General
Silviculture and management
Forest protection
Utilization - New methods
Economics and statistics
Policy, legislation and administration
Meetings
Reviews
The items appearing here are condensed selections of news thought to be of interest to readers of UNASYLVA. They are grouped alphabetically by countries under headings currently used by the Division of Forestry and Forest Products for reference purposes. The Editor will be glad to receive direct from, readers authenticated items of interest and of news value for this part of the review.
PERU
· A French Center for Andean Studies, under the direction of Dr. J. Vellard, assisted by Professor M. Pieyre, was founded in Lima in 1948. It is hoped that this will serve as a base for French scientists at present in Peru as well as enable French and Peruvian experts to keep informed of work being accomplished in Europe and America which concerns the Andes.
The Center includes a geographical, a biological, and an anthropological section. A number of points of basic interest for foresters appear in the present research program. They include research on erosion, climate, and soil utilization and the study of aerial photography. The Center is in liaison with the Commission for the Study of the Economic Potentialities of Peru.
SWITZERLAND
· The Swiss Wood Industry Association, the Swiss Association of Professional Timber Merchants, and the Swiss Association of Forestry Economy terminated their convention at Berne and Soleure on 10 February 1949 by creating an autonomous mutual assistance fund. This fund is financed by a special contribution paid partly by the owners of public or private forests at the rate of 10 centimes per m³ and partly by the purchasers of rough logs at the rate of 20 centimes per m³. It is managed by a special Commission composed of representatives of the three signatory Associations, plus a representative of the Swiss Forestry Society, and is presided over by the Inspector-General of Forests of the Confederation, who acts in an advisory capacity.
One-third of the available money will be utilized in studying problems relating directly to forestry economy, particularly the improvement and rationalization of forest exploitation and wood transportation, and in seeking market outlets for wood products of lesser value. One-third is intended for use in the improvement and rationalization of the lumber industry, particularly for better professional training and the development of the use of sawlogs. The remaining third is to be set aside for dealing with common problems and regional matters pertaining simultaneously to forestry economy, industry, and timber trade.
YUGOSLAVIA
· After a lapse of six years, the Annals of Experimental Forestry published by the Agronomo-Forest Institute of Zagreb University in Yugoslavia have made a welcome appearance again. The last issue (Vol. 8) came out in 1942. The recent issue (Vol. 9) was published in 1948. It is a large volume of 366 pages containing eleven high-grade scientific papers covering a wide range of subjects from the biological characteristics of mixed stands of alder and oak to the general principles of determining stumpage prices, and from propagation of cottonwood by cuttings to the technical properties of the wood of the different pines. The articles are accompanied by brief accounts in German or French, sometimes both, and an occasional article has an English resumé. On the whole, the publication is a record of creditable forest research, and foresters everywhere will be glad to know that the Agronomo-Forest Institute is again actively engaged in forest studies and research, the results of which help to enrich the science of forestry the world over.
· Four forest research institutes came into being in 1948 in the several federated republics of Yugoslavia, with headquarters in Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, and Skoplje. They are under the direction of the forest departments of the respective republics. In addition, there is an All-Union institute, with headquarters in Splitu, devoted to the development of improved methods of forestry on rocky soils.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· The Kuriles Archipelago comprises some 36 small islands stretching all the way from southern Kamchatka to the northern tip of Japan (Hokkaido). Originally the islands belonged to Russia, but after the Russo-Japanese War they were ceded to Japan, together with southern Sakhalin; after World War II they again became part of the U.S.S.R. They occupy an area of 15,600 km², and have a population of some 6,000. The forests that exist are found mostly on the four southern islands - Urup, Iturup, Shikotan, and Kunashiri. The amount of standing timber is relatively small. From the possible exploitation standpoint, the spruce (Picea jezuensis) and fir (Abies sachalinensis) forests are of interest. The spruce is prevalent mostly on Kunashiri Island (25 percent of the entire merchantable stand); it occurs also in small amounts on Shikotan Island. In the northwestern part of Kunashiri are found high-grade spruce stands, often two-storied forests with fir and other species forming the lower storey. As the Japanese had for years been cutting out the spruce, many of the stands have now become mixed forests of fir and spruce, with fir predominating, or pure fir forests. Spruce has an average height of 18 meters, and occasionally reaches a maximum of 35 meters, with diameters of 28 to 72 cm. The age ranges from 80 to 250 years. There are no continuous massive forests; the narrowness of the islands alone (from 6 to 46 km. wide) precludes such occurrence.
The main controlling meteorological factor of the generally humid climate of the Kuriles is the strong winds. The forests attain normal development, therefore, only in places sheltered from the wind - on protected slopes and in valleys and coves. The timber line stops at an elevation of 400 to 500 meters above sea level. Above that occur only procumbent pine (Pinus pumila) and shrubs. Some good stands possible of exploitation occur in isolated coves opening directly on the ocean and only in a few cases connected by dry land along the shore with the settlements. Mild winter temperatures (the average annual temperature is 4-5 degrees C.), luxuriant grass cover, bamboos, abundant precipitation, and numerous mineral springs keep the ground soft in winter, and this makes logging difficult. On the northern islands of the Archipelago there are only isolated groves of alder, willows, and occasional birch growing in places sheltered from the killing cold winds. The economic importance of the forest growth is insignificant. The intermediate tier of the small rocky islands has even less timber growth.
HUNGARY
· The old German yield tables for oak forests, which were long used in Hungary, have been found no longer applicable to present Hungarian conditions. For this reason, Prof. Fekete Zoltan of the Hungarian Technical University in Sopron has undertaken the preparation of new yield tables for oak forests, based on permanent sample plots located in the oak forests of Hungary. The measurements were made on 126 sample plots, each plot averaging 0.5 hectares. Of these, 69 plots were in high (seedling) oak forests and 57 plots in coppice forests. These yield tables, separately for the two kinds of oak forests, have now been published in Volume XLVI of the Forest Investigations of the Sopron University.
