XEWS AND NOTES 



373 



Kula on Mari. It was a terrible hardship 

 to those people last year to have to leave 

 their homes because they had no water and 

 had to drive their live stock miles away every 

 other day to get water to keep them alive. 

 In Kau the ground was strewn with cattle 

 which had starved to death for want of grass 

 and water." 



Protecting Water Supplies 



Says the Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer: 



''While a few theorists and increasingly 

 few still argue against the prevalent no- 

 tion that an intimate relationship exists be- 

 tween forests and stream flow, it is notice- 

 able that those who have the responsibility 

 of conserving water supplies adopt the gen- 

 eral and the sensible view. Those on whom 

 the responsibility rests to supply the cities 

 with an unfailing supply of water display 

 no doubt that the existence of forests about 

 the sources of streams tends to regulate their 

 flow and insure their stability. 



"The State Forester of Massachusetts re- 

 cently made a report, discussing in a com- 

 prehens.ve manner the large question of for- 

 est influence on water supply, a subject of 

 live interest to many municipalities in that 

 commonwealth. He proposes a program of 

 reforestation for the protection of the water- 

 shed near Fall River, which is applicable in 

 a general way to other communities in that 

 and other states. 



"There is evidence here and there of an 

 intention on the part of various states to 

 cooperate with the National Government in 

 the conservation of natural resources. Is it 

 not possible that municipalities will find it to 

 their interests to join in the same move- 

 ment in order to protect their sources of 

 water supply ? 



"The importance of an adequate and reli- 

 able supply of pure water is paramount in 

 every city. Those which must depend on 

 streams or upon artificial or natural reser- 

 voirs will find it increasingly difficult to 

 protect and insure their supplies unless some 

 progressive policy of conservation is fol- 

 lowed." 



Good Work by the Pennsylvania Railroad 



The Pennsylvania Railroad is planning to 

 set out this spring more than 1,000,000 trees. 

 This will make a total of 3,430.000 trees 

 which have been planted in the last three 

 years to provide for some of the company's 

 future requirements in timber and cross-tie?. 

 This constitutes the largest forestry plan yet 

 undertaken by any private corporation. 



Heretofore the company's forestry opera- 

 tions have been confined to a limited area 

 between Philadelphia and Altoona. This 

 year, however, 65.000 trees are being set out 

 on tracts of land near Metuchen and New 



Brunswick. N. J. In addition, there are to 

 be planted within the next month 207,000 

 trees near Conewago, Pa., 186,000 in the 

 vicinity of Van Dyke, 334,000 at Lewistoun 

 Junction, 7,000 at Pomeroy, and 205,000 al 

 Denholm. 



The bare places in the locust-tree planta- 

 tions, which were started some years ago, 

 are being filled in with new seedlings, in 

 order that these may follow as a second 

 growth after the older trees have been re- 

 moved for fence posts and other purpOM-x 

 Of the trees that are to be set out this 

 spring, 893,000 are red oak, 40,000 Scotch 

 pine, 29,000 locust, 14,000 hardy cata'pn, 

 14,000 pin oak, 5,000 European larch, 3,000 

 chestnut, 3,000 yellow poplar, 2,000 black wal- 

 nut, and 1,000 white pine. 



The policy of encouraging reforestation 

 on the part of the public has been actively 

 pursued this spring. Some 151,000 trees have 

 been furnished, practically at cost, to private 

 corporations and individuals. In addition, 

 8,000 privet hedge plants have been supplied 

 to private individuals. Privet hedge plants 

 to the number of 7,000 are to be set out to 

 ornament boundary lines along the company's 

 right of way. 



A special effort has been directed this sea- 

 son to growing ornamental shrubbery for 

 use in parking the lawns around stations and 

 unoccupied spaces along the roadway. To 

 save the time required to grow these from 

 seed, 6,000 plants have been imported from 

 France. They will be placed in beds, at 

 the company's nursery at Morrisville, N. J. 

 Part of them will be ready for transplant- 

 ing next year, and the remainder in 1911. 



Indicative of the scope of the forestry 

 plan of the company this year is the fact 

 that at the Morrisville nursery alone, approx- 

 imately 1,250,000 trees have been dug, bun- 

 dled, and shipped to places along the rail- 

 road. The area 'Occupied by these trees has 

 been plowed, fertilized, and is to be re- 

 planted with about 200 bushels of acorns. 

 Half a million coniferous seedlings, which 

 were grown last year, are being set in trans- 

 plant beds to remain for a year before being 

 set out permanently. In addition to the 

 above, there will be planted this spring about 

 100 pounds of pine and spruce tree seed, 

 which should produce about a million plants. 

 These in time will be transplanted in perma- 

 nent locations. 



Growth of the Forest Service 



In a display paragraph on its front page, 

 The Prairie Fanner of May i. publishes the 

 following : 



"Gifford Pinchot was made chief of the 

 Division of Forestry during the Spanish- 

 American War. At that time the division was 

 composed of eleven persons, six of whom 

 were clerks and five scientists. Some idei 

 of the growth of the Forest Service, as it had 

 later come to be known, is apparent when it 



