Reviews

Rainfall and Runoff. Edgar E. Foster. Pp. 487, illus. MacMillan Co., New York. 1948. $9.00.

Hydrology. C. O. Wisler and E. F. grater. Pp. 419, illus. John Wiley and Sons, New York; Chapman and Hall, London. 1949. $6.00.

The science of hydrology is relatively new, and these two books are among the first to present reasonably complete pictures of it. Such reference texts, bringing hydrology up to date, will without doubt be welcomed. Empirical and theoretical formulae continue to be developed to express storm characteristics, snow-melt, runoff, infiltration, groundwater storage, floods, yields, stream behavior, etc. in mathematical form. New methods for measurements are being evolved and old ones retested.

Hydrology deals with long-term records of precipitation, runoff, flood frequency, etc., simply as observed phenomena. Some attention is given to effects of topography, broad soil types climatic types, and other relatively fixed determinants.

The urgency and the very great cost of developing watersheds for flood control, irrigation, hydroelectric power, domestic water supplies, and navigation give point to the need for the greatest possible knowledge of hydrology, particularly since it is well known that major blunders have occurred in planning and designing developments due to lack of hydrologic knowledge and to grossly inaccurate assumptions used as a basis for engineering design. The large safety factors used by engineers in design of structures indicate the margin of ignorance which, despite many formulae, still exists in the growing science. Much of this is inevitable, since continuous, comparable, long-term records are still incomplete and the designer, to be safe, must assume a design flood against which presumably his structure must hold at some future date.

Foresters and agriculturists who deal with watershed or cropland management and improvement will feel that hydrology, as these two books expound it, deals too exclusively with engineering aspects and overlooks or fails to recognize that vegetation is, in many areas, a major determinant of the intensity, quantity, and quality of streamflow and of the condition of underground waters. The expanding volume of experimental evidence on these points may be put in the generalized form that control and manipulation of vegetation on watersheds (i.e., control of land use) is often the single variable element that can modify up or down the calculated or assumed hydrologic formula or engineering design. Certainly the evidence is convincing that in many places the effect of good or bad condition of vegetation is or can be very great.

Clearly, the hydrologist, the forester, the soil conservationist, and the design engineer are all concerned with the efficient and economical development and use of water - that is, the public interest - and it would seem implicit that each should have a reasonably close speaking acquaintance with the others.

Perhaps one barrier to communication between the land and the water experts is that the former have not yet generally reduced their findings to mathematical formulae and that the latter are not yet ready to concede facts exist outside the precise language of mathematics.

A still-existing tendency to overgeneralize on vegetation as a determinant may east a shadow of doubt over its role, even when that is fully documented in particular situations. Perhaps there is doubt that condition of vegetation can be guaranteed through stable and effective land management. Perhaps there is undue professional self-sufficiency. Whatever the reasons for the lack in working relations, it would seem important to devise means for bringing hydrology and land management together more fully in a combined operation. What, for example, will the hydrology of particular streams be if present destructive land use practices are permitted to continue? Or, conversely, what if abused and damaged lands are restored to health? Since the findings of hydrology are basic to the design of the great and costly engineering structures which are at present relied on for control of water, can hydrology continue to overlook the one great controllable variant - vegetation, In so doing it may, for example, ignore accelerated erosion induced by bad condition of vegetation, and thus overlook the inevitable rapid destruction of reservoir capacity through siltation.

Joint consideration of the whole problem of water management is a challenge to foresters as it is to hydrologists. To be most useful in this practical business research in forest influences needs for one thing to improve the mathematical expression of its findings. Is it clearly impossible to weigh the effect of changes in cover conditions over a term of years in the hydrologic behavior of streams during the same period?

Foresters who deal with land management and betterment may well study these books, if only to learn how little their findings are at present accepted by hydrologists.

Holztechnologisches Handbuch. (Hand book of Wood Technology.) Leopold Vorreiter. Pp. 547, illus. Georg Fromme & Co., Vienna. 1949.

The demand for the industrial use of wood in all forms is growing. Therefore a book - the first of three volumes - that brings together all the available information on wood technology is very timely, especially a publication of such comprehensive character, prepared with thoroughness and meticulous regard for details, with many drawings and tables. The scope of the book may be judged by the topics it covers: the anatomic structure of wood and its external features; the physical and chemical properties of wood; protection of wood against climate, insects, fungi, etc.; strengthening and improving the quality of wood by various treatments. To make the book more usable, it is accompanied by many formulae most commonly used in wood technology, definitions of terms, conversions of volume and weight units of one country into those of another, volume tables, and statistical tables on the extent of forests in different countries. All this gives the book a somewhat encyclopaedic character and increases its value as a standard publication on the subject of wood technology.

Sawmilling Policy in Relation to Timber Produced by the State. A. J. O'Connor. Journal of the South African Forestry Association, No. 17. February 1949. 7s. 6d.

The article reviewed here discusses the present controversy in South Africa over the question whether the Government or private industry should undertake the sawing of logs produced by State plantations.

