56 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



February 



. Now that experiment 



Turpentining has shown that the pro- 

 ductive life and the total 

 crop of turpentined trees may be pro- 

 longed by reducing the size and depth 

 of the wound made in chipping, the 

 Forest Service, as the next step, has 

 taken up the best means of accurately 

 regulating the chipping so as to make 

 it uniformly of the right depth and 

 height. In the present method of hand 

 chipping there is a good deal of varia- 

 tion in the work of different men. To 

 obviate this, an instrument is being de- 

 vised by means of which exact chip- 

 ping may be done. By this means it 

 is hoped to give much greater certain- 

 ty to the increased yield and greater 

 total profit which the recent experi- 

 ments have shown to be possible under 

 an improved system of chipping. 



Combatting During the winter the 



Damage damage caused by rab- 



by Rabbits , . & , J . 



bits to trees set out by 



the Forest Service on watersheds in 

 reserves in southern California, will be 

 met by the adoption of measures rec- 

 ommended by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 

 Chief of the United States Biological 

 Survey. The trees have many hard 

 conditions to contend with. The thin 

 soil and extreme aridity are trying 

 enough, and of late rabbits have been 

 eating off the young trees of certain 

 species. Knobcone and Coulter pines 

 are favorites with the rabbits, while 

 incense cedar is not touched. By us- 

 ing large seedlings and making a prop- 

 er choice of species the injury done by 

 the rabbits is to some extent obviated. 

 But stronger measures are needed. 

 Those to be tried will include steel 

 traps set in the regular run-ways that 

 the rabbits frequent, poisoned grain, 

 and the wetting with strychnine syrup 

 of the branches of those seedling which 

 the rabbits injure. 



signed to the timber-testing work 

 there, will go to Seattle to put the ma- 

 chines in operation. The Seattle labo 

 ratory is one of three on the Pacific 

 Coast at which the Forest Service is 

 conducting tests of the strength of 

 the structural timbers of the region 

 The two other laboratories are at the 

 University of California and the Uni- 

 versity of Oregon, which, like the 

 Washington State University, are co- 

 operating with the Service. 



Flanting 

 in Prairie 

 Regions 



Timber 

 Testing 



The timber-testing ma- 

 chinery which the For- 

 est Service will use at 

 the laboratory of the University of 

 Washington, at Seattle, has arrived, 

 and Mr. Rolf Thelan, the assistant as- 



The success of the plant- 

 ing operations on the 

 Dismal River Forest Re- 

 serve in Nebraska has indicated to 

 ranchmen in the sand-hill country the 

 advisability of planting for protection 

 and timber supply. The jack pine and 

 western yellow pine are very promis- 

 ing, and, in addition, certain of the 

 rapid-growing broadleaf trees, such as 

 Carolina poplar, green ash, and Cot- 

 tonwood, can be used. 



In the spring of 1904 some ten or a 

 dozen ranchmen planted small quanti- 

 ties of jack pine obtained from the 

 woods of northern Minnesota on trial. 

 Authoritative reports from nearly all 

 of these men show a high proportion 

 of success, only two absolute failures 

 being reported, and these because of 

 unfavorable local conditions and lack 

 of care. 



The Forest Service has recently re- 

 ceived an application for assistance in 

 planting ten acres near Broken Bow, 

 and it is expected that the applications 

 from ranchmen will rapidly increase 

 in the future. 



Progress on Officials of the Reclama- 

 Umatilla t j on erv i ce } n Washing- 



ojec ton are much pleased 



with the progress being made by the 

 land owners on the Umatilla project, 

 Oregon. Late advices from the engi- 

 neer on the ground indicated a strong 

 interest on the part of the water users 

 who have already pledged 13.000 out 

 of 18,000 acres included in the project. 



As most of the legal difficulties have 

 been adjusted by the Secretary of the 

 Interior, it is believed that no great 



