486 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



time operations. Agriculture is al- 

 ready successful in the Tanana Valley, 

 and in the long run there will be a per- 

 manent farming population there, possi- 

 bly within two decades. 



Everything points to the need of 

 holding on to the Federal Forests, and 

 to the further need of securing such 

 forests in the interior, though the task 

 of administration is difficult and ex- 

 pensive because of the great fire danger. 

 Now the development of Alaska is to be 

 assured on right lines. The coal leas- 

 ing bill now being considered will mean 

 further development of the territory in 

 the right way. 



Those who have the best interests of 

 the territory at heart will wish to see 

 the Government program go through, 

 as to railroads, forests, coal, and other 

 resources. It already begins to look 

 as if in our newest land we will put into 

 effect a wise system of public owner- 

 ship or control, and that the nation has 

 learned a lesson from the profligacy 

 which marked the disposal of most of 

 the resources of our great West. Who 

 can say that Alaska's development will 

 not mark the wisest use the nation has 

 yet made of the people's resources. 



THE WORLD'S OLDEST TREE 



well 



soon became 

 watched by scores 

 with great interest, 

 tion, or otherwise, 

 learned discussions 



known and was 



of local scientists 



It was an educa- 



to listen to the 



carried on as the 



WHAT is, with good reason, 

 claimed to be the oldest tree 

 in the world may now be 

 seen at Los Angeles, Cal., 

 having recently been unearthed from 

 the fossil beds at Rancho La Brea, Cali- 

 fornia, together with bones of the sabre to day by the removal of the surround- 

 toothed tiger, the giant ground sloth, ing asphalt packed bones, 

 the dirus wolf, and other animals of the 

 distant Tertiary period. How old the 

 tree is scientists can but estimate, but 

 there is little doubt that it is fully one 



men slowly exposed the tree from day 



hundred thousand years since it was 



About three feet from the surface a 

 strata of fossil bones was encountered. 

 Owing to several gas vents water had 

 been admitted to the mass and the bones 

 were too soft to be saved. Beneath this 



buried and preserved in so wondrous a layer, after passing through a couple of 

 fashion that it is in existence today. feet of clay, the men came upon a more 



The tree was found by men working or less worm-eaten stub. As the bones 

 in the pits under the direction of Prof, were removed from the bottom of the 

 Frank S. Daggett, director of the Mu- pit more of the tree was constantly ex- 

 seum of History, Science and Art, at posed. One day a magnificent skull of 

 Exposition Park, Los Angeles. Prof. 

 Daggett in the California Outlook de- 

 scribes the excavations and the discov- 

 ery of the tree. He says : 



"As the different pits were opened 

 and bones exposed to view, interest left 



the field as a whole and centered on these 



a mastodon was taken out, followed by 

 that of a camel. Sabre-toothed tigers 

 and wolves came with such frequency 

 as to cause no comment. Not so, how- 

 ever, when a skull of a lion of the Afri- 

 can type, of monstrous size, came to 

 This was found crowded closely 



view. 



little spots. As unusual finds began to beneath a big fork of the tree, 



show up these pits began to be desig- "Now we began to feel sure that this 



nated by some descriptive name. For 'tree' was no drifting log end up in a 



instance, Pit 3 soon became known as vent. Great caution was taken to save 



the 'Tree Pit' owing to the discovery of and note every detail which might have 



a fine specimen of tree in it. This find a beaming on its occurrence. Fragments 



