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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



He set September 16 for the white pine 

 blister rust hearing, September 19 for the 

 fruit fly hearing, and September 20 for the 

 potato wart disease hearing. 



A Moving Forest in Wales 



A strange story of a moving wood near 

 Llandaff was told at a meeting of the dis- 

 trict council by one of the members (Mr. 

 William Hopkins), says the London Chron- 

 .icle. 



The wood, he said, was situated on a steep 

 slope and was gradually moving toward the 

 road at the foot. The wood is quite 400 

 yards long, and consists of stately elm trees. 

 It had "left its moorings," he said, and was 

 moving bodily toward the Llanvithyn road. 

 A cut had been left at the top, which was 

 full of water. 



Some of the trees were coming down bod- 

 ily, while others were leaning in all direc- 

 tions. The wood had been moving now 

 eight or nine days, and it was some little 

 distance from the road, but was in danger 

 of coming on to it. 



Studying Lumbering Industry 



E. P. Seeker, the special agent of the 

 Commerce and Labor Department who is 

 investigating the lumber trade abroad, may 

 make a trip around the world, touching at 

 all important countries, in pursuit of his 

 duty. Mr. Seeker is now in England. He 

 has been abroad since spring. He is ex- 

 pected at present to study lumber trade con- 

 ditions throughout Europe, see what the 

 market there demands in the way of lumber, 

 etc., and find openings for the American 

 lumber exporter. If his work comes up to 

 the hopes of the Department and of the 

 trade, Mr. Seeker is expected to be ordered 

 to extend his work beyond Europe into other 

 continents and the islands of the sea. In 

 that event he will be absent from this coun- 

 try for a year or more longer. 



Forest Reserve Transfer 



The Forest Service has begun the work of 

 closing up the purchases of land made under 

 the provisions of the Weeks law for the 

 formation of the Appalachian forest reserve. 

 The first deed to be filed was at Marion, 

 N. C., for 8,113 acres. The Government has 

 options on about 16,000 acres immediately 

 adjoining this property. Although the Weeks 

 law became effective March 1, 1911, so much 

 preliminary work was required that the ac- 

 tual transfers are only now beginning. 



Wood Distillation 



The United States Forest Service has re- 

 cently issued an interesting bulletin on the 

 distillation of resinous wood by saturated 

 steam. The bulletin was prepared by L. F. 

 Hawley, chemist in forest products, and R. 

 C. Palmer, assistant chemical engineer in 

 forest products, and describes a series of ex- 

 periments along this line carried on at the 

 forest products laboratory. 



The experiments were undertaken by the 

 Forest Service because there has been no 

 uniformity in the commercial distillation of 

 pine, and no definite ideas among operators 

 as to the proper steam pressure, size of chips 

 or rapidity of distillation, and little or no 

 data has been heretofore published regard- 

 ing the differing results from changes in 

 these readily controlled variables. 



Lightning Hits All Trees 



The Department of Agriculture has made 

 public the results of an exhaustive investi- 

 gation of lightning strokes throughout the 

 country. The report disposes of the belief 

 of the ancient philosophers that certain kinds 

 of trees the laurel, aspen and beech were 

 never struck by lightning with the statement 

 that "any kind of tree is likely to be struck." 



The report shows that lightning strikes in 

 the Colorado plateau region more often than 

 anywhere else in the country, and asserts 

 that lightning is a prolific source of fires in 

 the forests of the West. 



ILLINOIS LUMBER PLANTS. 



In Illinois there were 814 plants at work in lumber and timber, employing an average of 

 16,567 people. The output was valued at $44,952,000. The number of men employed in- 

 foundry and machine shops were 52,266 ; the next largest number being in manufacturing 

 men's clothing and shirts, to-wit, 36,152. The great value added to forest products in that 

 State came from planing mills and other woodworking plants, even though over one-half of 

 the establishments were sawmills. The increase in the value of lumber products reported in 

 the State has been very great in the former five years. 



