Mont Alto Estate and a finished plat of it. This will help materially in the management of the reserve. During the year about four-fifths of a mile of road was repaired, at a cost of $750. This is part of a main road, and is now in such shape that it will be passable at all times and will not need repairs for some time to come. A new road was begun in connection with the improvement cuttings. One-third of a mile was built at an expense of $525. This was built at the time to facilitate the removal of the cord wood that was cut, but with the ultimate purpose of continuing the road to the top of the mountain, in order to avoid a very steep grade in the old road now used. The new road will not be over a 5 per cent. grade anywhere, and mostly 3 per cent. The plantations which were made this year were mostly in the way of experimentation. In the spring a plantation was made, using white pine and western catalpa. The pines were first planted pure, 5 feet by 5 feet apart; then a strip of pine and catalpa mixed was planted. The catalpa was 10 feet apart and the pines filling up the spaces at 5 feet apart, Then catalpa, planted pure at 10 feet apart each way, completed the area. Both species were 2 years old. This fall eastern and western catalpas were mixed, alternating the species at 4foot distances. An equal area was planted under the same conditions and in the same field with 1year-old locust and catalpa, the species alternating at 4-foot distances. These are the first of a large number of practical experiments that will be started here in connection with the Academy. In the spring of 1905 several others will be made. The Forest Academy has grown also. Seven new men were appointed after a mental and physical examination and reported for duty on the first Monday in September. The course of instruction was formally arranged into a three years' course, and includes such work as will fit any young man who will work for himself to fill any position the State may have for him on its reservations. Practical work is the keynote, but enough theory and science is given to broaden the man's mind to make him master of himself and of his profession. The course is an adaptation to the needs of our State of courses given at forestry schools in this country and abroad. Since September, the students have had recitations every morning in the week except Saturday and Sunday. Every afternoon and Saturday morning they are in the field at practical work. They have done all the nursery work and the improvement cuttings; they made the new road and many smaller jobs which could hardly be enumerated. The above is a brief statement of the most im portant work that has been done. Of the innumerable details it is useless to write, yet it must be remembered at this stage of our work there are many little things which must be done to get things in shape, but in the end never make any showing for themselves. GEORGE H. WIRT, State Forester. A Visit to the South Mountain Forest Reserve. Ο N November 9th and 10th a Committee of Council of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, consisting of Messrs. Haines, Hewett, Stahle, Wood and Bitler, at the invitation of Dr. J. T. Rothrock, Secretary of the State Forestry Reservation Commission, visited the South Mountain Forest Reserve, being accompanied by several ladies and gentlemen interested in forestry, Mr. Irwin C. Williams, Deputy Commissioner of Forestry, and Col. D. B. Meredith, Superintendent of the State forestry reservation. The Caledonia Tract.-After arriving at West Fayetteville the party was conveyed to the terminus of the trolley line, and from there by carriage to the hotel at Graeffenburgh, where dinner was served. In the afternoon a drive was taken along the old Chambersburg and Gettysburg turnpike, over which General Lee marched to Gettysburg, viewing the State lands of the Caledonia Tract lying on both sides of the road, where some fine, young white pine trees, as well as deciduous trees, were making good headway since the fire has been kept out. Frequent posters, conspicuously placed, advised all that this was State land, and set forth the rules and regulations which had been established. Many witch hazel bushes were in bloom, and the rhododendrons give promise of an unusual display of flowers next year. After seeing some of the ridges to the east of Graeffenburgh, the party took tea at the beautiful home of the Misses Dock (one of whom is an efficient member of the State Forestry Reservation Commission), nestled on the side of a hill, and commanding a fine view of one of the gaps in the mountain ridges, returning to the Graeffenburgh Hotel, where the night was spent. This hotel is owned by the State, being located on the boundary line between Adams and Franklin Counties, where it is expected to entertain persons interested in forestry, botany, and others at reasonable rates. The next morning carriages were taken, and, in passing along the road to Mont Alto, the office of the famous Thaddeus Stevens could be seen, also the ruins of his blast-furnace. The drive was through a portion of the South Mountain Forest Reserve of about 50,000 acres, the predominating trees being oak, with some fine young white pine in the valleys and along the