The State plantations now cover about 300,000 acres (120,000 ha.) and will be greatly extended. Though generally immature, they are already yielding 15 million cubic feet (425,000 m³ ®) of logs, and are eventually planned to yield 180 million cubic feet (5,100,000 m³ ®) per year. In addition, private plantations already cover nearly 100,000 acres, (40,000 ha.), and large-scale expansion is expected. The decision as to how the large sawmilling business that will ultimately develop is to be organized, the author emphasizes, is crucial to the interests involved in afforestation, both State and private, for all time. Until the war opened opportunities for profit, the private sawmiller who did not own forests was little interested in this question, but the organized industry now takes the view that "it is the business and duty of the Forest Department to grow trees" and that "the processing of trees should be left to private enterprise."

Three possible ways to organize the utilization of logs produced by the State have been examined by the Board of Trade and Industries and are analyzed by the author:

(1) Sawmilling entirely by private enterprise.
(2) Sawmilling by an organization under some form of State control.
(3) Sawmilling partly by private enterprise and partly by an organization controlled by the State.

As to the first, the view of the Board of Trade and Industries is quoted as follows: "There exists a real danger, should the State withdraw from sawmilling, that one or two powerful groups may in time completely dominate the industry. It is to the interests of both the consumer and the grower, whether State or private, that such a development should under all circumstances be prevented." The claim that State Sawmilling is inherently less efficient than private sawmilling is regarded as unproved

As regards the second alternative, State sawmilling, the author first examines the main objections raised. These, in summary, are:

"(1) Some of the most efficient private quills would have to disappear. The proposal does not aim at the compulsory disappearance of any efficient plant, or even at compulsory change in ownership. On the contrary the proposal makes allowance for the continued operation of existing private mills on their present basis if a ease for their retention can be sustained.

"(2) Private mills which are allowed to continue their participation in the business of processing logs produced by the State 'would generally find themselves in an unfavorable position as against the State factories. These as a rule would obtain better, more regular and larger saw-log supplies and perhaps continue to enjoy other privileges.' Why the conditions feared by the Board of Trade and Industries should arise, or can arise, is not clear unless one assumes that the Forestry Commission would be biased against the private mills. Private mills which for good reasons are allowed to participate in the business would become customers of the Commission. It is absurd to suppose that the Commission would then deliberately hamper its customers and thus adversely affect the prices they can pay for logs. The assumption that the Commission, which would have control of say 90 percent of the log output, would be so petty as to weigh the balance against those who have control of 10 percent is, to say the least of it, unwarranted. In any ease contracts would be arranged with private millers covering specific quantities and specific plantation areas, and the price of logs would be adjusted according to conditions. There would be no question of the Commission encroaching on the areas under contract. Further, the Commission need not be allowed special privileges.

"(3) The private planter might easily find himself in an unenviable position, because he would have to sell either to private mills in a worse position than the State factories or to the State monopoly. This argument is a very strange one, in that it completely overlooks the objects, functions, and constitution of the Forestry Commission. The functions of the Commission would be laid down by Parliament and they would include the specific duty of protecting the interests of the private grower. If the Commission then cannot or will not protect the interests of the private grower, who else will do so, or how else can it be done.

" (4) Complains and friction would in such circumstances probably be intensified. Sooner or later, too, conflicts with the Timber Trade and with the pulp and paper industry would most probably arise. One would suppose that under a Forestry Commission the exact opposite would be the ease. Internal controversy in the forest industry would be eliminated or minimized because the parties thereto would be eliminated or minimized. It is not at all clear why conflict should arise with the timber trade unless the latter refuses to handle South African timber, which they may do, Forestry Commission or no Forestry Commission. The reference to the paper and pulp industry is even more obscure. The by-products of the forest industry would be available for the pulp industry just as sawn timber would be available for other industries. The by-products would be plantation and sawmill waste, and in this ease there would be no conflicting interests concerned with importations of the product.

" (5) A State-controlled trust would in time develop into a large and unwieldy monopolistic undertaking with all the economic disadvantages of such structures or not. Here the Board of Trade and Industries brings in the argument of diseconomies of size. It should be noted that 'size' here cannot refer to sawmilling plants themselves. No plant properly located so as to minimize transport of logs will be large enough to bring in the factor of diseconomies of size. The term can then apply only in the technical and managerial spheres. We shall see in due time how this difficulty, which is supposed to be so important an objection to the establishment of a Forestry Commission can be overcome in the Board's own solution of the problem. In the meantime one can ask if it is a vital objection in this ease, is it not equally so against an undertaking like the South African Railways? Does it not apply even to State afforestation? The establishment, protection, management, and exploitation of State plantations is surely just as big an undertaking as the utilization of the logs produced. There is such a thing as decentralized regional control, which in feet applies to the Railways and the Forestry Department and as regards sawmilling it could be applied in the most effective manner under the Forestry Commission scheme.

"Generally, after analyzing the objections advanced against the Forestry Commission project, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that they are forced and artificial. In any ease, if the proposal is to be rejected on the strength of the objections such as they are, then it must be shown that there is another alternative which will avoid the objections without sacrifice of advantages. We must now examine the alternative recommended by the Board of Trade and Industries to see how far it will go in that direction."

The Board of Trade proposal is for alternative No. 3, with the following important differences as compared to the present systems:

"(1) Sawmilling by the Forestry Department is to give place to sawmilling by a share company controlled by the State.

"(2) The company is to enjoy no special privileges and is to compete for saw log supplies on equal terms with private enterprise; BUT

"(3) The disposal of saw logs is to be left entirely to the discretion of the Forestry Department, and it is to be clearly understood that the Department is to support the State-controlled company in all cases where conditions of harmful monopoly threaten to develop.

