I

CORRESPONDENCE.

AM sure that all true lovers of trees are advocating their planting to commemorate our heroes. If Camp Dix can have one living tree for every son of New Jersey sacrificed on account of the war, why not Pennsylvania one for each of her heroes?

What a fitting "Memorial Day" our next "Arbor Day" would make!

I believe that every county or municipality would pay for and plant a tree for every hero lost in the war, provided that the trees were selected by a competent committee of the State Forestry Association or one appointed by the Governor.

The creation of such a beautiful, living monument to the heroic dead would not prevent the public from carrying out other memorial plans. We cannot honor those who have died for liberty and justice beyond their deserts.

Very respectfully yours,

J. M. ANDERS.

Damages Awarded for Destroying Trees.

Philadelphia, Jan. 25, 1919. Pennsylvania Forestry Association, 1012 Walnut Street.

Gentlemen:

I have your esteemed favor of January 22, 1919, referring to the verdict which I obtained in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the Western Union Telegraph Company for damages sustained to my property on the Cooperstown Road, Delaware County, Pa., for the cutting down of sixty trees on my property along the line of the road.

The circumstances were as follows:

In January, 1917, I owned a property containing about 1,250 feet front on Cooperstown Road, lying between the old and the new Merion Golf Club Links, which had cost me $100,000, and which I held for division into smaller estates. During the months of November and December, 1916, I was ill and confined to my home, and it seems the Western Union Telegraph Company desired to make some improvements or repairs to its line in front of this property, and inquired whether they might cut down the brush under the wires, which I assented to; but instead of trimming out the brush, the company went upon my property inside of my fence line

and cut down about ten trees, including one oak, one cedar, five black-heart cherries, one tulip poplar and several maples, together with a number of smaller trees, including many sassafras.

When I was able to leave my home and went to the property and saw the devastation, the trees all cut down at the base and the trunks lying scattered, I certainly felt as if I had been. not only damaged pecuniarily, but had been subjected to very harsh treatment, and so I placed the matter in the hands of my attorney, William H. Peace, of the Philadelphia Bar, who decided that the conduct of the Telegraph Company amounted to a trespass, and that they had gone beyond their right of eminent domain. That the company had unnecessarily and wantonly destroyed trees, and so suit was begun to recover damages for the difference in value of the property with and without trees; and after the suit had been thus begun, the Telegraph Company caused the removal of the suit to the United States District Court, where it was tried before a jury and Judge Thompson last week, resulting in a verdict in my favor of $7,280.

At the trial, the defendant sought to justify its acts on the ground of its right to maintain and repair its lines, free from any interference, and that pursuant to that right, it had cut down the trees, but the cross-examination by my counsel of the witnesses of the defendant showed the necessity was lacking.

The learned judge who tried the cause, submitted the question to the jury to answer, whether there was any necessity for the cutting down of the trees, to which the jury, by its written verdict, responded no, and awarded the damages above mentioned.

Since this the defendant has filed numerous reasons for a new trial, and I suppose the defendant will contest the recovery as is usual in such cases.

Yours very truly,

JOSEPH R. CONNELL.

District Forester John Leroy Strobeck died October 17th, 1918, in the General Hospital, Philadelphia, of influenza. He had gone to hospital about the 1st of October for the purpose of having an operation performed for gall stones from which he had suffered for years. The hospital was overflowing with influenza cases, and immediate attention could not be secured. While waiting for the operation, he contracted influenza. At the time of his death, Mrs. Strobeck and the three children were down with influenza at

Mr. Strobeck was born in Jacobus, Pa., March 25th, 1885, educated in the public schools of that town, and graduated from the High School at Red Lion. He was graduated from the Forest Academy with the class of 1909, and was sent immediately to Cresco. In 1909 he married Miss Mabel Forry, of Hellam, York County. He was the first district forester appointed in Pennsylvania. In his death the Department loses one of its best men.

Lieutenant Horace Fieldhouse Critchley died of influenza October 20th, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. His body was brought to his home at Steelton, where funeral services were held, October 26th.

Lieut. Critchley was born in Steelton, January 10th, 1891. He was graduated from the Steelton High School, and entered the Forest Academy with the class of 1912. He was graduated from the Academy with the class of 1913, and was assigned to Hunter's Range, Pike County. A year later he was transferred to the Young Woman's Creek Forest, with headquarters at North Bend, Clinton County. He enlisted in the spring of 1917, and was trained at the camp at Fort Niagara. He received a commission in November, 1917, and was sent to instruct troops at Camp Custer, Mich. From there he was transferred to Camp Jackson, S. C., and in June, 1918, was ordered to Fort Sill, Okla., to take special training in aerial observation.

NEW PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST.

"Clearing Land."-Farmers' Bulletin 974. "Preventing Wood Rot in Pecan Trees."Farmers' Bulletin 995.

"Small Saw Mills."-U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin 718.

15, 1918.

Total area, 1,029,023 acres.
Total cost of land, $2,342,918.62.
Average cost per acre, $2.276.

Number divisions known as State Forests, 53. Amount expended to January 1, 1918, other than for lands, $5,339,946.29.

Number of foresters in service before the war, 68.

Number of rangers in service before the war, 93.

Number of foresters now in service, 30.
Number of rangers now in service, 89.

Number of foresters now on State Forests, 26. Number of District Foresters 3; 2 of them also have forests.

Total receipts from State Forests to January 1, 1918, $147,713.82, of which three-fifths is for timber sales.

Receipts for 1916, $21,459.97.
Receipts for 1917, $21,569.69.

Receipts to November 15, 1918, $19,382.02.
Number leased camps, 417.

Number temporary camps, 384; persons using same, 1,989.

Buildings erected: steel towers on State Forests, 9; wood towers on State Forests, 39; and tree towers on State Forests, 92.

Miles telephone lines built or owned by Department, 292.

Miles of roads built, brushed or repaired by Department, 3,500.

Miles boundary lines surveyed and brushed, over 2,000.

Acres surveyed topographically and mapped out, about 300,000.

Trees planted on State Forests, 31,534,556.
Acres reforested, 19,425.

Acres of nurseries, 25.

Seedlings available for 1919 planting, about