The Modern Alchemist 



791 



ment will be pursued until every part of 

 the range in national forests is produc- 

 ing the best crops of forage which the 

 circumstances will allow. 



SOWING NEW FORESTS 



The fires of past years and centuries 

 have stripped great areas of western 

 mountain timber land of all forest 

 growth. The need of conserving the 

 rainfall and snowfall of these areas 

 makes reforesting a step of urgent ne- 

 cessity. At the same time it is often one 

 of the utmost difficulty. In dry climates 

 particularly (where the need is greatest), 

 to establish a forest without prohibitive 

 expense calls for the most careful study. 



After plantations are apparently well 

 established a season of unusual drought 

 may turn the scale against the growing 

 trees. Millions of acres must be planted — 

 and this means that thousands of mil- 

 lions of small trees must be raised — but 

 there is yet much to be done before 

 planting on a scale commensurate with 

 the needs can be begun. This prelimi- 

 nary work is being pushed with as much 

 energy as the funds available for the 

 work will permit. 



In a large part of the Northwest, at 

 least, there is good reason to believe that 

 broadcast sowing of seed may be prac- 

 ticable. If this proves to be the case, the 

 way will be open for restoring to forest 

 cheaply very much of the burned-over 

 land. Hitherto the experimental sowings 

 have shown surprisingly good results. 

 The country's need of timber is certain to 

 be so acute before many years that the 

 work can not be entered upon too quickly. 



That the United States is even now 

 nearing a time of severe scarcity of lum- 

 ber is no longer a matter of doubt. Each 

 year makes a further heavy inroad upon 

 the remnant of our virgin forests, and 

 the growth of our abused and depleted 

 forest lands for three years would not 

 meet our needs for one. 



MAKING COMMON WOODS MORE DURABI,E 

 THAN OAK OR CHESTNUT 



An easy and inexpensive method of 

 treating fence posts has been perfected 



which makes it possible for any farmer 

 to make the quickly decaying woods, still 

 abundant because hitherto thought almost 

 worthless, far more durable than un- 

 treated white oak or chestnut. Demon- 

 strations of this method before southern 

 farmers were received with enthusiasm. 

 For the middle West, where the common 

 woods are seldom resistant to decay, the 

 matter is certainly no less important. 

 Essentially the same method is being ap- 

 plied to the butts of telegraph poles and 

 to mine props. The enormous consump- 

 tion of timber for the latter purpose and 

 the extreme rapidity with which it decays 

 in the dampness and darkness of the mine 

 open the prospect of a large economy 

 from the use of this method of treatment, 

 which has stood a searching practical test 

 in Pennsylvania coal mines. By applying 

 the same treatment to timbers from the 

 national forests a use will be found for 

 dead wood and a decided benefit will be 

 conferred on the users of the timber. The 

 work includes a study of the comparative 

 merits of different kinds of preserving 

 fluids. 



The investigations aimed at discover- 

 ing new sources of paper ptilp. have dem- 

 onstrated that a number of woods of 

 abundant supply, never in the past 

 thought of for the manufacture of paper, 

 are capable of yielding pulp of standard 

 grade. Studies in wood distillation are 

 establishing the practicability of obtaining 

 turpentine from waste southern pine ma- 

 terial. 



Ten thousand separate tests of the 

 strength of timber, largely in the form of 

 full-sized structural beams, have estab- 

 lished the relative value of a number of 

 woods and proved the fitness for hitherto 

 unthought of uses of several of them. 



THE FOOD PRODUCED BY OUR FARMERS CAN 

 BE INCREASED MANY TIMES 



There are in the continental United 

 States 1,900,947,200 acres of land. Of 

 this, the tenth census showed 838,591,774 

 acres in farms, with 414,498,487 acres in 

 improved lands and 289,734,591 acres 

 actually in crops. 



