74 night. This fire is never allowed to flame, otherwise the lower layer of chestnuts in the upper chambers would have a reddish color and scorched flavor. The workman watching the fire always has a wet rag on the end of a pole at hand in order to extinguish the fire in case the boards on which the chestnuts rest become ignited. In order to insure uniform drying, the chestnuts at first must not be piled higher than 25-30 centimetres upon this primitive roaster, but little by little, by gradual heaping, the pile may reach a height of 1 metre. For the fire, a kind of wood must be used which produces little flame and much smoke. The wood is covered with the chestnuthulls of a previous season. It is started at first only in the middle, but, as the quantity of chestnuts is increased, it is lighted in different places, so that the roasting-board above may be kept evenly heated. This simple and inexpensive affair, which is in use from 20-30 or perhaps 40 days of the last months of the year, is in Italy the commonest kind. 3 Owners of large and rich chestnut woods could, with advantage, use more perfect ovens, which naturally are more expensive, but which render it possible, for example, to keep the first chestnuts separate, since these are considered choicer in quality than those which are produced later. They permit also of a better utilization of the fuel. Such improved drying-machines are found in Corsica and in Limousin. located outside the peasant's cabin, allows heated, The oven, which is smokeless air to stream into the drying-chamber, and thus refutes the prejudice of the peasants of Italy, that smoke contributes to the drying-process. Donati, Professor of Agriculture in Bastia, Corsica, has prepared an oven with cast-iron firechambers, in which any desired fuel may be used, such as chestnut shells, olive seeds, etc. Above the arched fire-chamber is a double-spaced compartment in which the air is heated. second compartment consists of pipes, through The which the heated air ascends to the drying. chamber above, while smoke and gas escape through the chimney. A damper serves to reguA damper serves to regulate the draft and also the fire. The hot air flows into the drying-chamber through two openings, which can be regulated by the dampers, and the chestnuts rest upon the net-work, forming a layer 50 centimetres thick at the most. A valve offers means of escape for the steam arising from the chestnuts while drying. This oven, which in case of need can be used for drying other fruits, is adapted to a crop averaging not more than 100 hectolitres. For larger crops Donati has modified his oven by introducing several drying-frames, one above However, as the chestnuts are marketed without Pistoia, this chestnut-peeling is a regular festival. ble time is still required to sort and cleanse the nuts, weighing 61 kg., to 1 hectolitre of dried ground into flour, which, if carefully preserved, These dried chestnuts are now in condition to be may be kept good for several years. Little need be said in reference to the use of chestnuts as food. Raw, dried and fresh, they The fresh chestnuts are boiled either with or withare a very palatable and economical article of diet. out the hulls, or are roasted in the hull in the wellknown perforated pans or in hot ashes, forming at tempting morsel for both rich and poor. In Italy they are found especially on the table of the man who farms the land on shares. During the entire harvest he gorges himself with chestnuts and wine, because the proprietor, in dividing the crop, does not take into account the quantity eaten during the harvesting process. A special method of preparation is common in Limousin, where, after boiling the fresh chestnuts for a quarter of an hour, they are put in an oven from which the bread has been removed an hour before. After being dried in this manner they can be kept a long time in a dry place. When eaten warm, they are put in a double-boiler and steamed, or, if preferred cold, are simply placed for several days in a damp place. as Chestnut flour has been known from time immemorial here and there throughout Europe. It is made into a broth, or into a dough mixed with cacas, sugar, rice or potato flour. It is eaten with spice in milk and in soups, and is variously known "Racahout," "Palamoud," "Kaiffa," etc. Every one familiar with Italy knows the chestnut cake, "Castagnaccio," a mixture of water, chestnut flour, nuts, pine nuts and raisins, which is cooked with oil in a frying pan, and the "Polenta," a sweetish and easily digestible dish, which is the principal article of diet of the poor mountaineers during the long winter months, and in spring when the wheat crop has failed. In Corsica and the mountains of Calabria a species of sweetish and quite palatable bread is made from chestnut flour, which is not as hard as ordinary bread, and which keeps well for several days. In Corsica it is made once a week. Five