INDIA
· A report on "Seed Storage with Particular Reference to the. Storage of Seed of Indian Forest Plants," by T. V. Dent, is contained in Indian Forest Records, Silviculture, Vol. 7, No. 1, published at Debra Dun. Comprehensive knowledge of the methods of seed collection, storage, and treatment of the large number of tree species involved is needed since at least 8,100 hectares (20,000 acres) of forest land are regenerated artificially every year in the various provinces and states of India and since reforestation of denuded areas is a subject of growing national interest. The first part of the report deals with general principles of seed storage, such as germination of seeds, dormancy, duration of viability, collection and extraction, methods of storage, protection of stored seeds from pests, transportation, and testing. The second part summarizes all available information on the duration of seed viability and the storage of seeds of 237 species of Indian forest trees, tabulated alphabetically by species. The seeds of closely related species tend to be similar in longevity and keeping qualities.
PUERTO RICO
· The success and usefulness of the selective method of cutting in tropical forests have been amply demonstrated by a small 20-hectare (50-acre) forest located in the interior of Puerto Rico in the midst of denuded hillsides on which tobacco is grown. When this forest was purchased as part of a farm in 1926, it was as degraded as all the other forests of this overpopulated island. Since that time it has been treated by a jardinage type of forestry based on a common-sense approach, the owner having no specialized knowledge of silviculture but rather depending on his own experience. The area has reacted remarkably to this wise handling, which even included an accurate inventory of the more valuable tree species. It contains an excellent proportion of the best local species: Ausubo (Manikara nitida), Tabonuca (Dacryodes excelsa), Granadillo (Buchenavia capitata), Motillo (Sloanea berteriana), Capá prieto (Cordia alliodora), etc., as well as trees suitable for the production of poles. The trees are straight, well-formed and correctly spaced, and there is an abundance of seedlings. The entire area is surveyed annually to mark trees for felling and all the products are used to the greatest possible extent, any wood which is not suitable for any other use being converted into charcoal.
The owner believes that his forest is the most productive part of his farm. Up to 1940, it brought him an average of $1, 000 per year, and front 1940 to 1944 this figure rose to $1,300, more than half of which is clear profit. This example deserves to be called to the attention of all countries of tropical America.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· For several years experiments have been carried out on lessening the transpiration of young plants immediately after planting, in order to give them a better chance of survival. The insulating emulsions used hitherto have not always been successful. Various experiments have recently been conducted by the Federal Forestry Service in Minnesota, Oregon, and at the Northeastern Experiment Station with a product named "S/V Ceremul C," manufactured by Socony Vacuum. This is a wax and water emulsion with triethanolamine as an emulsifying agent.
For the most part, these experiments were tried with young Ponderosa pine plants (Pinus ponderosa), using varying dilutions of Ceremul in water; to some of these formulas clay was added. The upper portions of the young plants, in bunches of 50 are dipped into the solution. Too highly concentrated solutions, while assuring a better percentage of survival, decrease plant vigor, probably because leaf functions other than transpiration are partially impeded. However, by using one part of Ceremul to 4 to 6 parts of water, an increase in the rate of survival as high as 14 percent was obtained. For heavily transpiring species, such as Douglas fir, the best dilution seems to be one part of Ceremul to 10 parts of water.
· Since 1932 the Lake States Experiment Station has been conducting experiments on the storage of white pine seed, Pinus strobus. These experiments are particularly important because the white pine bears seed only every three to five years and, because of its high oil content, the seed requires particular storage precautions. Experiments conducted under five different temperature conditions and five different degrees of humidity have indicated that the best method of preservation consists of drying the seed until it contains no more than 7 percent moisture and then storing it in moisture-proof receptacles at a temperature of 36°F. (2.22°C). Under these circumstances, the seed retains its viability for at least ten years.
INDIA
· Shifting cultivation, so extensively practiced in most tropical countries, is characteristic of the East Indian States, where it operates primarily at the expense of the sal forests, Shorea robusta. Under this system of cultivation the cleared forest areas are planted to crops for two or three years, and the land is then abandoned for 8 to 10 years, or even for as long as 30 years. This practice leads to deterioration of vegetation and soil the deterioration being more rapid as the rotation cycle is shorter.
The problem which foresters have encountered in persuading the inhabitants to abandon this primitive system of agriculture is the difficulty of finding land suitable for permanent cultivation in the vicinity of these communities. In some cases, this has been possible. In others, the location of the community has bad to be shifted; the distance that a community can be moved, however, is limited by religious traditions which have to be respected. In either case in each experiment of this nature so far undertaken in East India a redistribution of land was carried out, each family receiving cultivation plots consisting of from 2 to 2.4 hectares (5 to 6 acres) of wet paddy land and 0.8 hectares (2 acres) for dry cultivation. The remainder of the land was divided as follows: (1) Class A, forest reserves intended either for commercial exploitation or protection; (2) Class B, forest reserves set aside for supplying the wood requirements of the villages, where pasturing of flocks is authorized against payment of fees; and (3) village grazing lands. The first two types of forest lands are placed under management.
