420 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1082 



creased drilling activity stimulated by the ad- 

 vancing petroleum market in 1913 and the 

 early part of 1914; in Ohio to local extensions 

 of the productive fields of the gas belt in the 

 central part of the state and to the develop- 

 ment of an important gas pool in the vicinity 

 of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County; in Okla- 

 homa to the development of gas reserves in the 

 Cushing field, Creek County, and the 

 Healdton field. Carter County, as well as to a 

 decided expansion of the local easinghead gas- 

 oline industry; in Texas to a greater utiliza- 

 tion of the gas supplies available in the Pe- 

 trolia and Mexia fields; in Louisiana to the 

 greater development of the gas reserves in 

 Caddo and De Soto parishes, and in Cali- 

 fornia to increased demands for domestic con- 

 sumption in Los Angeles and adjacent towns 

 in the southern part of the state as well as 

 for industrial consumption in the easinghead 

 gasoline industry. Of the record-breaking 

 production of natural gas credited to 1914 it 

 is estimated that the total of 203,104,358,000 

 cubic feet, about 34 per cent., was supplied to 

 domestic consumers at an average price of 

 28.04 cents a thousand cubic feet and that 

 388,762,375,000 cubic feet, the remaining 66 

 per cent., was supplied to industrial consumers 

 at an average price of 9.56 cents a thousand 

 cubic feet. During the last four years the 

 ratio of domestic to industrial consumption 

 has varied but slightly. Formerly, however, a 

 relatively greater proportion of the annual 

 yield was supplied to industrial consumers. 



The Alaskan Engineering Commission, 

 which is to build the government railroad from 

 Seward on the Pacific 471 miles to Fairbanks 

 in the interior, has received a permit from the 

 Forest Service to cut 85 million feet of tim- 

 ber in the Chugach National Forest for use in 

 constructing the new line. The permit was 

 issued by the district forester at Portland, 

 Oregon, who has direct supervision of the 

 Alaskan forests, and is in conformity with the 

 Act of March 4, last, which authorized the Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture to permit the Alaskan 

 Engineering Commission and the Navy De- 

 partment to take from the national forests 



free of charge earth, stone and timber for 

 use in government works. The timber wiU be 

 cut in designated areas along the right-of- 

 way of the proposed railroad, which runs 

 through the Chugach National Forest for sev- 

 eral miles. Experiments and tests of Alaskan 

 spruce and hemlock are being made at the 

 Forest Service Laboratory at Seattle, "Wash- 

 ington, and so far have substantiated the opin- 

 ion of foresters that Alaskan timber is suffi- 

 ciently strong for practically all structural 

 purposes. While these tests are going on 

 Forest Service employees in Alaska are mark- 

 ing the timber to be cut along the proposed 

 railroad, the cutting to be done so that only 

 mature trees are taken, the young trees being 

 left uninjured and the condition of the for- 

 est improved. This cut of 85 million feet will 

 be the largest amount of timber ever felled on 

 the Alaskan forests in one operation, and at 

 the average rate per thousand board feet ob- 

 tained for timber sold from the Chugach for- 

 est during the fiscal year 1914, it is worth ap- 

 proximately $145,000 on the stump. It will 

 be nearly twice as much as the total quantity 

 of national forest timber now cut and used 

 annually for local purposes throughout Alaska, 

 but only a little more than one tenth of the 

 estimated annual growth of the Alaskan for- 

 ests. The two national forests of Alaska con- 

 tain about 78 billion feet of merchantable 

 timber and it is estimated by the Forest Serv- 

 ice that more than 800 million feet could be 

 cut every year forever without lessening the 

 forests' productivity. 



The output of bituminous coal in the 

 United States for the first six months of 1915 

 is estimated by C. E. Lesher, of the United 

 States Geological Survey, to be between 180,- 

 000,000 and 190,000,000 short tons, the rate of 

 production having been from 85 to 90 per 

 cent, of the average for the previous year. 

 Thus the bituminous coal production during 

 this six-months' period has been considerably 

 less than for the corresponding period in 1914, 

 and is little, if any, greater than the output 

 during the last half of that year. The rate of 

 production this year decreased after January, 



