FOREST XOTES 611 



having the time of their lives in spite million cross-tics annually consumed 



of a good deal of rough work. They are treated, and the proper treatment 



are able to help out their supply depart- of an annual consumption of 4 million 



merit by fresh fish from the Catta- poles may be said to have scarcely com- 



hoochee. menced. 



That at least one-twentieth of all the Lands just approved by the National 



stock bred on the open range of the Forest Reservation Commission for 



West dies before it reaches market age purchase by the Government include 



and that much of this loss can be (>,OS3 acres in West Virginia, of which 



stopped is shown by results reported one tract comprising (i,000 acres is sit- 



from the national forests. This waste uated in Tucker and Randolph counties 



is said to add millions of dollars to the in the Monongahela purchase area. The 



people's meat bill and gives one more remaining S3 acres are on the Potomac 



cause of the high cost of living. Win- watershed in Hardy County in the Po- 



ter storms and summer droughts strew tomac purchase area. These lands are 



the ranges with the bones of cattle and to be acquired in accordance with the 



sheep ; predatory animals take a heavy general policy under which national for- 



toll ; poisonous plants sometimes kill ests of good size are being built up in 



half the animals in a herd almost over the Easfern mountains, both north and 



night. Cattle contract anthrax, black- south through successive purchases, 



log and other diseases, get stuck in bog Tracts are bought within certain desig- 



holes, slip off icy hillsides; and sheep nated areas, of which West Virginia 



pile up and die of suffocation. Insects has three. The lands just approved by 



which madden and kill swell the total the commission bring the acreage of 



losses as do a multitude of other minor the Monongahela purchase area up to 



causes of death and injury. -MWt acres and the acreage of that 



part of the Potomac area lying in West 



The most notable progress yet re- Virginia to 36,40.-) acres, while the total 

 corded in the chemical treatment of acreage in the State aproved for pur- 

 timber to prevent decay was made in clia se amounts to 105,480 acres. 

 11)13, according to a report recently 



issued by the American Wood Pre- The State legislature of 1913 desig- 

 ,ervers' Association in cooperation with nated the North Dakota State School 

 the Forest Service of the Department of Forestry as a State nursery and pro- 

 of Agriculture. The report states that vided that the president of the school 

 :>3 wood-preserving plants in 1913 con- should be the State Forester, and he 

 sumed over 10s million gallons of creo- should have general supervision of the 

 sote oil, 2(5 million pounds of dry zinc raising and distributing of seeds and 

 chloride, and nearly 4 million gallons forest tree seedlings, promote practical 

 of other liquid preservatives. With forestry ; compile and disseminate in- 

 these the plants treated over 153 million formation relative thereto, and publish 

 cubic feet of timber, or about 23 per the results of such work by issuing and 

 cent more than in 1912. The output distributing bulletins, lecturing before 

 from additional plants unrecorded farmers, institutes, associations, and 

 would increase the totals given. Im- other ways as would most practically 

 pregnation of wood with oils and chem- reach the public, 

 icals to increase its resistance to decay 



and insect attack, the report goes on to A cooperative fire agreement which 

 say, is an industry which has become has been entered into between the 

 important in the United States only in United States Department of Agricul- 

 recent years. In Great Britain and ture and the State of Michigan pro- 

 most of the European countries practi- vides for an expenditure by the Gov- 

 cally every wooden cross-tie and tele- ernment of not to exceed $5,000 a year, 

 phone or telegraph pole receives pre- under provisions of the Weeks law. 

 servative treatment. In the United toward meeting the expenses of forest 

 States less than 30 per cent of the 135 fire protection in Michigan. 