In order to obtain satisfactory results, material assistance must be given. In the East Indian experiments, draft cattle, paddy seed, basic agricultural implements, and housing timber were given gratis to each family. Reservoirs and irrigation canals were constructed at State expense. A loan of rice was made to tide the villagers over until the work required for providing them with new land was completed. The villages were equipped with dispensaries, schools, and a course was given to teach farmers the principles of their new type of agriculture, particularly marshland cultivation. Despite the initial outlay involved, the results obtained in some instances are promising, even from the financial standpoint. In the State of Rairakhol, an experiment of this type which included 83 families cost 18,000 rupees, and was financed entirely from the forestry budget. The annual income derived from rented lands amounts to 600 rupees, and in addition the sale of bamboo from 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of reserve forest land brings in 1,400 rupees annually.
UNITED KINGDOM
· The United Kingdom Forestry Commission recently published the first practical results of a reforestation experiment which was begun 20 years ago under particularly difficult circumstances, involving a stretch of 970 hectares (2,400 acres) of moving sand dunes on the Carmarthenshire coastline in South Wales which are exposed to extremely violent winds.
After many attempts, afforestation was begun, using Corsican pine (Pinus nigra var calabrica) with a small mixture of Austrian pine (Pinus nigra var austriaca), Pinus contorta, and spruce. Corsican pine proved highly successful because the root system of this species grows very vigorously. The plants were supplied by a small nursery located in the vicinity of these sand dunes, At first, two-year-old plants, transplanted after one year, were used, and later on, three-year-old plants which had been transplanted for two years. The plants were fairly closely spaced, 1.30 meters (4 feet 3 inches) apart in each direction. The fringe trees with their lopped-off crowns and wind-twisted trunks afforded excellent protection to the remainder of the plantations. The stands were originally assisted by seeding or planting with marram grass (Psamma arenaria, a native species), sand sedge (Carex arenaria), creeping willow (Salix repens), sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), and other stabilizing species.
The first thinnings were recently made in this plantation, which is now the forest of Pembrey. They produced a large quantity of posts and small pitprops. An interesting feature is that after twenty years of protection against wind and sand, together with proper drainage, the land situated immediately behind this forest has been transformed from unusable wasteland into first-class agricultural land.
· Interesting observations have been made from the examination of the roots of various conifers growing in stands near Oxford, which had been severely damaged by wind during the winter of 1946. Drainage conditions were bad. Dead secondary roots were numerous in the waterlogged soil layers that have been intermittently inundated for long periods of time, but they were less numerous in the upper soil layers that have sometimes been seriously affected by drought. It appeared that the early stages of disease were not necessarily, indeed only rarely, produced by fungi, which later became extremely abundant throughout the root system and caused butt rot in the main stem. A young Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) infected by Fomes annosus clearly demonstrated that the partial dying of its roots had been caused by nonparasitic factors; growth recovery followed and was quickly succeeded by infection. These observations support the theory that physical condition of the soil, particularly air and water circulation, directly influence the development of infections which cause the roots to die and the tree stocks to decay.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· The long-range conservation plan announced by the U.S.S.R. last November is being pushed with a great deal of zest. Practically all institutions of higher learning are participating in the realization of one or another phase of it, Six expeditions, comprising 120 specialists from the National Academy of Sciences, the biological faculty of the Moscow University, the Forest Institute of Lenin grad, the All-Union Institute of Agro-melioration, and others, are now in the field determining the location of the sites on which the eight long and continuous protection zones are to be created.
In the fall of 1948 the collective and state farms, chiefly in the Ukraine, have planted 199,000 hectares of forest strips around the cultivated fields.
In the prairie and semi-prairie regions, some 2,242,000 hectares of the natural forests still found there in some places favored by special conditions of soil and moisture have been declared reserve forests to be handled with special care.
Some 1,869,000,000 seedlings were made available for the large-scale forest plantings in the spring of 1949.
Some 7,825 tons of seed of forest trees, shrubs, and fruit trees have been collected in the prairie and semi-prairie regions; of this amount 6,225 tons are acorns. Close to 10,000 hectares were allocated for use as forest nurseries in the spring of 1949.
To increase the number of qualified specialists, the Ministry of Education decided to increase the annual enrollment of students in the Forest and Agricultural Schools of higher learning in 1949 by 1,025 and in the technical schools of medium standing by 4,180; the graduating classes of specialists in agro-melioration and forestry are expected to include 1,650 persons from universities and 3,440 from technical schools.
CANADA
· The renewal of competitive conditions in the paper and pulp industries has stimulated efforts to improve quality. A manifestation of these efforts in the field of wood pulp is a new process, reportedly developed in Canada, in which the fibers are curled. This technique is said not only to widen the range of quality obtainable from pulp but also to increase the yield by as much as 10 percent. While announced results apply to the sulphite process, similar achievements are reported in producing kraft, soda, and groundwood pulps by the same method.
CANADA
· Studies conducted by a large life insurance company indicate that the index of fatal accidents among lumbermen and loggers is 286, taking the average number of accidents in all occupations as the indicator 100.
INDIA
· India has several development projects of comparable size and value to that of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The Mahanadi Project is among the most important of these. It consists of three dams (Hirakud, Tikarpara, and Naraj) which are expected to irrigate over 8 million hectares of land, to generate 4 million kilowatts, and permit a 611-kilometer (380-mile) navigable waterway from the border of the Central Provinces to the sea. The Dam of Hirakud alone, 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) upstream from Sambalpur, will submerge a surface area of approximately 54,000 hectares, half of which is under forest or pasture. The Indian Forester calls the attention of foresters to the influential role they should play in the creation and realization of these projects. Not only must the wood in forests which are to be flooded be used, a particularly difficult task, but also an area of forestland adequate for the protection of the catchment basin must be set aside. Also, to assure soil conservation, a state of equilibrium between agricultural lands, pasture, and forest lands must be established during the land utilization process. In addition, canal sides should be planted with trees, fuelwood resources be created, and construction timber provided for the new industries to which these projects will give rise.