kg. of flour and two litres of water form a dough, which is mixed with ordinary yeast and allowed to raise over night. In many other parts of Italy a paste or dough called "nicci" or "necci" (an abbreviation of castagnaccio) is prepared, which takes the place of bread in the mountains. The dough of flour and water is formed into round cakes 1-3 centimetres thick and 15 centimetres in diameter. These cakes are wrapped in the scalded leaves of the chestnut, which have been kept for the purpose, since it is believed that they impart a special aroma to the cakes, and then they are cooked between hot stones. Besides these uses of the chestnut are the "marrons glaces" (candied chestnuts), a brandy, which, according to Palmiera, is made in Prussia, and sugar, which is extracted in the proportion of 6 per cent. It is perhaps needless to say that the flour is manufactured from the dry nuts just as grain and other materials of a similar nature are ground. As to the nutritive value of chestnuts when fresh, according to Ridolfi, they bear the proportion of 3: 10, and when dried, 4: 10 to wheat. Gasparin, who, however, only considers their nitrogenous contents, declares the nutritive value of 2.25 hectolitres of fresh chestnuts equivalent to that of 1 hectolitre of wheat. Both figures demonstrate, without doubt, that the nutritive content is small enough, and that where chestnut flour replaces wheat, abundant milk and cheese must be consumed. There are 495,794 hectares planted in chest nut trees in the twelve regions of Italy, yielding 5,768,347 kilozentners of nuts. The average yield per hectare is 11.63 "kilozentner.' The market price of chestnuts in the hull varies according to region and quality between 8 and 14 francs. Chestnuts from the region of Avellino, Salerno, Lucca, Massa Carrara, Modena and Pisa are the most highly prized. Those which come from Sardinia, Apulia and from Venetia are less highly esteemed. The importation of chestnuts into Italy is naturally small. The export, on the other hand, increases from year to year. In 1870 it was 4,767,000 kg.; in 1898 it increased to 16,558,000 kg. Chestnut culture has, without doubt, a great future in Italy if it is perfected and extended. The Government seeks to aid this industry by distributing gratuitously from its nurseries young chestnut plants. Private parties may thus obtain plant material free of charge at the nearest railroad station. McLanahan, J. King, Newbold, Miss Edith, S. E. cor. 13th and Locust Sts., Philadelphia, Pa. Nimick, Mrs. F. B., 6315 Fifth Ave., E. E., Pittsburgh, Pa. Nissley, John C., 29 N. Second St., Harrisburg, Pa. Norris, Charles, 617 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. Palmer, Mrs. Henry W, Wilkes Barre, Pa. Pepper, Mrs. David, Jr., "Overlea," Reath, Mrs. E. H., Reynolds, Miss E., Reynolds, H. C., Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pa. 1538 Pine St., Philadelphia, Pa. Ricketts, Miss Frances Leigh, Chestnut Hill, Phila., Pa. 602 Mears Building, Scranton, Pa. Wilkes Barre, Pa. Wilkes Barre, Pa. Wilkes Barre, Pa. 2006 Wallace St., Philadelphia, Pa. Rosengarten, George D., 258 S. 21st St., Philadelphia, Pa. Rosengarten, Mrs. Frank H., 1905 Walnut St., Phila., Pa. Rothrock, Miss Elizabeth May, Ruskauff, F. W., Sabin, William, Sautter, Christian L., Schmidt, John G., West Chester, Pa. Park Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. Cadwallader, Pa. 1421 Locust St., Philadelphia, Pa. 2007 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. Shenk, Christian, Bala, Pa. Glenside, Pa. 921 N. Broad St., Phila., Pa. 1014 Market St., Philadelphia, Pa. Grampian, Pa. 1128 Fifth Ave., New Brighton, Pa. Prout's Neck, Me. 447 Clay Ave., Scranton, Pa. 36 N. Iowa Ave., Atlantic City, N. J. 261 S. 4th St., Philadelphia, Pa. Drifton, Pa. 306 Webster Ave., Scranton, Pa. Stephen Girard Bldg., Phila., Pa. Swank, James M., Watkins, T. H., Merion, Pa. Pittsburgh, Pa. Belmont Water Co., Carbondale, Pa. Concord, Pa. York, Pa. Economy, Pa. Paoli, Pa. Eaglesmere, Pa. P.O. Box 545, Scranton, Pa. Wayne, Miss Frances C., 4249 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. Lebanon, Pa. Wirt, J. R., Wister, Mrs. O. J., 234 N. 20th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 2024 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. Broad St. Station, Philadelphia, Pa. 1523 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pa. Westmoreland Club, Wilkes Barre, Pa. McVeytown, Pa. Press reports from Butte, Mont., are to the effect that the United States Government has in stituted suit in the Federal court for $2,000,000, the value of timber alleged to have been unlawfully cut from the public domain in western Montana. The strip of territory denuded is from one to six miles wide and fifty to seventy-five miles long, mostly along the Bitter Root river. It is alleged by the special prosecutor that the defendants tried to conceal their identity by organizing