July 17, 1913] 



NATURE 



5*7 



vacant, some 600 applications were received for the 

 vacant post, one of them actually being a worthy , 

 minister of a local Methodist connection. This shows 

 the loose manner in which forest appointments had 

 come to be regarded in this country. At that time 

 there were probably not a dozen quite qualified 

 foresters available in the whole of Britain. 



Rules are framed for the maintenance of experi- 

 mental plots in private forests. It is possible that in < 

 some cases useful purposes may be served by these 

 rules; but it may be anticipated that most frequently 

 we shall find the private forest owner conducting 

 useful experiments in his own forests; and the forest 

 officers, with their wider facilities, carrying on their 

 own experiments in the State forests. 



The third reference relates to the training of wood- 

 men, both foremen woodmen and the more fortunate 

 men whose lot it is to work with their own hands. 

 Those who have had experience of the excellent train- 

 ing given in the Government school in the Forest of 

 Dean would endorse all that is here said in its favour. 

 The two forest schools, in the Forest of Dean and 

 in tin- Chopwell Woods (county of Durham), provide 

 for the training of about fourteen men yearly. We 

 heartily endorse the recommendation that increased 

 provision should be made for the training of men 

 of their type. The census of 1901 returned 12,035 

 woodmen employed in England and Wales. 



The appearance of this Forestry Blue-book is oppor- 

 tune ; it shows that Mr. Runciman is actuated by 

 an earnest wish to break away from the difficulties 

 and delays that have so long beset British forestry. 

 It is indeed time that the first sod in practical British 

 forestry were turned. While the Development Com- 

 mission, with its grant of 500,000!. yearly, has been 

 running for three years, no beginning in practical 

 State forestry has yet been made in Britain. 



It is not evident from a perusal of the Blue-book 

 why there should be further delay. The obvious 

 course to be followed now is at once to open nego- 

 tiations for the acquiring of land — either by direct 

 negotiation, or by purchase as it comes into the 

 market ; and, so soon as an area has been secured, 

 to depute the competent forest officials in the White- 

 hall Forest Office to proceed with the planting, in 

 consultation with local opinion and experience. The 

 examination of sites for State forests seems to offer 

 scope for the energies of the five forest advisors 

 recently appointed to the five forest areas into which 

 England and Wales have been divided. These forest 

 advisors are stationed at Oxford, Cambridge, Ciren- 

 cester, Bangor, and Newcastle. 



Following the practice of other countries, the State 

 forest nurseries referred to in the Blue-book should 

 be initiated, as early as may be; not only for the 

 supply of young trees at economical rates for planting 

 in the State forest, but for free issue to private forest 

 owners, and to such municipal or other public bodies 

 as may be disposed to undertake forest planting on 

 their own account. The private forest owner in 

 Britain has had a hard time these last years, with 

 falling prices for timber and underwood, and increased 

 taxation. The woodlands that he maintains are a 

 national benefit, and he may well ask that the State 

 should now help him with something more substantial 

 than eood advice in forestry ! 



A somewhat pressing question that the Advisory 

 Committee has not yet touched upon is what mone- 

 tary contribution, if any, should be allowed to muni- 

 cipal (or other corporate) forest planters by way of 

 arant-in-aid, in the rase of loss on their forest plant- 

 ing. India and Cape Colony are, in State forestry, 

 some thirty years ahead of this countrv and the other 

 British Colonies. For manv years in Cape Colony 



no. 2281, VOL. Ql] 



municipal and other non-private planting has been 

 aided on the iZ. for iZ. principle; that is to say, to 

 every ll. of approved forest expenditure Government 

 has added another xl. Willi this contribution the 

 State retains certain guarantees for the proper manage- 

 ment of the forest or trees planted. 



It is, as we have seen, now three years since the 

 Development Commission obtained the grant of half 

 a million a year for developing the natural resources 

 of the country in various ways, the most lasting and 

 far-reaching of these ways being forestry. During 

 the first year provision was made for the planting of 

 about ten square miles of forest in Ireland; but in 

 Great Britain to this day no decided step has been 

 taken in practical State forestry. We may therefore 

 express the very earnest wish that, useful though the 

 contemplated forest surveys may be, they will not be 

 allowed to delay, for one day, the initiation of State 

 forestry in Britain. 



In the present season of the year, England is beauti- 

 ful, almost in proportion to its woodedness ! Every 

 consideration of sentiment and hard fact demands the 

 beginning, without further delay, of practical afforesta- 

 tion. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



IN view of persistent reports as to the marked 

 decrease, or even disappearance, of the landrail, 

 or corncrake, as a breeding bird in many parts of 

 the country, more especially the eastern and south- 

 eastern counties, the editors have issued with the 

 June number of British Birds a schedule of inquiries 

 on this matter. In a covering note Dr. Ticehurst 

 points out that answers should be strictly limited to 

 the presence or absence, now or in the past, and the 

 relative numbers and changes in numbers, of breeding 

 birds in different districts. 



A beautifully illustrated article on the albatrosses 

 of Laysan Island, in the South Pacific, appears in 

 the April number of The American Museum journal, 

 based on a visit paid to that wonderful bird-resort by 

 Mr. H. B. Dill in 191 1. In spite of periodical raids 

 by plumage-hunters, the albatrosses still retain their 

 original lack of fear, parties of them walking up to a 

 visitor as if to greet him. Some idea of the vast 

 numbers of sea-birds on the island may be gathered 

 from an estimate that their daily product of guano 

 is about 100 tons. Some years ago a company was 

 started to work this guano, but the venture was not a 

 success, owing to the* fact that the frequent rains 

 wash out a large proportion of the ammonia from the 

 deposits. 



To the April number of The Emu (vol. xii., part 4) 

 Dr. R. W. Shufeldt contributes an illustrated article 

 on the osteology of the Cape Barron goose (Cereopsis 

 novae-hollandia'e). Although the skull presents cer- 

 tain well-marked peculiarities, the rest of the skeleton 

 is that of a typical goose. The genus has been 

 assigned to a special subfamily, but the affinities of 

 the bird are clearly with the snow-goose (Chen hyper; 

 boreus). 



According to The Christian Science Monitor, Bos- 

 ton, Mass., of May 29, Mr. R. C. Murphy has re- 

 turned to New York from an ornithological expedition 

 to South Georgia, bringing with him 500 skins and 

 skeletons of large sea-birds, while others are to 

 follow. These are to be divided between the American 

 Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Insti- 

 tute of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Murphv states that 

 on a small island a mile in diameter he has seen 4000 

 pairs of birds nesting on the ground. The principal 

 specimens represent albatrosses, petrels, and three 

 kinds of penguins. R. L. 