"(4) The policy of the State-controlled company is to be laid down by the Minister of Economic Development in order to remove as far as possible the suspicion that the Forestry Department may be prejudiced in favor of the company and (apparently for the same reason) no person connected with the Forestry Department is to be appointed to represent the State on the company's board of directors. The Board should consist of business men and men acquainted with the problems of the industry."

The author regards the proposal as one that bristles with difficulties of conflict and controversy and that would deprive the Forestry Department of all standing in the sawmilling business.

He considers the solution of the problem to lie in sawmilling by the State as represented by a Forestry Commission. Advantages foreseen include better returns to the State from afforestation protection of the interests of the private plantation owner; elimination of danger of harmful monopoly, greater ability of the forest industry to meet overseas competition; better regional organization; more effective arrangements for research and for co-ordination of production and sales; minimizing of conflict and controversy. Existing middlemen sawmillers could be dealt with equitably.

Bosbouwkundige Studiën over Suriname. (Forestry in Surinam.) I. W. Gonggryp and Dr. D. Burger. Pp. 262 illus; H. Veenman & Zonen, Wageningen, Netherlands. 1948.

This is a comprehensive analysis, - written in Dutch with English summaries - of all aspects of the forestry problem in Surinam. Part I deals with the forests themselves, forest soils, and different vegetation types. The study of types is detailed and of great interest. It is linked up with the Beard classification and includes classifications by climax formations and formations induced by fire and human agencies. The ecological, silvicultural, and technological features of twelve of the principal forest species in Surinam are reviewed.

Part II considers the real potentiality of the forest: the volume of standing timber, the annual cut, etc. It also stresses the importance of an adequate wood supply for the local fishing industry. A section is devoted to secondary forest products and the importance of edible and industrial fats and oils, tanning products, balata, etc., in the overall economy. The principal causes of damage and destruction to the forests by shifting cultivation, fire, and insects, are dealt with in some detail. The section on forest management outlines the work that has been accomplished in the development of better methods of utilization and transportation of forest products, and suggests that control of timber exports should be exercised by the Forest Service. Great importance is attached to the provision of adequate shipping facilities so that timber may be exported to the Netherlands rather than exclusively to North America.

The book ends by pointing out ways to improve the living conditions of forest workers, and emphasizing the need for expansion of research work in co-operation with established research stations in other countries. A revision of the present legislative and financial systems would be of value to the forestry program. There is an extensive bibliography, and the book has excellent illustrations.

Farm Forestry in India. A. P. F. Hamilton, C.I.E., O.B.E., M.C., I.F.S. The Indian Forester, XLVII, 3, March 1948.

Mr. A. P. F. Hamilton has been the link of transition from the old Indian Forest Service to the new one with its all-Indian cadres. Having successfully carried out this delicate job, he is particularly fitted to summarize the general lines of policy that the experience of the old forest service bequeathes to the new. It will rest with the new forest service either to continue along these lines or to modify them as conditions may change in the new order of things. As a summation at this turning point Mr. Hamilton's article will be of interest to our readers and is therefore discussed at some length.

It is well-known that in India the proper and necessary role of forests and forestry is an important one, and that it has by no means been achieved. Forest policy as early as 1894 recognized that there should be sufficient forests for the well-being of the country and for the prime task of preserving the climatic and physical conditions of the country. But under population pressures, uncontrolled expansion of Agriculture, has resulted in an ill-balanced rural economy, with its attendant evils of erosion, reduced soil moisture, and shortage of fuel, timber and grazing.

In this thoughtful article the retired Inspector-General of Forests examines the steps which are needed to bring the assistance of forestry to agriculture, to apply the original sound policy principles to the whole countryside - in short, to bring forestry to the farm, since the urgent requirements of the rural community can be met only to a limited degree by State forests. Forestry must be linked more closely to Agriculture.

The true tasks of farm forestry are great: (a) to achieve the maximum degree of self-sufficiency possible on the farm; (b) to utilize the land to the best advantage; (c) to increase the fertility of agricultural lands by preventing erosion and increasing water storage in the soil, by mitigating the desiccating effect of hot winds, by providing firewood so that the cow-dung now almost universally used as fuel can be used as fertilizer, (d) to improve the condition of cattle by introducing pasture management and stall-feeding and by providing leaf fodder to supplement the chronic fodder shortage; (e) to supplement where possible, the farmer's income.

The difficulties of application, too, are great: an uneducated rural population which has come to accept its situation as inevitable; varying conditions of land tenure and tenancy; excessive grazing the need of finances to break out of the present vicious circle, even though the long-run results may be clearly beneficial.

Government must lead in integrating farm forestry with general planning for the countryside, and this involves more effective co-ordination among several departments. A new department or board, with experts from all present departments is: needed. Meanwhile, some progress, but by no means enough, is being made. It is imperative to have an extension service to provide free training in the elements of forestry and soil conservation to the people who till the soil.

In general, farm forestry is being planned along the following lines:

(i) The proper management of privately owned forest under working plans will be enforced by legislation.

(ii) The owners of large agricultural estates will be encouraged to retain a small area, say 5 percent of the land under tree crops and to afforest waste land; Government may be vested with residual powers of compulsion.

(iii) Where there is a well-organized village community, the common land, or neighboring crown waste, if there is any will be managed as village forest by cooperative societies or village committees under working schemes.

