246 



CONSERVATION 



Experiments conducted by the United 

 States Forest Service at Ocilla, Ga., and 

 Green Cove Springs, Fla., as well as defi- 

 nite and reliable data received from operators 

 throughout the naval-stores belt, have ef- 

 fectively determined the great advantages of 

 the new methods over the old. Not only 

 has it been shown forcibly that the con- 

 servative methods are of great protection to 

 the forests, but sufficient data has been col- 

 lected to show that the increase in yield 

 of both turpentine and rosin by the new and 

 improved systems furnishes a strong argu- 

 ment in favor of their use. 



Reports from the states where naval stores 

 are produced show that where there is a 

 greater percentage of turpentine produced 

 by improved methods there is also a greater 

 yield. The following table gives the average 

 yield of turpentine per crop of 10,500 boxes 

 or cups, reported and compiled by states, 

 together with the percentage of turpentine 

 produced in each state by either the cup- 

 and-gutter or cup-and-apron systems : 



Yield per 

 State crop, casks Percentage* 



Alabama 35.6 .08 



Florida 29.8 .16 



Georgia 26.5 .09 



Louisiana 44.7 .44 



Mississippi 34.5 .11 



Texas 43-5 -49 



^Produced by improved methods. 



To demonstrate more fully that the use 

 of improved methods is largely responsible 

 for the remarkable increase shown, the re- 

 ports from two of the large establishments 

 in Texas, one using the cup-and-apron sys- 

 tem and the other cutting boxes into the 

 tree, are compared. The establishment using 

 the cup-and-apron system reported a yield 

 of 1,372 barrels of turpentine for twenty 

 crops, as against a yield of 1.500 barrels of 

 turpentine for thirty-five crops where the 

 old methods were employed, 68.2 casks per 

 croo for the cup-and-apron system as against 

 42.8 for boxes. 



Both companies were operating for the first 

 year, and timber and weather conditions 

 were practically the same. The two estab- 

 lishments reporting these figures employ a 



high standard of business methods and the 

 figures given are reliable. Forty-two barrels 

 is considered a fair average yield for the 

 first year the trees are bled and where boxes 

 are used. 



China Begins Education in Forestry 



China, often called the most backward of 

 nations in the care of natural resources, is 

 to be the scene of a vigorous campaign in 

 the interests of the forests, according to 

 plans for a series of meetings which will 

 be held under the auspices of Boone College, 

 Wuchang, China, at Hankhow, Wuchang, 

 and Hanyang. Later there will be meetings 

 in all the large cities and important ports 

 both on the coast and in the interior. Mr. 

 Howard Richards, Jr., the representative in 

 this country of the Chinese college, has been 

 collecting material for these courses, and has 

 just started for China. Several of the photo- 

 graphs showing the effect of deforestation in 

 China, which accompanied the President's 

 last annual message to Congress, form a part 

 of a set of stereopticon views which will 

 be used in illustrating these lectures. 



China has probably taken less care of her 

 forests than any other nation of the earth, 

 and this movement to awaken in its people 

 a realization of the importance of the forest 

 comes at an opportune time. Many parts of 

 China are practically desert wastes as a di- 

 rect result of the destruction of its trees. 

 On account of the erosion which has fol- 

 lowed the removal of trees from the slopes, 

 farmers are compelled to terrace their hill- 

 sides, in order to hold enough soil in place 

 for farming, and to build little walls across 

 the valleys to catch the silt which the annual 

 floods deposit. Two centuries ago, many re- 

 gions of China which are now barren were 

 paying revenue to their owners. Now the 

 wood supply is so scarce that little poles are 

 used for building houses, and roots and sap- 

 lings are burned as fuel. 



Over 300 Chinese students from eleven 

 provinces are being educated in Boone Col- 

 lege for the uplift of their country, and it 

 is expected by those in charge of the proposed 

 course of lectures that a movement started 

 there will in time spread throughout the 

 empire. 