It is hoped that all interested States and Provinces will insist on the assignment of local forest officers to these projects so that the plans to be implemented will be properly co-ordinated.
MALAYA
· The following statistics on Malaya were made available at the Mysore Conference:
A. Area
|
|
km² |
sq. mi. |
|
Total area |
131,676 |
50,840 |
|
Total forested land |
100,407 |
38,767 |
|
Total reserved forest |
28,104 |
10,851 |
|
Percentage of reserved forests to whole area |
21.3 | |
|
Percentage of other forests to whole area |
54.9 | |
B. Production of Forest Produce
|
|
1947 |
1948 |
||
|
1,000 cubic feet |
1,000 m³ |
1,000 cubic feet |
1,000 m³ |
|
|
Timber, round (logs) |
16,620 |
471 |
19,014 |
538 |
|
Timber, sawn (lumber) |
3,897 |
110 |
2,984 |
85 |
|
Poles |
3,365 |
95 |
3,395 |
96 |
|
Firewood |
16,959 |
480 |
13,091 |
371 |
|
Charcoal |
3,952 |
112 |
4,406 |
125 |
|
TOTAL (equivalent in round timber) |
48,690 |
1,379 |
45,875 |
1,299 |
C. Sawmills
(i) On 31 December 1947 there were 189 sawmills of all sizes operating in Malaya; on 31 December 1948 the figure was 187.(ii) Most of the timber brought to revenue account as "round" (see B above) is sawn in local sawmills. Outturn figures were 241,571 tons (of 50 cubic feet) in 1947 and 271,618 tons in 1948.
(iii) About 28,000 persons are employed in the forest, working timber and fuel, and about 4,000 are employed in sawmills.
D. Exports
Total exports in 1948 amounted to 36,149 tons, valued at $3,984,464 ($ Straits = 2/4d. or approximately 50 cents U. S. currency). The table below gives destinations and compares the figures with those of 1946 and 1947.
NEPAL
· Paper production in Nepal consists entirely of handmade coarse paper. The Nepalese Government, however, has launched an industrial development pro gram covering three 5-year periods, which provides for the building of a pulp and paper mill during the first period and additional paper mills during the second and third periods.
NEW ZEALAND
· A survey of the probable trend in demand and supply as far ahead as 1975 indicates that the prospective surplus of raw forest material in New Zealand over that period will continue steady at approximately 1.4 Million m³ ® (50,000,000 cubic feet) annually from 1955 onwards.
Naturally there is a good deal of uncertainty in estimating supply and demand for so many years ahead, but the figures are considered to be realistic. The general opinion is that population will increase by immigration and natural increase at a maximum rate of 2 percent annually, which will give a total population of approximately 3,000,000 by 1975; if the domestic demand is somewhat higher than the figure allowed, it will not affect the export position to any extent as the surplus which has been quoted for export purposes relates only to the North Island forests. The South Island is not nearly so well forested, but there is nevertheless a small prospective surplus ultimately which will cover contingencies.
If the whole of the 1.4 million m³ ® surplus were converted into sawn timber, it would yield approximately 708,000 m³ (s) (300,000,000 board feet) for export. However, utilization activities are being diversified, so part will be converted into pulp products. Although this surplus has been indicated as available from 1955 onwards, industrial expansion will not be rapid enough to make the whole available for export as early as that date. At the present time New Zealand is budgeting for an export of 330,000 m³ (s) (140,000,000 board feet) of sawn timber and 81,000 metric tons (80,000 tons) of pulp products by 1955; and these quantities, or at any rate the quantity of pulp products, will increase in subsequent years.
Exports of Sawn Timber from Malaya, 1948 (including sleepers)
|
Destination |
1948 |
1947 |
19461 |
|
Tons of 50 cubic feet |
|||
|
China (Shanghai) |
7,822 |
4,192 |
8,332 |
|
Hong Kong |
2,287 |
4,003 |
4,098 |
|
Sumatra (Palembang) |
5,640 |
1,441 |
331 |
|
Riouw and other Dutch Islands |
2,186 |
604 |
383 |
|
India (Calcutta, Bombay) |
911 |
- |
- |
|
Pakistan (Karachi) |
884 |
308 |
- |
|
Iraq (Basrah) |
233 |
660 |
- |
|
Aden and Bahrein |
2,936 |
1,379 |
700 |
|
Arabia (Jeddah) |
7,419 |
2,490 |
3,328 |
|
Egypt (Alexandria, Suez, Port Said) |
145 |
200 |
- |
|
Kenya (Mombasa) |
2 1,460 |
- |
- |
|
Mauritius (Port Louis) |
1,132 |
746 |
1,084 |
|
Sudan (Port Sudan) |
179 |
- |
- |
|
South Africa (Durban)3 |
218 |
- |
- |
|
Australia (Sydney, Adelaide)3 |
363 |
62 |
- |
|
United Kingdom (London, Liverpool)3 |
2,226 |
65 |
- |
|
U.S.A. (New York)3 |
8 |
- |
- |
|
Other places |
80 |
2 |
- |
|
TOTAL |
36,149 |
16,152 |
18,255 |
|
Approximate f.o.b. value in $ Straits |
3,984,464 |
1,907,098 |
2,583,026 |
1 For 8 months only; export prior to May 1946 was prohibited.
2 The whole quantity was in the form of creosoted sleepers.
3 All timber to these markets was graded by the Department of Forestry.
The keynote of the development of the exotic forests will be integration of manufacture, and it is understood that this will apply, to some extent at least, to the larger Company holdings as well as to the State Forests. Large sawmills equipped with gang-frames will be set up and integrated with plants for the production of chemical pulp, newsprint, and building board. The new sawing technique, in which the inherent accuracy of the North European gang-mill has been adapted to the conversion of the relatively small diameter logs characteristic of the exotic forest, was pioneered by the Forest Service when it opened its first unit at Waipa, Rotorua, in 1940. The reason for the entry of the State into this field was the realization that a conversion technique based on the rather primitive and inaccurate equipment used in the milling of indigenous timber was totally unsuited to the conversion of the very much smaller and generally more knotty logs predominating in the exotic forests; and that unless the advantages were actually demonstrated to the timber industry, inertia and the traditionally conservative outlook of the industry would merely lead to the perpetuation of the old technique and jeopardize the entire future of the exotic forests. Seeing is believing; and the timber industry in New Zealand is now persuaded of the unsuitability of the primitive equipment of former days for the sawing of exotic timbers.