(iv) Farm forestry will be closely integrated with major or minor soil-conservation and land-development plans and the opportunity for laying the foundations of a well-balanced economy from the start will be seized wherever large-scale colonization schemes are undertaken.

(v) In the intensively cultivated tracts with small, often fragmentary holdings, farm forestry in the real sense is not possible. These areas are, however, critically short of forest produce. The peasants will be encouraged to grow deep-rooted and valuable trees such as Acacia arabica on field boundaries, around wells etc., and on small areas of uncultivable land. Starting with two or three trees per acre, the cultivator, when he realizes the advantages, will himself work out the optimum number that he can grow around his fields. The consolidation of holdings has greatly assisted farm forestry

(vi) Hot drying winds, particularly, those which blow at the end of the winter, and monsoon rains when the grain is beginning to swell seriously reduce crop yields. Shelter belts on the American and Russian scale may be impracticable in India, but Government must be responsible for what primary system is possible, and this will mainly take shape along canals and on the margins of rivers For the rest, the measures described above will do much to provide a system of interrupted shelter belts. Research, undertaken jointly by the Agriculture and Forestry Departments, to establish the most suitable species and technique for shelter belts and windbreaks is important.

(vii) Grazing and fodder requirements are given prominence in land planning.

(viii) Farm forestry will be made to pay where possible. The production of many valuable minor forest products, such as tanning stuffs, fibers, lee, gums, grasses, can be developed, and local industries will be encouraged.

(ix) Financial assistance is often necessary; policy varies, but loans on easy terms are made to larger farmers and landlords; subsidies are given to impecunious cultivators on certain conditions.

(x) An organization for publicity and education is essential.

(xi) The basis of land planning must be a survey of a region, conveniently a civil district, which will provide a blueprint of economic development. A survey might indicate the necessity for establishing State firewood reserves to prevent the denudation of the countryside by the demands of some local consuming center or industry.

Finally, legislation will be needed to protect private and community forests and to compel a recalcitrant minority to obey the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number. The State will need to lead for a long time, until self-help is accepted and put in practice by landlord and farmer.

If faithfully carried out, a cohesive program such as this can hardly fail to aid rural India in providing its multitudes with greater and more permanent supplies of food, clothing, and shelter.

The Estimation of Fire Hazard in Great Britain. T. R. Peace. Forestry (the Journal of the Society of Foresters of Great Britain), XXII, 2, 1948. Pp. 16. 7s. 6d.

This report summarizes a four-year trial in the Forest of Dean of a method of calculating fire danger based closely on the work of Wright and Beall in Canada. A method devised by the Meteorological Office was also tested, but gave results too erratic for practical use. The Wright-Beall system can be used, and will give in one locality a reasonably smooth curve, agreeing reasonably well with experienced foresters' estimates of hazard and with the actual occurrence of fires. Both these estimating bases are described.

Because of the great variability of the English climate, measurements must be applied to a limited area around the station where they were calculated. It is worthy of note that over the whole trial period the Danger Index never exceeded a numerical rating of 12; thus conditions of extreme hazard (often called explosive) as provided in the Canadian system by values 13-16 were never experienced. This, the author concludes, is in accord with the facts, since fat longer periods of low humidity occur in North America than in England. This is an interesting example of applying a technique developed in one country to the problem of another.

The Forests of Present-Day Finland. Yrjö Ilvessalo. Pp. 56. Helsinki. 1949. (Metsätieteellisen Tutkimuslaitoksen Julkaisuja. Communicationes Instituti Forestalis Fenniae. 35.6).

Finland's forest resources have been investigated twice, the first national forest survey having been made in the years 1921-24 and the second in 1936-38. Since the latter survey, considerable changes have taken place in the extent and condition of the forests; the peace treaty, which provided for the cession of 4,347,800 hectares to the Soviet Union has also altered the picture of the country's forest resources. As no exact data on the forests of postwar Finland will be available before the third national forest survey is carried out, probably in 19511953, Professor Ilvessalo has made the necessary recalculations and readjustments in order to bring the earlier statements into concordance with the actual facts. His account is based on the findings of those surveys which were made according to a combination of the line survey and circular sample plot methods. Some of the interesting statements especially those pertaining to postwar changes, are mentioned below.

The system of natural watercourses which, with about 40,000 kilometers of maintained floating channels, has proved most valuable for the Finnish forest economy, was partially cut by the new east frontier, which isolated the biggest water system area from the Gulf of Finland. For this reason, timber transportation has been more dependent on truck and railway transports than previously.

A forest area of 3.18 million hectares (equal to 12.8 percent of the country's total prewar forest area) was ceded to the Soviet Union in the peace treaty. As a result, the new calculations show that Finland, which was previously the second largest forest-owning country in Europe, now ranks third, after the Soviet Union and Sweden. The total forest land of the country comprises actually 21.66 million hectares, which corresponds to 71 percent of the whole land area. 17.08 million hectares are classed as productive forest land and 4..';8 million hectares as poorly productive forest land. It is emphasized that a considerable part of the latter class could be transferred into the first class by draining swamps - it has been estimated that about 4 million hectares of the swamps, which cover an area of 10.1 million hectares, are drainable for forest growth - and that part of the land now belonging to the category of waste land, totaling 5 million hectares, could also be converted into productive forest land by drainage.

