342 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



August 



thousand acres of land in Westmore- 

 land, Fayette, and Greene counties, Pa. 

 Part of this land is under cultivation, 

 and the rest is idle owing to the coal 

 having been taken out. None of it is 

 very profitable, and the company is 

 proposing to plant trees on it. Such 

 rapid growing varieties as are suitable 

 for fence and pit posts are desired. 

 It is also proposed to plant such varie- 

 ties as will yield good sized timbers in 

 fifty or sixty years. Mr. S. N. Spring, 

 Forest Assistant, has been detailed to 

 make the preliminary examination for 

 this company . 



New Use The Virginia pine, com- 



fo.r Vir ima monlv known as scrub 

 Pine < 



pine, is no longer re- 

 garded as worthless except for cord- 

 wood. Within the last four years the 

 manufacturers of wood-pulp have tried 

 the wood with success, and several 

 mills, in Pennsylvania especially, are 

 using it in considerable quantities for 

 this purpose. One Pennsylvania mill 

 consumes in this way 20,000 cords a 

 year. 



The scrub pine, whose range is 

 chiefly in Tennessee, North Carolina, 

 Kentucky, Maryland and Virginia, is 

 found in large quantities in old fields 

 in the last two states in particular, 

 where it has reproduced itself, un- 

 heeded since the Civil War. It has 

 recently been found in commercial 

 quantities also in central Pennsylvania. 

 Since it is a tree which thrives on even 

 the poorest soil, and reproduces itself 

 with great ease, its entrance into com- 

 mercial importance will offer a very 

 interesting problem in forest manage- 

 ment, and one which promises quite 

 unexpected results. 



Planting The Forest Service is 



r parillg to t P>' ; 



large area of denuded 

 land in the new additions to the Gila 

 River Forest Reserve near Ft. Bayard, 

 Mex The main purpose of the 

 proposed planting is to preserve the 

 water supply for the great military 

 hospital at Ft. Bayard. A nursery 

 nine-tenths of an acre in area has been 



Forest 

 Inspectors 



established and a party of four men is 

 now making a detailed study of the 

 proposed planting sites in the reserve, 

 in order to prepare the planting plans. 



The present assignment 

 of forest inspectors on 

 the National Forest Re- 

 serves is as follows: E. S. Bruce, the 

 Big Horn Forest Reserve, in Wyom- 

 ing; Smith Riley, the Leadville Forest 

 Reserve, in Colorado ; Elers Koch, the 

 Madison Forest Reserve, in Montana ; 

 J. H. Hatton, the Sevier Forest Re- 

 serve, in Utah ; and R. E. Benedict, the 

 Prescott Forest Reserve, in Arizona. 



Planting for T he buying of the neg- 

 Shelter Belt Jected or abandoned 

 farms in New England 

 for summer homes by city people is 

 leading to forest planting in certain of 

 the old fields for protection, ornament, 

 or economic purposes. The Forest 

 Service has recently given assistance 

 along this line by preparing a plan for 

 a shelter belt on an estate owned by 

 the Rev. Edward Everett Hale. The 

 estate is in southern Rhode Island, 

 near Wakefield, where the strong gales 

 from Long Island Sound have full 

 sweep over the country. A shelterbelt 

 40 feet wide composed of pitch pine, 

 Norway spruce, and Scotch pine, will 

 be planted on the windward side of the 

 farm. The pitch pine, which is a spe- 

 cies able to endure strong salt-laden 

 winds, will be planted in the outer row, 

 with the Norway spruce and Scotch 

 pine back of it. These trees are so 

 arranged that by their different rates 

 of growth they will form a belt with a 

 slanting top lowest to windward, so 

 that the wind will be deflected above 

 the fields which it is desired to protect. 



Examining 



Mineral 



Claims 



Mr. Alexander C. Shaw 

 and Mr. G. W. Wood- 

 ruff, of the Forest Ser- 

 vice ; Mr. Frank Bend, of the General 

 Land Office; and Mr. A. E. Chandler, 

 of the Reclamation Service, are visit- 

 ing several of the forest reserves for 

 the purpose of inspecting and report- 

 ing on mineral and other claims. 





