36 BULLETIN 753, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The wood fuel committees may be State, county, or community 
organizations. In some States all three are used and all work more 
or less closely with the Fuel Administration. Many municipalities 
appoint such committees temporarily during the emergency winter 
season to organize means of production and transportation of wood 
as well as to equalize its distribution and price. All these com- 
mittees should be made permanent,-for much effective work can be 
done by them during that part of the year when conditions are not 
so acute. 
As usually organized, a war fuel company is a stock company made 
up of public-spirited citizens operating under a charter duly regis- 
tered with the State. The object is to buy and sell wood and coal at 
a low rate of return on the money invested, for the purpose of alle- 
viating the undesirable conditions that are bound to follow wherever 
sufficient fuel can not be had by families, business concerns, and — 
public institutions. The rate of profit is sometimes limited to not 
more than 6 per cent and the proceeds are turned over to some 
public charity. 
WOOD FUEL LEGISLATION. 
Doubtless in many cases State legislation would help to promote 
the use of wood fuel. Price regulation, measuring, shipping, mar- 
keting, and other features may be aided by specific laws adapted to 
local conditions. 
In Virginia an order has been issued by the Federal Fuel Admin- 
istrator for the State prohibiting any person residing outside the 
cities or incorporated towns from obtaining coal except by special 
permit from the local administrator upon the execution of a state- 
ment to the effect that wood is not available. This was done to bring 
about the substitution of wood for coal to a very appreciable extent 
without imposing serious hardship on those required to use wood. 
Similar restrictions for most localities in the eastern United States 
would seem desirable as a reasonable means of bringing about a 
greater use of wood fuel by those who have wood around them or can 
obtain it readily. This method is sufficiently elastic to accomplish 
the object aimed at without working hardship on those who can not 
reach wood. It should be especially valuable in the matter of coal 
embargoes which may be suddenly found absolutely necessary in the 
depth of winter in a fuel crisis. When an embargo must be laid, it 
should be a flexible one and the heaviest restrictions placed on those 
localities where wood is available and on those consumers who can 
use wood fuel. In this way coal may be conserved and the evil effects 
of a blanket embargo avoided. 
MUNICIPAL WOOD YARDS. 
In many places municipalities themselves organize wood yards to 
purchase, manufacture, and distribute wood fuel, in order to sup- 