The quality of product produced by the State Mill has been favorably commented upon, and the Forest Service has already introduced its sawn timber in limited quantities to markets in the Pacific area. The principal features of the State product are: timber sawn accurately to dimension, kiln dried to equilibrium moisture content, graded, trimmed, branded, and packaged. At present only the State Mill is in a position to offer timber fully to this standard, and then only in limited quantities for export; but new units which will be installed by private interests in the next two or three years are expected to follow the pattern of the State Mill in the type of sawing equipment and also in the quality of merchandizing. It might be mentioned that private sawmillers have been exporting small quantities of sawn softwoods which do not compare with the gang-sawn product; but as far as the export trade of the future is concerned, competition from both European and American countries will probably tend to restrict production to those millers who adopt a high standard of sawing and merchandizing. This means that export will tend to be concentrated in a few relatively large and well-equipped mills in much the same way that the export trade is concentrated in a few such mills in Scandinavian countries; so prospective buyers need have no fears concerning the standard of product that will be offered.
SURINAM
· The Dutch company Bruynzeel of Amsterdam, which has large wood-manufacturing plants in Indonesia and South Africa as well as a factory in Amsterdam, has just completed the construction of a modern combined sawmill and plywood factory in Surinam. The buildings are located on the riverbank, close to the city of Paramaribo. The sawmill uses about 150 m³ ® per day, of which 40 percent is turned out as finished products, mostly flooring, to be used locally in Surinam and other Caribbean countries. The plywood factory, equipped with American machinery, consumes about 150 m³ ® a day, out of which is produced approximately 45 m³ plywood, 4.5 mm. thickness. The product, is used for furniture, doors, cabinets, etc., and is mostly exported to Holland, Curacao, and the Caribbean area. The timber used is Virola surinamensis (Baboon or Banak), formerly considered to be of rather low value. The company obtains its supply mostly from Surinam, but some timber is also bought in French Guiana.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· In 1949 a new schedule of stumpage prices is to be put into effect throughout the U.S.S.R., to be adhered to by all Government agencies and collective farms engaged in timber cutting. This new price list takes into consideration a number of factors:
1. The place where the timber is cut. For determining stumpage prices the country is divided into six zones or regions. These zones are largely geographic, but not entirely. The forests in the prairie areas constitute, for instance, one zone and the forests of Caucasus and Crimea another; the forests of Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia, and the Far East are all combined in still another zone. On the other hand, forests reserved for some special purpose, like watershed protection or health and recreation, or forests which contain a surplus of old timber or which for economic reasons can now be exploited only partially form separate zones irrespective of their geographic location. There is thus an overlapping of zones.2. The distance from the place where the timber is cut to points on the main lines of transportation or to local sawmills. Seven such divisions, based on the hauling distance, are recognized: (a) from 0 to 4 km; (b) 4.1 to 10 km; (c) 10.1 to 20 km; (d) 20.1 to 30 km; (e) 30 to 40 km; (f) 40 to 50 km; and (g) over 50 km.
3. Dimensions and the character of the product cut. Four kinds of products are distinguished: (a) Large sawlog timber (25 cm and over in diameter); (b) Medium-sized logs (13 to 24 cm thick); (c) Small-sized logs (3 to 12 cm in diameter); and (d) Cordwood.
4. The species from which the product is cut. Species are divided into four groups: (a) conifers; (b) birch; (c) aspen and other soft, broadleaf species; and (d) oak and other hardwood species.
A concrete example for one zone only may be used in illustration. In Zone V, in which a great deal of the logging is centered, the stumpage prices run as follows in rubles per cubic meter: For large spruce sawlogs within a hauling distance of from 0 to 4 km - 26 rubles; within a hauling distance of from 4.1 to 10 km - 16 rubles; within a hauling distance of from 10.1 to 20 km - 4 rubles.
For medium-sized spruce logs the stumpage prices within the three stated hauling distances are 18, 11, and 2.8 rubles; for small spruce logs, 9, 5.5, and 1.4 rubles; for cordwood, 4, 2.2, and 0.6 rubles. Birch timber commands almost the same stumpage prices as the conifers.
Oak and other hardwoods under comparable conditions are rated generally twice as high as the conifers, although the stumpage price for birch and maple run 15 and 10 percent lower than that for oak.
· In spite of herculean efforts, the forest industry in the U.S.S.R. is still experiencing great difficulties of readjustment to the new conditions that arose as a consequence of the Revolution and the two world wars. Nevertheless, the planned output for 1950, namely 280 million m³ of roundwood, is 20 percent larger than the cut in 1940. To understand the difficulties confronting the industry, one need only keep in mind the following facts:
1. Growth of Domestic Needs
The rapid industrialization of the country is making an increasingly greater domestic demand upon the products of the forests. Restoration of the war-devastated regions is also adding heavily to demand upon lumber and other forest products needed in reconstructing the 2,240,000 houses destroyed during hostilities.