As a comparison it may be mentioned that, according to national surveys made about 1930 in Sweden and Norway, the forest percentages in these countries were 56 and 23 respectively. Also the average forest area per inhabitant in Finland is considerably higher (5.1 ha.) than in Sweden (3.6 ha.) and Norway (2.5 ha.).

The Finnish forests are comparatively poor with regard to species of trees. They are dominated by coniferous trees, pine (Pinus silvestris) covering 53 percent and spruce (Picea excelsa) 28 percent of the forest area. 16.8 percent is covered by birch (Betula alba), and the remainder by species of less commercial value, such as aspen, gray and black alder, and, to some extent, oak, basswood, elm, ash, maple, etc.

An interesting feature in the development during the 15-year period between the first and second surveys is the 13-percent increase in the spruce-dominated forests at the cost of pine, gray alder, and clear areas. One of the main reasons for this change has been preoccupation with sufficient spruce supply for the rapidly expanding paper industry of the country.

With regard to age conditions it is pointed out that the forests of northern Finland require nearly twice as much time as the forests of southern Finland to reach the same size of exploitability. Therefore, in the southern parts of the country, forests are chiefly middle-aged or approaching the felling age; in the northern half, close to 70 percent of the forests have reached the age of about one hundred years. Estimates on the mean volume, including bark - i.e., the volume of growing stock on an average per hectare - show for the forests of the whole country a figure of 63.2 cubic meters per hectare. Converted so as to be comparable, this figure (58.4) is lower than the corresponding figure obtained in Sweden (59.1), but higher than that in Norway (41.4) in the first Swedish and Norwegian national forest surveys. Professor Ilvessalo points out that "in general, the mean volume of the Finnish forests is much lower than it could be if the forests were fully stocked and properly taken care of. "

The total growing stock of the Finnish forests has decreased from 1,588 million cubic meters in 1922 to 1,560 million in 1938 and 1 370 million (corresponding to 1,149 million m³ excluding bark) at present. The loss caused by war thus represents a figure of 190 million cubic meters. The growing stock of the Swedish forests, according to the survey completed about 1930, is greater (1,417 million m³), but that of Norway is considerably smaller (320 million m³). Because of the sparsity of population in Finland the growing stock per inhabitant (305 m³, excluding bark) is still higher here than in Sweden (232 m³), Norway (113 m³), or any other European country.

In the Finnish survey, a diameter of 20 centimeters (about 8 in.) at breast height has been adopted as the limit between small trees and large (timber) trees, and according to this classification 60.5 percent of the growing stock consists of small trees and 39.5 percent of large (timber) trees. The apparent trend has been a decrease in the growing stock of large timber and an increase in the growing stock of small trees. As a result of this development, expansion of the sawmill industry, which depends upon the supply of large timber, has ceased; the pulp and paper industries, on the contrary, are expanding.

Computed in comparable terms, the mean annual growth is 1.99 cubic meters in Sweden, 1.95 in Finland and 1.35 in Norway. The total annual growth of the Finnish forests is 40.8 million cubic meters, without bark, which is 4.9 million cubic meters less than that of the forests before the peace treaty, corresponding Swedish and Norwegian figures are 46.7 million and 9.9 million cubic meters respectively. In Finland it has been noticed that the proportion of pine in the annual growth is considerably greater than that of spruce or other species of trees.

As the Finnish survey methods have been developed to give as many-sided results as possible, the data collected give a picture also of the development of the treatment of forests. A comparison between the results of the two surveys shows an improvement in this respect from about 1912-21 to about 1927-36. Cuttings of the nature of selection had decreased considerably and thinnings had become more general. On the whole however, Professor Ilvessalo states, the silvicultural condition of the Finnish forests leaves much room for improvement. According to the classification categories applied in the second survey, only 14.4 percent of the whole country's forests can be classed as forests with "good" silvicultural conditions; 50.8 percent would be classed as "satisfactory," 30.8 as "unsatisfactory," and the remainder as spoiled or devastated forests.

In connection with the survey, an estimate was also obtained of the future felling quantity of the Finnish forests called the silvicultural felling quantity. The quantity arrived at for the two 10-year periods following the survey was an annual average for present-day Finland of 31 million cubic meters and, in the event that trees dried out on the stump are cut everywhere, of 34 million cubic meters. According to Professor Ilvessalo, this may be considered the minimum sustained felling quantity. When trees that decay on the growing site, mostly in remote regions, are added to this felling quantity, an annual average of 34-36 million cubic meters as a calculated "normal" removal is obtained. The actual removal of wood from the Finnish forests, the annual growth, and the "normal" removal of wood are given in the following growth balance (stem wood, green, excluding bark), in millions of cubic meters:

Average of the years	Removal	Growth	"Normal removal "
1923-1938	41	46	38
1935-1939	42	46	38
1940-1944	33	46	38
1945-1948	148	41	34-36

1 Figure is uncertain

As to the postwar figures, it must be remembered that the cession of large forest areas has reduced the growth figure and that reconstruction, resettlement of the population evacuated from the ceded territories, war reparation deliveries, shortage of coal, and the rapid rise in exports have increased the removal of wood far above the "normal" removal.

Cessation of exports and shortage of imported fuel during the war were reflected in greater utilization of wood and the increased use of firewood as fuel for industry was still evident during the years immediately after the war. The utilization of wood (stem wood, green, excluding bark) for different purposes is shown in the table below, in percent

Since 1948, the uses of wood have been regaining their prewar proportions, owing especially to increased imports of coal.

