154 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



trams were followed as far as possible. 

 Twenty miles of lines were cleared. 



During the dry season of 1905 the 

 operation of this plan proved so suc- 

 cessful that the company took steps to 

 extend the protection to the rest of its 

 holdings from three to four hundred 

 thousand acres and may now apply 

 to the Forest Service for another plan 

 to cover an additional 20,000 acres re- 

 cently purchased in southern Oregon. 



The holdings of the McCloud River 

 Lumber Company are in a 



region 



where the danger from fire is unusu- 

 ally great, since the long dry season 

 and the abundance of slash and chap- 

 arrel not only make the starting of 

 fires very probable, but also render 

 their control difficult in a high degree. 



One of the most important and sig- 

 nificant points in connection with this 

 use of a fire-protection system by a pri- 

 vate owner is the fact that it means 

 the recognition of the future value of 

 young timber proof that forestry has 

 made rapid strides in California. 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS 



A Handbook of the Trees of California. 



By Alice Eastwood. Occasional Pa- 

 pers of the California Academy of 

 Sciences IX. San Francisco, 1905; 86 

 pp. 



We are very glad to welcome Miss 

 Alice Eastwood's "A Handbook of the 

 Trees of California," which is published 

 by the California Academy of Sciences 

 (1905). Until the recent appearance of 

 Prof. C. S. Sargent's "Silva," students of 

 California trees have had to depend 

 mainly on Brewer & Watson's Botany 

 of California. Following this, Dr. Albert 

 Kellogg's "Illustrations of West Ameri- 

 can Oaks," and Prof. J. G. Lemmon's 

 "West American Conebearers," were ex- 

 cellent for the groups they covered. Miss 

 Eastwood's book covers the whole held 

 and presents, in mostly popular langauge, 

 carefully drawn descriptions of 169 spe- 

 cies and varieties. Fifty-seven of these 

 are illustrated by half-tones and photo- 

 engravings which are clear, exceedingly 

 helpful, and a most commendable and 

 essential feature of the book, whether it 

 be used by laymen or experts. In its 

 range the work is more than it pretends 

 to be, as it describes not only the trees 

 of California but also the principal ones 

 of Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Ne- 

 vada, and Idaho. One new species of 

 oak. Quercus alvordiana, is described for 

 the first time. The conventional line be- 

 tween a number of so-called shrubs 

 and trees has been passed by ad- 

 mitting as trees twelve shrubs not 

 previously recognized as trees. Miss 

 Eastwood studies trees and other plants 

 in the field, as well as in the herbarium, 

 and we are glad that she had rated some 

 of these formerly neglected species as 

 trees; notably Narrya elliptica, Cercis oc- 

 cidentals, three manzanitas (Arctostoply- 

 1 and several species of Ceanothus, 



which we think should be considered 

 trees. An important feature of this book 

 is its three artificial keys to the trees 

 described based on leaves, fruit, and on 

 a combination of flowers, foliage, and 

 fruit. The latter appeals to the trained 

 botanist, while the first two can be used 

 readily by laymen. The author has, we 

 think, wisely excluded from her concise, 

 clear, and helpful work, reference to 

 mooted points in nomenclature, in which 

 there is opportunity for discussion. We 

 are glad to see even the preoccupied 

 name Sequoia gigantea still used for Cali- 

 fornia's greatest tree wonder, the Sierra 

 Big-Tree, in place of the proposed Se- 

 quoia Wellingtonia which most Califor- 

 nians resent. Geo. B. S. 



Proceedings of the Society of American 

 Foresters. Vol. I, No. 1, pp. 28. Wash- 

 ington, D. C.j 1905. Price 25 cents. 

 Proceedings of the Society of American 

 Foresters. Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 108. Wash- 

 ington, D. C, 1905. Price 25 cents. 

 These two handsomely printed pam- 

 phlets mark the beginning of a series of 

 publications that will be of much value 

 to technical foresters. The Society of 

 American Foresters was organized No- 

 vember 30, 1900, and has its headquarters 

 in Washington, where the large majority 

 of the trained foresters of the country 

 are stationed through their connection 

 with the government. The Society holds 

 weekly meetings during about eight 

 months of the year. At these meetings 

 papers on forestr)' and related subjects 

 are presented and discussed. It is the 

 purpose of the Society to put these pa- 

 pers into permanent form which explains 

 the numbers at hand. 



Paper No. 1 contains an address on 

 "Forestry and Foresters," by President 