sides of some of the ridges. This reserve contains the Mont Alto Estate of 20,000 acres, the Caledonia Tract of 17,000 acres, the Dale Tract of 7000 acres, and various smaller tracts aggregating about 6000 acres. Graeffenburgh is on the Caledonia Tract, and the earlier portion of the ride was through this tract. In places there was a good growth of white pine, at others oak; while on some of the high ground which had been burned over about two and a half years ago there was a vigorous growth of young saplings. All of the ground is well watered, and the growth should be rapid. A marked contrast was seen in the road where it runs through State lands and that of private individuals. In the former it is wide, level, well drained by ditches on each side and easily kept in order, while in the latter the reverse is the case. The wisdom of the State in establishing forest reserves is self-evident, as, independent of all other benefits to the Commonwealth, considering them strictly in the light of an investment, the timber now growing on the South Mountain Reserve would command a price at least as great as was paid for the tracts, leaving the land and buildings free of cost to the State. The Sanatorium.-After a drive of about 5 miles the sanatorium was reached, and an opportunity was offered to see the splendid results achieved by a rational out-of-door treatment of the consumptive poor. The South Mountain Sanatory Camp is located in Franklin County, about 15 miles southeast of Chambersburg, at an elevation of 1625 feet above tide-level, and close to it are several fine groves of white pine trees. The assembly room (40 feet square inside) is surrounded by a covered porch 8 feet wide, a novel feature being a large, square, brick fireplace in the centre of the building, open on all sides, with a cheery wood fire, drawing the vitiated air out of the room and allowing fresh to enter. Dr. Addison Rothrock, who is in charge of the camp, escorted the visitors to the cabins and cottages, explaining many interesting features. There are now on the ground ten cabins, six cottages, and a large cottage is just being completed. The cabins have but one room, the cottages two rooms, an outside kitchen and a small porch. One rule is that all windows must be kept open all night, care being taken to avoid draughts, and all patients must be out in the open air as much as possible. But little if any medicine is given, the object being to make the patients forget they are ill, good food and living in the wholesome air | forming the cure. Only patients in the incipient stages of tuberculosis are admitted, the State furnishing the cabin or cottage, cot, a wood-burning stove and water, the patients providing their own bedding and food, chiefly milk, eggs, beef and bread. The results have been wonderfully satisfactory. Fully two-thirds of all the patients have been cured after an average stay of five months, although it is preferable, to insure a permanent cure, to remain longer. All the patients spoken to stated that they had improved since arriving, the gain in weight in one week being variously given as from 2% to 9 pounds. It would seem that it might be desirable for the coming Legislature to pass an appropriation sufficient to erect fourteen more cottages, and also supply food to all the inmates of the camp, as, while some of the patients can cook well, others are unable to properly prepare the food, thus retarding recovery. This appropriation should be sufficient to provide food for seventy-five people. What would be more appropriate than for the State, by the payment of a small sum of, say, $4 per week per patient, for an average of six or seven months, to keep these persons from going to hospitals, aided by State funds, many probably dying, restoring to health and enabling them to again become self-supporting. It would also seem desirable to establish other well guarded sanatoriums of, say, 200 acres each, at some suitable location in forest reserves in different parts of the State, that all of the consumptive poor might be equally benefited. The Mont Alto Tract.-Close to the sanatorium are fine growths of white pine, thirty-five years old, growing in old fields, the furrows being still distinctly seen. These trees are now about 30 to 50 feet high and 10 to 18 inches in diameter, refuting the oft-expressed theory that after white pine is once cut off it cannot be made to grow again, spontaneously. After returning to the carriages the drive was continued to a field where white pine seedlings, taken from the nursery at an age of two years, had been set out two years ago. An experiment was tried in this instance to see whether keeping a section weeded would improve the growth; but it was found that those left to struggle among the weeds had done as well as those which had been kept clean. to their studies and work in the nursery and transplanting, which will be described later, have cut 200 cords of wood, also telegraph and telephone poles, posts, etc.; have thinned 3 acres of white pine, made nearly 100 acres of improvement cutting, repaired 2 miles of road, made one-third of a mile of entirely new road in the improvement cutting, and opened up 20 miles of fire-lanes 15 feet wide. They have also torn down old buildings, the material from which was used at the sanatorium in the erection of cabins, improved the fences, etc. The Forest Academy.