1002 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



by men of experience and proven business acumen a 

 distinctly progressive step is taken. The personal knowl- 

 edge and influence of the members of the new company, 

 their understanding of the timber and lumber industries, 

 the very high regard in which "Lacey" reports and 

 recommendations are held, renders it possible for the 

 company to perform a genuine service for their clients. 



The officers of the com|)any are : President, James D. 

 Lacey; vice-president and treasurer. Wood Ueal ; vice- 

 president, Victor Thrane; secretary, J. W. McCurdy. 

 The directors include the officers named and Frank I). 

 Stout and Lamont Rowlands, of Chicago, and Charles 

 S. Keith, of Kan.sas City, Mo. Other stockholders of 

 equal prominence are available for service on the board. 

 The knowledge, experience and ability of the officers and 

 directors of the company, fortified and supported by the 

 reliable and detailed information in their possession, has 

 made possible the success already obtained. The advent 

 of this company should serve to place lumber and timber 

 finance on a much more secure basis. 



The facts briefly recited here will make a strong appeal 

 to every forester and to all interested in the subject, for 

 practical forestry means profitable forestry and entails 

 satisfactory methods of finance. 



Mr. Kaestner received his early education in the pub- 

 lic schools of Philadelphia, graduating from the Central 

 High School, Course of Commerce, in 1!)10. His For- 



BEAVER DAMS LAST 150 YEARS 



H( )V\' long will a beaver dam last? At least a 

 hundred and fifty years is the conclusion of the 

 New York Conservation Commission, as the re 

 suit of an examination of trees growing upon a very old 

 dam in the vicinity of Eighth Lake in the Fulton Chain. 



Scrub white cedars on this dam were cut down, in order 

 to count their annual growth rings, by W. C. Talmage, 

 of Camp Waubun, Se\enth Lake, whose study of beavers 

 during the last thirty years has taken him over many oi 

 the wild ])ortions of the United States and Canada. A 

 section of one, just received by the Commission, is nine 

 inches in diameter and shows P^j annual rings. Others 

 as large as si.xteen inches have rotted in the center until 

 they are mere shells, whose age can only be guessed at. 



On the supposition that the trees could not have taken 

 root upon thL- dam until it had become covered with 

 humus from dead leaves, or silt washed on by the stream, 

 it is believed by the Commission that the dam dates back 

 certainly until HO-j, before the power of the Iroquois 

 Confederacy was broken, and when the .Adirondacks 

 were still their beaver hunting country of a])parently 

 inexhaustibfe su];])ly. Then every stream held evidence 

 of their skill, and the i^elts that they'supi)licd even passed 

 for currency at Fort Orange and New York. 



In" their old haunts along the Fulton Chain they are 

 conjing into their own again, until they have become one 

 of th; prime attractions of th: region. 



WEST VIRGINIA'S STATE FORESTER 



BY RECENT action of the legislature of West 

 X'irginia the jjosition of State Forester was 

 created, under the Dei;artnic!U of the Forest, 

 Game and Fish Warden, and H. J. Kaestner, 1227 Lan- 

 caster Ave.. We.st Philadeli)hia. was ai)];ointed. 



11. .1. KAIiST.NKK 



The young Philadelphian, a graduate of the Pennsylvania State College 

 Forestry Deuartment, who has been appointed State Forester of West 

 Virginia. 



estry work was pursued at the Pennsylvania State Col- 

 lege, from which institution he received his degree in 

 1914. 



Mr. Kaestner, both as a student and since graduating, 

 has traveled extensively through the forested regions of 

 the United States. He has seen active service on the 

 Cascade National Forest in Oregon, while extensive trips 

 through New England, the Lake States and the Southern 

 States were made by him in pursuance of his studies 

 while at college. 



Headquarters of the Forestry Department are main- 

 tained at Relington, W. \'a. This department has been 

 conducted under the direction of J. A. \'iquesney, State 

 Forest, Game and Fish Warden and it is now assuming 

 the important position in the growth of that State which 

 it so justly deserves. West X'irginia, ranking eleventii 

 in lumber production, realizes the im])ortance of its 

 natural resources and the field open to .Mr. Kaestner is 

 a large one. 