2. Unequal Distribution of Forest Resources
The Ukraine and most of southwestern European Russia, though the most densely populated and industrially developed region in the Soviet Union, is rather poorly timbered. Its lumber consumption, therefore, has been far in excess of its own resources and consequently its forests have been overcut. Yet most of the 6,500 saw-frames, with an annual output capacity of some 80 million m³ were in the past located in the western part of European Russia. Even up to about 1937 most of the timber-cutting was still largely concentrated in the basins of the Volga, Don, and Dnieper, with their tributaries, and in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, comprising in all a territory of approximately 54 million hectares, or only 10 percent of the total forest area of the country. Large quantities of timber, lumber, and even firewood had to be brought into the region, much of it by rail, from far away. On the other hand, northwestern European Russia (Vologda and Archangel Provinces) has vast forests, and the region was for a long time a great timber-producing center. The products of these forests, however, were destined not to meet domestic needs, but to maintain a large timber-export trade in which Russia for many years occupied a foremost place. Large quantities of lumber, timber, and other forest products went out by water each year from the ports of Leningrad, Murmansk, and Archangel to England, the Netherlands, Belgium, and other western European countries, while few of these products could conveniently reach the southern part of Russia. At the same time, enormous sparsely populated stretches of virgin forests in northern European Russia, in the Urals, and especially in the basins of the Yenisei, Ob, and Angara rivers in Asia were barely opened for exploitation. The movement toward the north, western and eastern Siberia, and the Par East began in the late 1920's, and in the four years between 1929 and 1932 the volume of timber cut in new regions doubled.
3. Shifting of the Center of the Lumber Industry from the West toward the North and East
The need for such a shift bad already been realized in the 1920's. The plants were for the most part old and inefficient, and they lacked raw materials near at hand. The war has hastened this process. Many of the plants were destroyed by the enemy, while others were picked up bodily and transferred hurriedly to the East before the advancing armies. During the last two decades the efforts of the Government have been directed toward tapping the resources of the hitherto poorly developed territories. This has meant building new railroads connecting the large rivers with canals to transport the large stocks of mature timber from the North and East to the timber-hungry South. One of the first steps was to connect by railroad and canal the ports on the North Sea with Leningrad, and the latter with the Volga River and Moscow by means of the Volga-Moscow Canal. Three new railroads covering a total distance of 2,300 kin were completed in the far north during 1937-42. These run from east to west over a difficult terrain and frozen tundra, and connect with the main railroads running south from Archangel and Murmansk. As a result of these new transport facilities, the output of the sawmills located in Archangel, which in the past was shipped almost entirely abroad, could now be diverted for domestic use in southern and central Russia. The timber export from the Leningrad, Archangel, and Murmansk ports has therefore now been greatly reduced, and the character of the exports is also changing.
The new five-year plan calls for the construction of an additional 3,600 kin of railroads through the forested regions of northern European Russia and the same number in Siberia, demanding the production of 185 million railroad ties. Several deep canals connecting the main rivers are to be dug also. Some of these have already been completed; others are in construction and will be completed in the next few years; still others are only in the blue-print stage. These canals will link the Volga with the Dnieper through the Oka and Desna Rivers; the Volga with the Pechora and the Vichegda through the Kama; the Volga with the Ob through the Chusevaya and the Iset; the Volga with the Don; the Volga with the Northern Dvina; and the Western Dvina with the Dnieper. Such a network of canals and railroads will enable all parts of central and southern European Russia, the Ukraine, the Donetz coal region, the North Caucasus, and the Trans-Caucasus to receive the needed supplies of wood from Carelia and the upper reaches of the Kama, Volga, and Viatka basins.
Similar developments are taking place in the Urals and in Asiatic Russia, especially in the basins of the Yenisei and Ob, flowing through the center of the enormous Siberian forests. A great deal of logging is being done along the banks of the rivers. Huge rafts containing 30,000 m³ of logs are towed south up the rivers to Krasnoyarsk, Maklakovo, Novosibirsk, Barnaul, and many other industrial centers of Siberia. At Igarka near the mouth of the Yenisei, large sawmills have been built, rivaling those of Archangel. Igarka is accessible to sea-going boats and may eventually become a large timber-exporting port for western Europe by the still somewhat uncertain Great Arctic sea route. Great stress is laid on building some 20 new pulp and paper plants in the near future. The pulp and paper industry before the war centered largely in the West and in the Carelian and Leningrad regions - the main battleground - and as a consequence was greatly crippled. The first large pulp and paper plant in the Far East was erected in 1942 at Komsomolsk on the River Amour. In western Siberia one paper mill was built in 1936 at Barnaul on the River Ob, and another in 1937 at Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei River.
4. Shortage of Labor
Shortage of labor, especially of skilled labor, is plaguing the industry, particularly because mechanization of logging is being pushed very fast. The pages of the official timber trade organ of the Ministry of Forestry (Lesnaya Promyshlennost) are full of complaints from different regions that labor efficiency is below the normal (only 80 percent), that out of thousands of available power saws only a few hundred are being used, and also that out of thousands of tractors only a few hundred are in operation. The still inadequate housing facilities and other hardships that go with living in a remote undeveloped country tend further to lower the workers' productivity. The low labor efficiency makes it necessary to engage more workers in the lumber industry than would otherwise be justified.
All these difficulties may be taken as manifestations of the growing pains of an industry which tries to shake off the great destruction and dislocation wrought by the war, and to create in remote, undeveloped territories a new industrial base capable of meeting all the needs of a vast and expanding country. Its great potentialities, inherent in the enormous forest wealth of the country, cannot come to full fruition, however, until the pressing problems of transport and labor have been successfully resolved.