A breakdown of the industrial uses of wood confirms the feet that, since the 1930's, sawmilling, which is the oldest and largest form of woodworking industry in Finland, has not expanded and obviously has reached the limit of its raw material supplies. On the other hand, the wood pulp and paper industry has been considerably enlarged, and other industries also, such as plywood manufacturing and the comparatively young industries producing prefabricated wooden houses and their components, the fiber and rayon industries, etc., have been increasing their respective shares in the utilization of wood. - In 1946 the distribution in raw materials use was as follows: sawmilling, 52 percent; pulp and paper industry, 41.8 percent; plywood manufacturing, 5 percent; and other forest industries, 1.2 percent.

Professor Ilvessalo has come to the conclusion that, owing to the loss to the Soviet Union of a considerable part of the forest resources and a great number of woodworking enterprises, ¹ the woodworking industry of Finland cannot be expected to reach its prewar level for some time.

1 In an article dealing with the effects of the war on the supply of wood raw material for Finnish forest industries (published in the Economic Review of Kansallis-Osake-Pankki, No. 1, Helsinki, November, 1948), Professor Eino Saari numerates the factories lost and their annual production as follows: 77 sawmills (200,000 standards), 4 plywood factories (45,000 m³), 7 cellulose mills (390,000 tons) 7 wood pulp and cardboard factories (65,000 tons wood pulp and 20,000 tons cardboard), 4 paper mills (37,000 tons), 1 spool and bobbin factory (700,000 gross spools and bobbins) and a new rayon factory.

The booklet reviewed here contains data also on the ownership of the forests in Finland. The postwar development shows an increase in private forest ownership, especially in the form of small holdings. This tendency is mainly due to the feet that the State forests were more heavily affected by the cession of territory under the peace treaty than other forests, and that the resettlement of the evacuated population has reduced large holdings of other ownership classes by purchase or requisition. At the beginning of 1948 the ownership of forests was divided as follows: private 57.3 percent State 34.2 percent; companies 6.8 percent; communities 1.1 percent; church 0.6 percent.

Professor Ilvessalo's booklet also includes summary information on forest administration and forestry organization, forestry legislation, and forestry research work in present-day Finland.

PERCENTAGE UTILIZATION OF WOOD

	1923-38	1938	1940-44	1946
Raw material for industry	44.4	47.8	25.4	31.4
Firewood for industry	3.1	3.2	9.1	9.1
Household use by rural population	34.2	30.7	37.7	32.9
Exports of unmanufactured wood	8.4	7.7	2.8	4.2
Means of communication	3.6	3.7	10.2	9.3
Other purposes	6.3	6.9	14.8	13.1

Forestry arid Water Supplies in South Africa. C. L. Wicht, Dr.-Ing., F.R.S. Union of South Africa Department of Forestry Bulletin, No. 33. Pp. 58. 1949. 6d.

The statement has frequently been made, largely by laymen, that afforestation, particularly of exotic species, has had a desiccating effect in South Africa. This report undertakes to place the problem in its proper perspective. It examines the hydrology of the South African forest regions, the evidence regarding modification of the water cycle through land management and the specific evidence of effects of forests on water supplies in South Africa. In some cases the drying-up of springs and streams after planting is to be explained by concurrent substantial decreases in precipitation, and the revival of waterflow after cutting by concurrent increases in precipitation.

The evidence is far from complete and is sometimes contradictory, but after analyzing it and studying pertinent material from other countries, the author arrives at the following conclusions, subject to results of detailed work under way:

1. Plantations of exotic trees, grown to timber size, will probably not use more water than the indigenous forests, if they are on comparable sites.

2. Plantations of exotics and indigenous forests will probably use more water than fynbos (sclerophyll scrub) or grass communities. The magnitudes of the differences are not known, but in the ease of plantations they will probably be greater the more conditions deviate from those in true, moist, high-forest regions.

3. The consumption of water by plantations, forests, and other plant communities will depend chiefly on the amount of water available in the soil. 3. The consumption of water by plantalogical order, that is, occupying similar positions in the succession of vegetation, will probably use approximately equal volumes of water.

5. Swamps and vleis tend to dry up if trees are planted in them, and also if the natural succession progresses as far as the forest climax. The water is constantly available or accessible to the roots of the trees because it is stagnant or nearly so.

6. There is no evidence that fast-growing tree species use more water than slow-growing ones, all other factors being equal.

7. The removal of vegetation, natural or artificial, from catchments, especially along stream banks, will cause an increased discharge from the streams. The advantage is probably temporary because it depends on the retention of deep soils, rich in humus, which is impossible without a good cover of vegetation.

8. Heavy, ground-cover provided by plantations and forests retards floods and builds up and conserves soils.

Where tree planting is contemplated therefore, the following recommendations should be considered:

1. Extensive afforestation should not be undertaken unless there is a reasonable chance of making a good profit on the money invested, or unless there is some convincing local reason demanding the establishment of trees - for example, hut-pole growing in native territories to reduce exploitation of natural forests; aesthetic reasons; firewood production on farms; or provision of shelter for stock.

2. As far as possible afforestation should be restricted to forest regions with high rainfall. There are many areas in South Africa where extensive afforestation should not be encouraged.

