NEWS AND NOTES 



183 



to $6 or more per acre annually. Not only 

 ^re our native forests richer in valuable tim- 

 ber trees, but our climate and soil conditions 

 are more favorable. The trouble is not that 

 our trees do not grow fast enough, but that 

 our ignorance and carelessness have left our 

 woodlands poorly stocked. 



The German forester sees to it that his 

 forest is uniform and dense. To grow a full 

 crop of wood, as to grow a full crop of 

 grass or corn, there must be a full stand. 

 Next in importance is the rate of growth of 

 the trees. The species most grown abroad 

 are Norway spruce, Scotch pine, and silver 

 fir for soft woods, and beech and oak for 

 hardwoods. In German forests of the first 

 quality, Norway spruce attains in sixty years 

 an average diameter of 9.4 inches. 



8? &' % 

 Wood Preservation in Louisiana 



A cooperative agreement between the For- 

 est Service and the North Louisiana Tele- 

 phone Company for the investigation of eco- 

 nomic methods for the preservation from de- 

 cay of loblolly pine telephone poles has re- 

 cently been carried out with gratifying re- 

 sults. The object of the Government was 

 to demonstrate that a creosote treatment 

 could be applied successfully and at a low 

 cost to loblolly pine poles. Such success was 

 obtained that a company has been incorpor- 

 ated under the name of the Louisiana Creo- 

 soting Company, which will operate commer- 

 cially the plan designed by the Forest 

 Service. 



The treating plant, which has been in 

 operation since the latter part of October 

 last, is of the "non-pressure," or "open- 

 tank" type. Extensive experiments carried 

 on by the Forest Service in recent years, 

 have shown that the "open-tank" system is 

 admirably adapted to the treatment of cer- 

 tain classes of timber,, and especially so as 

 regards loblolly pine. 



The plant used in the experiment with the 

 North Louisiana Telephone Company is 

 equipped with a horizontal treating cylinder 

 fifty feet long and six feet in diameter. Dur- 

 ing some months, 3,000 poles, 2,500 cross- 

 arms, and 500 ties were treated, an amount 

 sufficient to determine the most economical 

 methods of treating these classes of mate- 

 rial. The Forest Service then withdrew 

 from the cooperation, and the plant is now 

 being successfully operated by the owners. 



% & % 

 Use of National Forest Resources 



The actual use of the varied resources of 

 the Government's 168,000,000 acres of Na- 

 tional Forest land is on the increase, accord- 

 ing to the report of the work for the fiscal 

 year 1908. The report says that from an 

 administrative standpoint the most striking 

 fact of the year was the remarkable increase 

 which took place in the volume of business 

 transacted. 



This growth in business done by the 

 United States Forest Service last year over 

 the previous year is partly brought out in 

 the following statement showing percentages 

 of increase : in the number of timber sales, 

 236 per cent. ; in the amount of timber cut 

 under sales, 102 per cent.; in the number of 

 free timber permits, seventy-six per cent. ; 

 in the number of grazing permits, eleven 

 per cent., and in the number of special-use 

 permits, sixty-seven per cent. That the ad- 

 ditions to existing National Forests and new 

 creations caused this increase only to a small 

 extent is shown by the fact that the area in- 

 creased is only eleven per cent. 



Irrigation Scheme in Spokane 



Seven hundred and fifty dollars is to be 

 expended by the Cook-Clarke Company of 

 Spokane, in establishing an underground and 

 direct pressure irrigation system to water 

 4,600 acres of land adjoining the north city 

 limits. The land will be devoted to orchards 

 in five and ten acre tracts, with roads around 

 each forty acres. The company will donate 

 two tracts of fifty acres each for park pur- 

 poses. 



Water for irrigating the land will be 

 pumped from a spring, which has a flow suf- 

 ficient for one section. The same flumes 

 will carry water for domestic use in the 

 beginning, but later separate systems are to 

 be installed. When the spring will not sup- 

 ply enough water there are five other springs 

 on the land which will be used. Later water 

 will be taken from Peone Creek, which is 

 to be dammed, and from Dragoon Creek and 

 the Little Spokane, both of which flow 

 through the River tract, and on which water 

 rights have been secured. A reservoir 

 almost a mile in length, 1,000 feet wide and 

 thirty feet deep is to be built in the channel 

 of Peone Creek. 



Dams and Floods 



Are the mill dams in the Smoky Hill 

 River, Kansas, responsible for the floods of 

 the last five years? The farmers who lost 

 their crops in 1903, 1904 and 1908 claim that 

 the mill-dams are more or less responsible 

 for the damage. This contention the mill- 

 owners deny. To ascertain the facts Capt. 

 Edward H. Schulz, the Government engi- 

 neer at Kansas City, was invited to look over 

 the territory. He did so and explained the 

 situation, to the farmers., stating that the 

 trouble was at least in large part due to 

 bends in the river, and advocated the forma- 

 tion of a drainage district and the straight- 

 ening of the bends. To what extent the 

 floods were caused by the dams he was un- 

 able to state without an actual survey. The 

 question seems likely to be carried before the 

 courts. 