FINLAND
· The Government of Finland has appointed a committee to prepare an over all plan for dealing with the most immediate problems in the promotion of the country's forest economy and forest production. Professor Yrjõ Ilvessalo, member of the Academy of Finland, has been appointed chairman of the committee, in which the private forest owners, the Government's forest economists, the woodworking industries, and other bodies connected with forestry are represented.
IRELAND
· An interesting article dealing with the present trends in forest policy in Ireland has recently been published in the Irish Forestry Review.
After pointing out that Ireland's consumption figures are lower than normal and that social or industrial progress naturally presupposes an increase in this figure, the author recalls an official report printed in 1908 which estimated that 405,000 to 486,000 hectares (1 million to 1,200,000 acres) of forested areas were needed in Ireland to supply a consumption rate of 0.3 m³ ® (10 cubic feet) per person, which is rather a low consumption figure.
The figure of 240,000 hectares (600,000 acres) which is the aim for the actual forestry program - some authorities would even reduce it to 160,000 hectares (400,000 acres) - is considered insufficient by the author. The progress made since 1908, he believes, is insignificant when one considers that 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) have been planted in 40 years and that an equal surface has probably been exploited and not reforested. He points out the need for a bolder policy on the use of marginal lands that are not suitable for cultivation or have very slight value as common grazing lands. In the past, these lands, which would have been suitable for forestry, have been sold or parceled out among small land owners who are unable to assure their proper use and very often let them deteriorate. The necessary labor for plantation and forestry work is difficult to find in these regions, where depopulation is increasing.
These lands can be reclaimed, but the author warns against a policy of purchasing only cheap land; since this land has deteriorated, fast-growing plantations cannot be successful on it. The plantation of exotic stands, sitka, Japanese larch, tsugas, and other species, however, has given very good results. The average annual growth reaches 18 m³ per hectare (250 cubic feet per acre), while plantations of Scots Pine, which are considered as being poor, produce 2.1 m³ per hectare (30 cubic feet per acre). Under these conditions, the author deplores the fact that this species was planted at a rate of 50 percent in the past.
Finally, he estimates that the rhythm of reforestation which has been set is much too slow when one considers that the industry tends to use small timbers. The actual planting of 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) should be accelerated to 8,000 or 12,000 hectares (20 or 30,000 acres); if the reforestation is composed of adequate species, it could produce in 20 years an appreciable quantity of raw material for industries such as pulp, fiberboard, and woodwool.
Even if the views expressed here can lye considered as controversial, it is hoped that such articles will draw attention to the seriousness of forestry problems, which are a world-wide concern.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· The growing interest of bankers in opportunities for financing proper silvicultural practices is shown by the 1949 program endorsed by the American Bankers Association. The program will include: (1) Acquainting bankers with information concerning all forestry agencies operating in the United States; (2) co-operation between the federal, state, and private forestry agencies and the bankers in studying forestry and its financial opportunities in the individual state and making use of studies made by the Federal Reserve banks and others; (3) co-operation with colleges of agriculture in making studies of production from well managed farm woodlands; (4) a study of integrating bank financing with forestry protection; and (5) a study of adequate fire control
· The Fifth Session of the Annual Conference will be held at Washington, the temporary headquarters of FAO, starting 21 November 1949. The FAO Council, at its recent meeting in Paris, France, was unable to recommend acceptance of the offer of the Cuban Government to have the Conference in Havana, in view of the added burden to the already strained budget of the Organization which this location would have involved.
The Coming Age of Wood. Egon Glesinger. Pp. 279, illus. Simon & Schuster, New York. 1949. $3.50.
Dr. Glesinger's latest book, written before he joined the staff of FAO, has received wide notice in the press. We reprint below, by kind permission, extracts from an impartial review which appeared in The Scientific Monthly, a periodical published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Although directed to a United States public, the review should be of interest to all our readers.
"'Wood,' asserts Dr. Glesinger, will become the characteristic raw material of our civilization because it has three attributes which make it unique among all raw materials.' It is universal. It is abundant. And it is inexhaustible.
"He should know. Forests and their products have not had a more eloquent and enthusiastic champion in our time than Egon Glesinger. Now chief of the Forest Products Branch of the Food and Agriculture Organization, he came to the United States in 1941, having been forced by the Nazis to leave Europe, where since 1933 he had served as secretary-general of the International Timber Committee, originally sponsored by the League of Nations. Although a keen student of modern wood technology, his conception of the possible contributions of wood in all its physical and chemical aspects to man's welfare is that of an economist.
"Fairfield Osborn's Our Plundered Planet and William Vogt's Road to Survival have conditioned us to think of land and resources from a global viewpoint. Glesinger's book beautifully supplements these splendid works by directing our attention to a particular kind of land and a particular kind of resource. Forests cover about 8,000 million acres, one fourth of the land surface of the earth. Although not all the world's forest resources are usable in a commercial sense, still only a fraction is utilized even after centuries of exploitation.
"That wood as a raw material has satisfied many human requirements since earliest antiquity is a fact which it were almost platitudinous to repeat. But that wood as a raw material is capable of satisfying almost every requirement of existence is one of Glesinger's statements that will doubtless inspire some disbelief. But no scientist, or intelligent layman for that matter, should challenge the author's assertion without reading him and thus giving him an opportunity to prove his thesis.
"We have long known that wood supplies shelter and fuel, that it produces food for men and animals. It is the world's second most important source of textile fibers. It is capable of supplying enormous quantities of motor fuels and lubricants. From wood come plywoods, plastics, paper products whose number is legion, and chemicals whose diversity and possible application are almost beyond our calculation.