3. From the point of view of water conservation, long rotation timber crops should be preferred to short rotation, quick-profit crops such as eucalypt coppice for mine props or wattle for tanning bark. In making this statement, the important economic role of such crops is not lost sight of. Sites for these crops should, however, be selected with care.

4 Where the discharge of streams is used for irrigation or for industrial or municipal purposes, moist areas along streams should not be planted up. This has been the Forestry Department policy since 1932.

5. Tree-planting is not forestry. Sound silvicultural practice and management on a sustained-yield basis are essential; if these are not introduced, the effects may be harmful on even the most suitable sites.

The Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest, Warrensburg, N. Y. Results of Twenty Years of Intensive Forest Management. Clifford H. Foster and Burt P. Kirkland. Pp. 36, illus. The Charles Lathrop Pack Forestry Foundation, Washington, D. C., U.S.A. 1949.

In 1927 the late Charles Lathrop Pack purchased a partly wooded property of 2,200 acres (880 ha.) near Warrensburg in New York State, in the heart of the natural white pine (Pinus strobus) region. Desiring that this property should be used to demonstrate the possibilities of scientific and economic forestry, he placed it under the management of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse. The results of careful management during the ensuing years are now reported in the booklet reviewed here.

At the time of acquisition much of the forest had been heavily cut over, but there were considerable areas of relatively satisfactory pure stands of white pine. Natural reproduction of pine had occurred, for the most part on areas which had formerly been cleared for Agriculture in those parts of the property which had always been under forest cover, broadleaved species predominated and very little pine reproduction was to be found. Development work was commenced in 1927. A small nursery was established and seedlings for the forest plantations were obtained from Syracuse. During the following winter the forest was mapped and subdivided into permanently marked compartments. Timber volumes and the condition of growing stock were determined for each compartment by means of randomly located circular sample plots a quarter acre (0.1 ha.) in area. Growth estimates were made from increment borings through the use of Schneider's formula.

Determination of the annual cut was made by means of sample markings in each compartment, and all the relevant information was compiled into a working plan in 1930. Some 80 acres (19 ha.) of the property were set aside as an "ecological reserve", in which no logging or other disturbance has since been permitted.

The objects of management were to plant up open fields, to keep annual fellings well below estimated annual growth in order to build up growing stock, to cut over the whole forest area at frequent intervals in order to minimize losses due to mortality, and to favor the development of trees likely to yield timber of the highest quality.

The susceptibility of white pine to damage by blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) presented a special problem in forest protection. This has been dealt with successfully through eradication of, the alternate hosts of the blister rust (Ribes spp.).

A small permanent sawmill was built in the forest, and an additional light truck-mounted mill has been developed which can be set up to saw very small quantities of logs wherever desired.

The forest is open to the public for hunting, fishing, and other recreational activities and, in accordance with the wishes of its founder, it has been extensively used for purposes of public education.

In 1947 about 1,307 acres (529 ha.) were classified as bearing merchantable trees, the remainder of the area being occupied by plantations, young broadleaved stands, administrative sites, etc. During the 18 years, 1930-47, the total cut amounted to nearly 1.1 million cubic feet (31,000 m³), and during the same period the volume of standing trees suitable for saw timber increased by just over 45 percent. Thus, an actual yield of close to 3 cubic meters per hectare has been obtained from the portion of the forest actually under operation, and at the same time great progress has been made towards building up growing stock. The results obtained are thought to be of great significance to forest operators in the region.

Wood Specimens. Pp. 206. 100 reproductions in color. Published by the trade journal, Wood, London. 1949. £2 2s.

Each week the trade journal Wood (United Kingdom) contains a facsimile in natural color of a commercial wood. A selection of a hundred of these has now been published in one book, forming a most attractive and useful reference work for all who are seriously concerned with timbers. The reproductions featured include almost all the common woods, most of the well-known decorative woods, and a number of so-called "new" woods. Notes on habitat, growth, working qualities, and uses accompany each specimen, together with illustrations of the tree and its leaf. Botanical, trade and local names are cross-indexed. An introduction gives an outline of world timbers, and a world map helps to fill in the picture of world timber supplies. Color reproductions may be misleading for the color of timbers is apt to be extremely variable. The specimens, however, do help to produce a proper appreciation of texture, grain, and other growth characteristics needed for the identification of commercial woods.

Tecnología de la Maderas. (Wood Technology.) Juan Jose Galante. Imprenta y Casa editoria Coni, 684 Calle Peru, Buenos Aires. 1946.

Although three years old, this book is worth mentioning as a well-documented, complete, and practical Spanish-language work on wood technology in the broadest sense of the term. The author has tried to adapt it to the conditions of Argentina and to the properties of native or imported woods most commonly used industrially. He discusses successively construction woods which he has investigated, Argentine woods, and imported woods. Lumbering and wood utilization, considered especially from the theoretical standpoint and from the standpoint of woodworking and industrial problems, constitute the major portion of the book.

Maderas de Venezuela. (Venezuelan - Woods.) Harry Corothie. Imprimeria Nacional. Caracas, Venezuela. 1948.

This work is intended to facilitate the identification of the more common Venezuelan woods with the help of their macroscopic properties. The first section lists groups of macroscopic properties which can serve to identify the various woods and defines each of these properties. The botanical families included in each group of identifying characteristics are listed, and a numbering system is used to group the features of each family and of each main species in order to identify them. The author further points out those characteristics which appear frequently but not constantly. The last section of the book groups species according to the possible utilization of their wood their common names are listed in alphabetical order and correlated with their scientific names. Use was made of the collections of the National Herbarium and the work of Government botanists. The work, intended as a textbook, is to be warmly welcomed as a further addition to Spanish-language technical literature in this field.

