy 

 in that part, but also provide a means 

 for reviewing the forestry position of the 

 Empire as a whole." 



The destruction of fore?ts in the United 

 Kingdom during the war for military pur- 

 es, says the United States Consul at 

 Ion in Daily Commerce Reports, and 

 the dependence upon overseas supplies have 

 led to extensive reforestation plans and 

 given stimulus to governmental action to- 

 ward securing a scientific forest policy 



based on the economic principles of annual 

 cutting of surplus timber as a crop and 

 provision for automatic reproduction, as 

 well as the reforestation of large unused 

 areas. 



It is urged that each of the governments 

 of the Empire should lay down a definite 

 forest policy to be administered by a prop- 

 erly constituted and adequate forest serv- 

 ice, and a central Forestry Bureau in Lon- 

 don is recommended for study, research 

 and reference. 



FOREST RESEARCH 



* COMPLETE summary of all of the 

 -^*- scientific investigations upon forest 

 problems which are now under way in the 

 United States and in Canada has recently 

 been published as a bulletin upon "North 

 American Forest Research" by the Nation- 

 al Research Council, Washington, D. C. 



In this bulletin 519 different projects for 

 investigation are described including the 

 reforestation of cut-over areas, the replace- 

 ment of timber cuttings by natural growth, 

 the control of insect pests and fungus dis- 

 eases of forest trees, beneficial modifica- 

 tions of lumbering practice, the preserva- 

 tion of timber in use, the utilization of by- 

 products and the relation of forestry to 

 rainfall, control of flood waters, grazing, 

 etc. 



The importance of the most penetrating 

 study upon the conservation of our re- 

 maining forest resources is brought home 

 by the recent announcement of the Forest 

 Service that "three-fifths of the original 



THE 



1337-1339 F STREET.N.W. 

 WflSHINGTON.P.Q. 



PeSI<3N^.RS 



flNP 



ILLUSTRATORS 



3 ^olor Process Work 

 ^lotrotypss 



Superior Qoality 



Phone Main 8Z74 



i Your Prospective Customers 



ate listed in our Catalog of 99% guaranteed Mailing Lists. It also 

 contains vital suggestions how to advertise and sell profitably by mail. 

 Counts and prices given on 9000 different national Lists, covering ali 

 classes; for instance. Farmers, Noodle Mfrs., Hardware Dlrs., Zinc 

 Mines, etc. This valuable reference book free. Write for it. 



Send Them Sales Letters 



You can produce sales or inquiries with personal 

 letters. Many concerns all over U. S. are profitably 

 using Sales Letters we write. Send iorfree instruct- 

 ive booklet, " Value of Sales Letter*." 



Ross-Gould 



> Arlci i ling 



Sir. Louis 



timber of the United States is gone and 

 that we are using timber four times as 

 fast as we are growing it." Our annual 

 consumption of lumber alone is over 300 

 board feet per capita, and of newsprint is 

 33 pounds per capita. Cut and burned over 

 forest lands in the United States, now waste 



territory, equal in area the whole of the 

 present standing forests of Denmark, Ger- 

 many, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzer- 

 land, Spain and Portugal. The total popu- 

 lation of these countries is about 152,200,- 

 000, nearly 50 per cent greater than the 

 population of the United States. 