-After a drive of about a mile, most of which was along the beautiful Mont Alto Park (to which the Cumberland Valley Railroad runs excursions during the summer), Wiestling Hall was reached, and a cordial welcome extended by Mr. George H. Wirt, State Forester. room in which lunch was served was festooned by garlands, and on the wall over the fire-place was "Welcome to Wiestling Hall." This mansion is used for the Forest Academy. The There are at pres ent twenty students, and it is the expectation to have ten additional students next year, making a total of thirty, these ten being selected from the applicants, who are required to stand both a physical and mental examination; those passing most satisfactorily enter the institution. The course at present is three years; the pupils, besides being taught botany, forestry, a knowledge of soils, etc., receive practical instruction in wood-chopping, road-making, thinning, improvement cuttings, work in the nursery, etc., it being the expectation that after graduation the student will be well fitted to take charge of a State tract of about 5000 acres as forest warden, and assume charge of the gangs of workmen who may be from time to time employed. Each student usually purchases a horse, which is kept at the expense of the State, thus making it easy to have the entire force promptly on hand in case of emergency at any point in the tract. A mounted drill was witnessed, the erect, stalwart, manly bearing of the students being admired. They also wear a neat uniform, and are sworn in as officers of the peace. A fire brigade has been organized, and in illustrating the method of procedure a horse was harnessed with a pack saddle, two small kegs containing 20 gallons of water, fastened to it by means of a diamond hitch, all ready to start in a minute and a half. The water is thrown on the fire by means of a hand-spray pump, forming one of the most efficient aids yet introduced in fighting forest fires. The Nursery.-A visit to the nursery followed, where in neat beds 75,000 thrifty white pine trees, 5500 Douglas fir and 1500 yellow pine, planted last spring, were seen; while 75,000 white pine seedlings were heeled in ready for use in the com ing spring. In addition there were heeled in about 25,000 one-, two- and three-year-old western catalpa, eastern catalpa, red spruce, chestnut, red ash, locust, white, chestnut and red oaks, horse chestnuts, etc. Nine thousand white pine, 3600 western catalpa and 400 locust trees have been placed in plantations of about 5 acres. Eight thousand of these seedlings were taken from the nursery; 90 per cent. of these grew. A number of beds in the nursery were also prepared this fall, and 2 bushels of walnuts, 61⁄2 pounds of white ash and 3 pounds of yellow poplar seed planted, which should produce about 35,000 young trees. The nursery now occupies about 14 acres, and will be enlarged from time to time as necessary. The Mont Alto tract was formerly used to produce wood for charcoal, which was utilized as a fuel in a small blast-furnace, which has been removed. The old chapel is now utilized as a Sunday-school, so that the moral side is looked after as well as the intellectual. So efficient has been the fire force in the South Mountain Reservation that, although the autumn has been quite dry, there has been no forest fires of any importance; in fact, the loss on all the forest reserves this fall by forest fires will not exceed 200 acres, and late rains have probably ended all danger for this year. After thanking Dr. Rothrock and the State officials for their many courtesies, the party returned to their homes more than ever impressed with the importance of forestry, by the practical demonstrations which had been witnessed; also the importance of liberal appropriations by the Legislature to continue the work so well inaugurated. F. L. BITLER. American Forest Congress. RRANGEMENTS are being made for an American Forest Congress to be held at Washington, D. C., January 2-6, 1905. The Congress will be under the auspices of the American Forestry Association, of which Honorable James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, is the president. The purpose of the Congress, as announced in the official call, is "to establish a broader understanding of the forest in its relation to the great industries depending upon it ; to advance the conservative use of the forest resources for both the present and the future need of these industries; to stimulate and unite all efforts to perpetuate the forest as a permanent resource of the Nation." The Congress will be representative of the great industrial interests which are directly and intimately dependent for their well-being upon the forests, as is shown by the prominence of those who have already notified Secretary Wilson of their intention to attend. Practically all the great railroads will be represented by their presidents, vice-presidents or chief engineers. Telegraph and telephone companies will also have able representatives present. The lumber interests will probably be more largely represented than any other. Each