Report of the Forest Department for the Years 1945-1947. Colony and Protectorate of Kenya. Pp. 57. 1949. 5s.

This report, although belated, records not only the operations of the period but the development of main features of a comprehensive forest policy lately published by the Government as a result of studies by a subcommittee of the Development Committee. Fortunately, due to the vision and determination of Sir David Hutchins, Conservator of Forests 190811, the main forest areas were reserved long since.

Significant features of policy include the following: (1) Forests are a national asset and must be maintained for improvement of the country and benefit of the people. This requires that a high proportion be maintained and managed by Government and that a suitable long-range forest policy be framed, unaffected by political change and backed by stable finance. (2) Reservation must cover all useful or potentially useful forests, including protection forests. (3) All forests must be brought under scientific management with detailed and comprehensive working plans. (4) All means must be employed to encourage forestry everywhere. (5) All forests must be brought to a full stage of production both for domestic needs and for export.

An estimate of domestic needs for saw timber for 30 years has been made, and a planting program to supply these demands is proposed, as well as a staffing program and budgets for both investment and operation. The Development Report has raised the importance of forestry to a far higher level than before; trebling the proposed expenditure. It recognizes the forests as a great and productive asset, capable of playing a major part in economic development.

As to actual operations, progress has been made in many ways. Fire protection, roads, buildings, and mechanical transport have been increased, the staff has been greatly expanded, training has been increased, and field-work districts and divisions have been set up. A detailed re-examination of all boundaries has been begun, and a program for examination and reservation of all forests which ought to be reserved has been undertaken under criteria set up by the Forest Boundary Commission. An East African Agriculture and Forest Research Organization has been planned, which should benefit all concerned. Forest Research has heretofore received too little attention. Decision to convert railway engines to burn oil will make it possible to divert quantities of eucalyptus to other uses. Economic use of the natural highland forests is beginning. Heretofore they have been managed for protective values only. Much remains to be learned about correct Silviculture Positive steps are planned to integrate forestry in Kenya more closely with that in neighboring territories. The report depicts an aggressive and forward-looking program.

Die Forstbenutzung. (Forest Utilization.) Karl Gayer and Ludwig Fabricus. Pp. 733. Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin. 1949.

This well-known German textbook has now appeared in a fourteenth edition. The authors state that only the most necessary revisions were made, since bringing the book completely up to date would have taken a number of years. In view of the shortage of textbooks for forestry courses, it was therefore thought best to bring it out as soon as possible without major changes.

Einführung in die Forstliche Zuwachsu. Ertragalehre. (Introduction to the Study of Forest Growth and Yield.) Karl Vanselow. Pp. 156, illus. Third improved edition. 1948. J. D. Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. DM 8.80.

The subject of forest growth and yield has thus far been taught as part of the general subject of either forest mensuration or forest management. Yet growth and yield, in the opinion of the author, are so fundamental to the entire practice of forestry as to deserve special study and consideration more commensurate with their importance. The entire book therefore, is devoted to a review and analysis of the actual growth and yield of individual trees and of entire stands. These growth figures were not arrived at mathematically but were obtained from measurements of a large number of sample plots taken by the forest experiment stations. They cover pure and mixed forests of beech, spruce, pine, and oak of seedling origin (high forest) and forests of coppice origin. Attention is given to the increased growth due to thinnings and admission of light into the forest. There is a chapter on the potential yields from an "ideal" so-called normal forest. A comprehensive bibliography is appended. The book brings together valuable information hitherto scattered in various forest periodicals and points up the problems that need further investigation.

Grundbegriffe aus Forstlicher Messkunde mit Besonderer Berucksichtigung des Feldmessens. (Fundamentals of Forest Mensuration. With special reference to forest surveying.) Hans Hufnagel and Hans Puzyr. Pp. 197, illus. Georg Fromme & Co. Vienna Austria. 1949. $1.50.

This pocket-size volume is intended exclusively as an aid for foresters in their field work. One of its three brief chapters deals with the measurement of felled timber, standing trees, and volumes of whole stands. Another discusses the different methods of land surveys - by geodesy, levelling instruments, and demarcation of forest boundaries. The last chapter is devoted to the detailed analysis of field measurements, the checking of errors, and the preparation of working plans and forest maps. The presentation is simple and direct, and only the essentials which every forester must know in his practical work in the woods are treated. The booklet is one of a series of similar publications now in preparation, dealing with fundamentals of silviculture, fundamentals of forest utilization, forest protection, etc.

Lumber, Plywood, and Allied Products Industry Report. Quarterly with annual statistical supplement, U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Office of Domestic Commerce. Pp. 40. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., September 1949. $1.00.

The U. S. Department of Commerce has increased the size and scope of its Lumber Industry Report, renamed the quarterly publication, and added a new annual statistical supplement. The goal of the new publication is to co-ordinate and simplify the mass of information on production, stocks, and trade collected by governmental and trade organizations. An effect of presenting the information in one place is that all segments of these industries will increasingly recognize their common interest. The former publication has always been very useful to its readers, and the new enlarged edition appears to be even more valuable.