Forestry and Irrigatioa 



Vol. XII. 



FEBRUARY, 1906. 



No. 2 



NEWS AND NOTES 



A meeting of the Board 

 Directors f Directors of the 



American Forestry As- 

 sociation was held in the office of the 

 president, at the Department of Ag- 

 riculture, Washington, D. C, Tues- 

 day, February 6. After election of of- 

 ficers plans for the year's work were 

 discussed and adopted, and referred to 

 the newly-elected executive committee 

 for action. This committee is com- 

 posed of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Mr. 

 William S. Harvey, Mr. F. H. Newell, 

 Mr. James H. Cutler, and Mr. Wil- 

 liam L. Hall. A budget estimate of 

 receipts and expenditures for the fiscal 

 year of 1906 was presented by the 

 treasurer. A statement by the secre- 

 tary showed that 302 new members 

 were elected during the month of Jan- 

 uary. It was decided to hold meetings 

 of the Board of Directors quarterly, in 

 January, April, July, and October. 



Awakening Mr. Alfred Gaskill, of 

 Interest fr e p ores t Service, is 



spending the month of 

 February in Alabama, in meeting and 

 addressing farmers' conferences and 

 commercial bodies, to awaken an in- 

 terest in forestry. Though the South- 

 ern States are now the center of the 

 Eastern lumber industry, and though 

 the Southern forests are destined to 

 play so important a part in the eco- 

 nomic development of the region, the 

 true importance of these forests and 

 their great possibilities have by no 

 means been grasped. Already great 

 inroads have been made on Southern 

 forest resources, and if the story of 

 waste followed by useless regret which 

 is told of the Northern forests is not 



to be repeated in the South, it is im- 

 perative that the public mind be roused 

 and that steps be taken in time to check 

 exhaustion of supplies, before it is too 

 late, by calling in the services of fores- 

 try. Alabama, singularly rich in for- 

 est resources, is still fortunately in a 

 position, by taking thought, to add 

 vastly to her industrial growth through 

 the wise utilization of these forest 

 riches. 



_ Numerous packages of 



Storage Testa r . j u 



01 Seeds forest tree seed are being 



received by the Forest 

 Service in Washington from the sev- 

 eral nursery stations throughout the 

 West where seedlings are being grown 

 for planting on forest reserves. These 

 seeds will be used in carrying on ex- 

 tensive storage tests to determine the 

 best methods of preserving seeds of 

 the several species most commonly 

 used. The more important species are 

 western yellow pine, jack pine, Coul- 

 ter pine, knobcone pine, red fir, white 

 fir. and incense cedar. 



The work in Washington is in co- 

 operation with the Seed Testing Labo- 

 ratory, and the seeds will be stored 

 dry. in cool basements, in cold storage, 

 and in hermetically sealed jars. Cor- 

 responding tests will be carried on at 

 the nurseries on the western forest re- 

 serves, and the comparative results are 

 expected to show not only which meth- 

 od of storage is best, but in which lo- 

 cality seeds retain their vitality long- 

 est. Tn view of the rapid increase in 

 forest planting operations, particularly 

 in connection with planting on denud- 

 ed watersheds, this work becomes of 

 high importance. 