lumbermen's association has the privilege of appointing five delegates, and a long list of delegates is already on file in the office of the Secretary of the Committee of Arrangements. Most of the lumber trade journals will be represented by their editors. The grazing interests will be represented by a number of influential men from the Western States. No less than eight supervisors of forest reserves will be present to participate in the discussions on the reserves. The mining interests will be represented. Among the Governors who have expressed their intention of coming are Governor Cummins, of Iowa; Governor Peabody, of Colorado; and Governor Otero, of New Mexico. The States of Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Maine and Pennsylvania have already appointed full lists of delegates. Delegates are promised from most of the remaining States. The interest of the Federal Government in the Congress is evidenced by the facts that the President of the United States will deliver an address and receive the delegates, that the Secretary of Agriculture will preside, and that the different Government Bureaus, especially concerned with the forests, irrigation and the public lands, will be fully represented. Problems affecting the forests and forest lands, as well as the great enterprises of mining and grazing in the West, are now receiving national attention, and the deliberations of the able men who will attend the meeting will doubtless help immensely toward their solution. In addition, it is expected that valuable suggestions for the improvement of present regulations concerning lumbering and irrigation, which are interwoven so intimately with forestry, will be a result of the meeting. The first meeting of the Congress will be at noon, January 2d, to attend in a body the President's New Year's reception. The four business days of this Congress are each divided into two sessions, morning and afternoon, all except the session on Thursday afternoon to be held in the National Rifles Armory, 920 G Street. The morning of Tuesday, January 3d, will be devoted to organization, to Secretary Wilson's address as President of the Congress, and to brief addresses by prominent men. In the afternoon the importance of the public forest lands to irrigation and grazing will be discussed. The irrigation question will be treated by those in charge of the Government's reclamation work, and by representatives of the vast agricultural interests so absolutely dependent upon irrigation for existence. Wednesday morning the subject for consideration will be the lumber industry in its relation to the forests. the forests. Many questions of great practical and economic importance have aiready been presented for consideration. Wednesday afternoon the importance of public forest lands to mining will be discussed. The application and influence of present land laws will be considered, and the use of the forests in mining. Thursday morning the Congress will consider the forests in relation to railroad supplies. Thursday afternoon there will be a popular meeting at the Lafayette Theatre. President Rooseveit, Baron Sternberg, the German Ambassador, United States Senators and Representatives especially conversant with forestry, leading railroad men, lumbermen and grazing men, and others prominent in national life will address this meeting. Friday morning the subject of national forest policy will be taken up. The officials of the General Land Office, the Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Forestry will open this question, which is of far-reaching importance. Friday afternoon the Congress will close its work with a session on State forest policy. Governors of States, State forest officials, and agents of the Bureau of Forestry who have been extensively engaged in coöperative State forest work will treat this subject in a practical way that will have a most beneficial result on State forest legislation. Laws affecting the protection and use of forests will be acted upon this winter by Legislatures in no less than a dozen States. At all the sessions, in addition to the prepared papers, thorough discussion, so far as time will permit, will be invited. The highest purpose of the Congress is to point the way to the best use of the forests. The Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C., has just issued an interesting pamphlet entitled, "“Progress Report on the Strength of Structural Timber," by Dr. W. Kendrick Hatt, C.E., giving the results obtained from cross-bending tests on about 250 large beams of structural timber. The species investigated were the Pacific Coast red fir or Douglas spruce, the western hemlock, the red gum, the long-leaf pine, and the loblolly pine. Later on the redwood and western yellow pine will be tested. Thomas Meehan & Sons, Inc. Nurserymen and Treeseedsmen Yale University Forest School NEW HAVEN - - CONNECTICUT A two years' graduate course is offered, leading to the degree of Master of Forestry. Graduates of collegiate institutions of high standing are admitted upon presentation of their college diplomas. The Summer School of Forestry is conducted at Milford, Pike County, Penna. The session in 1905 will open July 5th and continue seven weeks. Head Master. |