and reorganizing under different corporate names. The greater part of the alleged depredation was done by the Anaconda and Bitter Root development companies before the organization of the Amalgamated Company. If the Government is to protect its timber land, it is well that action be taken against prominent offenders, rather than against others less known. "We left the train at Holbrook for a visit to the great petrified forests-one of the most remarkable natural curiosities in the world. After a breakfast the party was loaded into canvascovered wagons, commonly known as 'prairie schooners,' and set forth upon a ride of about 16 miles, to the rim of a great mesa, where the largest portion of the petrified forest has been laid bare. There are several other points in Navajo County where fossil trees are exposed. But the greater extent of the Holbrook forest, as well as the richer and more diversified coloring of the fossil wood, make this the more desirable point at which to study this marvel of nature. Ascending the northeastern rim of the mesa, which is still capped with the sandstone in place, one has before him a vast depression of some 3500 or 4000 acres in extent, thickly strewn with the trunks of great silicified trees. These seem originally to have lain just below the capping stratum of sandstone. As the penetrating water-flow cut out the softer material underneath the sandstone, the trees and their rocky covering dropped into the valley-like depression that was produced. Around the rim of the valley many large tree trunks protrude from beneath the sandstone for several feet, entirely unsupported at their free ends. These seem to have been originally a variety of conifer, or perhaps to have been related to the great redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, of California. They undoubtedly belong to the carboniferous age, and are a portion of that vast forest which once grew in this now treeless waste, and that went to form the great coal measures that underlie its surface. "The texture and form of the dead trees are clearly discernible, every fibre of the wood transformed into gleaming agate, jasper, sard, carnelian or chalcedony. The colors most prominent are reds and browns, with occasional blue and green tints, interspersed with translucent, colorless chalcedony. The heart of some logs is a mass of sparkling crystals of quartz, occasionally showing amethystine tints. At one point these great logs lie so close together as to remind one of the yard of the sawmill, where the logs have been rolled together to await the saw. They are usually broken into sections of not more than 8 or 10 feet in length, as squarely across the fibre as if separated by the woodman's crosscut saw. Some have been discovered that measured 20 feet in diameter at their base, and at a break 100 feet from the base 10 feet in diameter. One that lies with all its sections continuously placed and in contact, I paced from end to end 130 paces-probably, at least, 360 feet. The smaller branches, if they were ever silicified, have been broken into tiny fragments that now strew the surface of the valley. All the concentric layers of wood that mark the annual growth of the trees are clearly shown by the varying hues and tints of the stone, and offer a most interesting study to the lithologist, as well as a never-ending source of surprise and wonder to the mere sightseer. "The petrified forest is now one of the reservations of the National Government, and is protected from the vandalism that might otherwise, in time, mar some of its singular beauty. Before the subsidence of the land which bore these forests there was abundant life here, that was buried beneath the inrushing waters as the land slowly sank and the great trees toppled to their overthrow. Through long ages the ocean detritis was dropped through yielding waters, grain by grain, until the great sandstone stratum was piled upon these fallen monarchs of the primeval forest. Then followed an age of slow uplifting that drained off the waters, and then the erosion by stream and storm that at last restored these buried giants to the light of day. But what mind is able to grasp this appalling procession of the ages?" Forestry as an Aid to Irrigation. TH HE National Irrigation Congress held its eleventh meeting on September 15 to 18, 1903, at Ogden, Utah. President Roosevelt was unable to be present, but sent a telegram, speaking of the benefit to be derived from irrigation, and in closing stated: "The irrigation development of the arid West cannot stand alone. Forestry is the companion and support of irrigation. Without forestry irrigation must fail. Permanent irrigation development and forest destruction cannot exist together. Never forget that the forest reserve policy of the National Government means the use of all the resources of the forest reserves. There is little profit in destruction compared with use. The