"Tree extraction, says Glesinger, though practiced since the dawn of history, is still in its infancy. Yet of all the processes of forest chemistry, none is more suited to the nature of the growing tree than the extraction of the substances trees produce as living organisms. If all the extracts from all the world's trees were captured, they would add untold variety, color, and wealth to the arsenal of chemicals upon which mankind must be able to draw to achieve higher standards and well-being.
"The shocking waste of wood, both in logging and in manufacture, by American forest products industries is an extravagance about which the author, with his European background of conservative utilization, is understandably critical. He makes a convincing case for integration of industry to end unreasonable competition for resources and to obtain closer utilization of raw material, including so-called waste products. He insists that in the interest of more equitable distribution of the wealth derivable from mass production of our forest resources for the benefit of all people, industry must rely more on technology and less on cutthroat competition. To obtain the complete utilization he deems necessary would require such radical reorganization of the forest industries as may be wholly impracticable in this era of still fairly abundant, though declining, resources. Still, he is able to show examples of such integration, not only in Scandinavia under the impact of economic and technologic development and in the Soviet Union under Political five-year plans, but in the United States as well, where several large, financially secure, and family-dominated concerns have successfully integrated their production and forest-management operations. In short, it can happen here because it is happening.
"That forest destruction is manifestly against the public interest is a demonstrable fact, and it has been studied, and inveighed against, by the forestry profession for more than half a century. The solution of this problem, as Glesinger sees it, is public, that is to say Federal, regulation of private forest management by law. In this proposal he echoes the efforts and agitation of a long line of public officials, beginning with Gifford Pinchot and including Franklin D. Roosevelt, the last three chiefs of the U. S. Forest Service, and, most recently, President Truman....
"This book is worthy of the earnest attention of every American who may have the least interest in the role which modern technology applied to forest resources may play in increasing industrial prosperity and human comfort." - HENRY CLEPPER, Society of American Foresters, Washington, D. C.
The Great Forest. Richard G. Lilliard. Pp. xxiv + 399, illustrated. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1947. $5.00.
The Great Forest is an ambitious undertaking into which a vast amount of faithful research has gone. Compressed into a single volume is the story of the American forests over a period of more than three centuries-the story of how the original forests served the nation, how in turn they were treated, and what has been done toward replacing a ruthless policy of exploitation by a policy of conservation, In selecting his material and in weaving the threads into a fabric, the author has shown discrimination and imaginative understanding of his subject. The book is interesting and readable.
The first European colonists found America a land of trees, and of fat soil underneath; of unbelievable wealth in game, fish and plants; of unlimited room for a new and richer life. The backwoods system developed out of necessity; people learned to live in and from the forest. They invented implements for clearing the forest and using its products; they devised guns and hunting methods; and they learned the art of guerrilla warfare. The traits of resolution, stamina, ingenuity and adaptability developed in the colonists and their leaders by pioneer life significantly influenced the political future of the land and paved the way for expansion of the new nation into the great agricultural regions of the mid continent. The backwoods men, women, and children accepted a hard and dangerous life as the price for realization of the American dream.
In Colonial times the mother country looked eagerly to the great American forest to fill its needs for ship timbers, naval stores, potash, and building timbers, and a lively and varied export developed. But soon the colonists - men of ambition and determination - were no longer willing to be subservient to the wishes and fortunes of English contractors, and independent colonial commerce began to compete in the available markets of the world, naturally to the distaste of the homeland.
Moreover, the colonists resisted the persistent efforts to reserve the best pines as masts for the Royal Navy, and this resistance is placed in perspective as an antecedent of the Revolution.
Wood and other forest products were mainstays in the post-Revolution expansion in commerce, industry, transportation, and settlement of new lands. Rich rewards were gained, but at the cost of tremendous wastage. In the individual search for quick wealth and the community ambition for progress, which had political support, little recognition was paid to the nation's rights in the forests, despite a few scattered official efforts to protect them.
The loosely liberal land laws and their lax or venal administration made it possible for individuals to acquire great baronies of public forest at a trifling cost and to build out of their exploitation great fortunes, fragments of which dribbled back to the public as museums, art galleries, and other baronial memorials.
Moreover, the barons often ruled the life and economy of the countryside. But their excesses in the use of their power built up more and more centers of rebellion, which at first only slowly acquired champions in the Congress and elsewhere. So, too, the increasingly clear results of widespread forest destruction for private gain were attacked by capable leaders, among them Carl Schurz, B. E. Fernow, and, especially, Gifford Pinchot. Finally the challenge to the lumber monopolies and the need for practical forestry became part of Theodore Roosevelt's program to curb monopolies in the public interest. Essentially the fight was won.
To its other sins, the author points out, the lumber industry long added exploitation of its labor. Eventually, early in the twentieth century, the organized protests of labor became effective. The bitter, persistent, often misdirected, sometimes bloody, but gradually victorious fight of labor for fair treatment is well told.
During three centuries the great forest was a powerful factor in building an industrialized and mechanized nation. In the machine age, wood is a vital material. In warfare, it serves a multitude of uses from charcoal in gas masks to wooden ships and to cellulose in high explosives; in peace it is not only used for traditional purposes of construction; the forests are a source of medicines, food, and even clothing; of modified wood in new and varied chemical industries; of wood as pulp, as plywood and as veneer. The need for forests and their products is today greater rather than less than in earlier ages.
There are uncertainties about the future conservation of forests which the author recognizes, but his final conclusion is that: "Though the virgin wilderness is now gone - its mighty forests, wonderful still, will play in the future, as in the past, a major role in fulfilling the original promise of American life."
It is reasonable to observe, however, that much more needs to be done to realize this end.