settlement of the great arid West by the makers of homes is the central object, both of the irrigation and the forest policy of the United States. In forestry, as in irrigation, the immediate private interests of some individual must occasionally yield to their permanent advantage, which is the public good. The benefits of forestry are not only for the future, but for the present. The forest reserves are for all the people, but first for the people in the immediate neighborhood, for whom supplies of wood and water are among the first necessities of life. With the wiser and more skilful management of the reserves by trained men the greater, obviously, will their usefulness be to the public. "We must never allow our chagrin at temporary defeat and difficulties in the management of the forest reserves to blind us to the absolute necessity of these reserves to the people of the West. Support of the forest reserve policy has grown with wonderful rapidity in the West during the last few years. It will continue to grow until the last vestige of opposition, now almost gone, has wholly disappeared before the true understanding of the object and the effect of the forest reservation. The greater the support of the forest reservation by the people of the West, the greater the assurance that the national irrigation policy will not fail, for the preservation of the forests is vital to the success of this policy." New Publications. A Working Plan for Forest Lands in Hampton and Beaufort Counties, South Carolina. Bulletin 43, Bureau of Forestry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 12mo., 54 pages. Illustrated. This monograph was prepared by Mr. Thomas H. Sherrard, giving the results of an examination by the Forestry Bureau of 60,000 acres of land belonging to the Okeetee Gun Club. The tract of land is described, the original and present forest are treated of, together with a statement of the effects of lumbering and turpentining, fire, etc. A list and description of the different forest trees are given, together with a working plan, suggestions for fire protection, lumbering, etc.; 12 plates, 11 diagrams and 1 map aid in an understanding of the report. The Diminished Flow of the Rock River in Wisconsin and Illinois and its Relation to the Surrounding Forests. Bulletin 44, Bureau of Forestry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 8vo., 27 pages. Illustrated. Mr. G. Frederick Schwarz made a detailed investigation of the Rock River and its diminished flow. Briefly, his conclusions are that the streamflow might be made more nearly constant by the erection of storage reservoirs. Another method of equalizing the flow is through the agency of forest growth, the present condition being largely the result of forest destruction and deterioration, and recommends the improvement of the woodland connected with the farms, suggesting methods for such improvement; 4 plates and 2 maps illustrate the report. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo. 8vo., 316 pages, bound in cloth. Illustrated. Mr. William Trelease, Director, reports a gratifying increase in the number of species of plants under cultivation, as well as in the income. The library and herbarium also received large additions. The greater portion of the Report is taken up by a "Synopsis of the Genus Louicera," by Alfred Rehder, and "a Supplementary Catalogue of the Sturtevant Prelinnean Library," by C. E. Hutchings. On the farm of Jacob Stetzler, Perry township, near Moselem, Pa., is a botanical curiosity in the shape of a trunk of a Juneberry tree, entirely imbedded in the trunk of a white oak tree. Eight feet from the ground the two trees again separate and are then several feet apart. Each tree bears its fruit-berries and acorns-as if they had never met each other. The berry tree is full of fineflavored berries.-Public Ledger. We are glad to advise our readers that the proposed Forestry School at Mont Alto, Pa., for which an appropriation was made at the last meeting of the Legislature, is now in successful operation. In a subsequent issue we expect to give full particulars. Prof. H. A. Surface, Pennsylvania's Economic Zoologist, is issuing a monthly Bulletin, making seasonable suggestions. Among other points may be mentioned that, in October, the Fall Canker worm climbs the trees and deposits her eggs on the branches in conspicuous white masses, which may be destroyed by spraying or painting with kerosene (50 per cent.), whale-oil soap, soft soap, crude petroleum, dilute carbolic acid, lye, strong whitewash, etc. The ascent of the worms may be prevented by banding the trees at once with tar, sticky fly-paper, fresh paint, etc., being renewed to keep them fresh and effective. The bag worm, which can be killed by spraying with arsenites, such as 1 pound of Paris green to 150 gallons of water during the feeding season, is quite conspicuous in October, and can be removed by hand. |