It is the policy of FAO to review here only selected publications which appear to have a direct bearing on the current work of the Forestry Division.
WORLD RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES. Fred W. Zimmerman. pp. 832, illus. Harper & Brothers. New York. Revised edition, 1951. Price $ 7.50.
This comprehensive volume is described as a functional appraisal of the availability of agricultural and industrial materials, and throughout the book attention is focussed on the inter-relation of resources, on the whole rather than on the parts. Its major purpose is not to enlarge the body of scientific knowledge but to render more effective the teaching to students of the social sciences in general and of economies in particular. This purpose seems to be admirably fulfilled.
In explaining the meaning and nature of resources the author, professor at the University of Texas, galls them "the bases of both security and opulence; they are the foundations of power and wealth." He examines the growing importance of tree crops and devotes considerable space to the forest and its products. He describes the forest as "a national resource, like a river system, it is a multiple-purpose resource; it constitutes a social asset of the first magnitude and it yields a great social profit which lies wholly outside the realm of business. The proper safeguarding of group interests requires that these facts be recognized, only within the frame of these basic principles should private enterprise be allowed to operate. In essence, the forest problem is one of institutional adjustment. Society must discover the particular blending of private and public action which will suit the peculiar needs of a forest."
The problem of adequacy of resources is also one of social institutions, of government policies, of international relations. In analyzing conservation as contrasted with economy, the author uses the expression "economization" to express wilful action or intent to serve the present where conservation serves the future. He describes "economization" in a price economic system as covering all efforts to improve the economic ratio of production, the ratio of output to input, or, expressed socially, the ratio of benefit to sacrifice, of utilities produced to labor expended. Conservation is any act reducing the rate of consumption or exhaustion for the avowed purpose of benefiting posterity. If the objective cannot be gained by economy in harmony with the free play of economic forces, conservation must be imposed.
In the interest of conservation, the author says, forests should be "cropped" and not "mined." Much soil erosion is due to ignorance and carelessness. To the extent that it arises from these causes, little doubt need be entertained as to the economic justification of corrective measures.
A WATER POLICY FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Water Resources Policy Commission. Vol. 2, pp. 801, U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C., U.S.A., 1950. U.S. $6.00.
Volume 2 of the monumental report of the President's Water Policy Commission, now available, provides the detailed story of the five western and five eastern rivers selected for intensive study. The western basins are in areas of generally low rainfall; the eastern are in more humid areas. In the west are great areas of arid and semi-arid lands; high mountains and low depressions; areas of the highest rainfall and run-off and deserts; torrential rains and droughts; the irrigated lands and half the potential waterpower; the bulk of the public lands; long distances between water-producing and water-using areas. In the east none of these is so extreme yet each basin has distinctive major problems and groups of problems, depending on its own characteristics history of use, status of developments and conflicts, etc. That is why these basins - the Central Valley, Colorado, Columbia, Missouri, Rio Grande in the west, Alabama-Coosa, Connecticut, Ohio, Potomac, and the Tennessee in the east were chosen for intensive study. The basin monographs serve several purposes:
1) They indicate the major lines of policy already set forth in Volume 1. (See Unasylva Vol. V. No. 2.).2) They are used to test theory and policy as to their applicability to the widely varying conditions and problems found in the whole country.
3) They provide unique reference books for students, policy makers and the great number of agencies and individuals concerned in action programs dealing with water, land and people, basin by basin.
Foresters will be gratified that the impelling urgency of better management of forest, range and watershed lands, as well as of farm lands, is so generally and realistically recognized, and that so eminent a forester as E. N. Munns (U.S. Forest Service) was able to carry out or supervise preparation of pertinent material and later to serve on the Board of Review which brought the 10 reports into their final, tightly-reasoned and admirably written form. This is a fine achievement, both for the Forest Service and its representative.
During the past half-century the Forest Service has built up a massive accumulation of knowledge on condition of watersheds and water flows, on causes and responsibilities for defects, on practicable means for betterment, on lack of information, on stubborn inertial and glaring examples of non-co-operation - and here it may be seen how essential such knowledge is to a rational and competent plan and policy for full and permanent use of water and lands.
Most, if not all, of the "Policy Problems and their Relation to Plans for Development," which number from about 20 to over 30 in the different basins, are controversial questions treated with the maximum frankness. Many sensitive toes had to be trod upon, but the sufferers cannot justly complain of rancor or unfairness in the treading. The tone is objective, restrained and constructive, though beyond a doubt the participants held views of passionate conviction on many of the problems treated.
An almost endless list of shibboleths are depicted in their true and damaging relation to the overriding national need for conservation of land, water and people. Some will already be familiar to students of the American scene: the stubborn, selfish and so far politically effective resistance of national livestock organizations to the curbing of damaging over-grazing on national forest, grazing districts and Indian Reservation lands of western basins; the equally stubborn and effective opposition of national lumbering organizations to genuine and needed control of logging in the public interest; the availability of subsidies which put a premium on breaking the sod on lands which shortly become ruined by wind and water erosion.
Other untouchables will be less familiar. The industry's acquiescence in widespread abuse of archaic mining laws, whereby public ands, lacking realizable mineral values, may be diverted from public use to private exploitation. The irresponsible practice of dredging crop lands for a few cents' worth of gold per cubic yard, which is promptly buried in subterranean vaults, and which leaves unsightly and unproductive windrows of rock and gravel. The failure of some states to take any care of the lands granted them by tile Federal Government, now sources of flood and erosion while, at the same time, vociferously demanding great federal grants for water developments.
In total, although federal foresters were the pioneers in watershed management, they will not be able to take unalloyed satisfaction in results to date any more than others who deal with the management of land and water.
Those ten monographs give in convincing detail the material summarized all too sketchily in Volume 1, and on which the bald and far-reaching recommendations were solidly based. Few will have time or opportunity to read the whole massive volume, but since the report for each basin will be issued separately, and since closely similar out-lines were used for each, the student may select almost any one to learn the nature and content of this imposing and invaluable team effort.
GALL MIDGES OF TREES. (Gall Midges of Economic Importance. Vol. V), H.F. Barnes, M.A., Ph.D., pp., 270 illus. Crosby Lockwood and Son Ltd., London, 1951. 15 s.
This volume, the fifth in the series on gall midges by the same author, deals with gall midges which attack trees found in both natural and planted forests, as well as in amenity woodlands. It is, therefore, of particular interest to the forester, since it provides a source of valuable information on trees used largely for timber, as well as on ornamental trees.
As the author points out, gall midges are not by any means always serious pests of tree crops, which can often support a certain number of gall midges without suffering at all, and epidemic outbreaks, with consequent serious damage, do not occur frequently. For this reason, as is often the ease with insects which only appear as pests at irregular intervals, information on their habits is not readily available; this points to the need for long-term study of the fluctuations in the number of gall midges living on trees. The author also recommends serious research into the part played by gall midge larvae living in decaying woody tissues, thereby speeding up the process of disintegration, and their effect on the economy of forest soils. Another explanation of the current lack of knowledge on gall midges, which attack forest trees, may be the long-term nature of forestry and the long life of trees - both of which tend to obscure the damage sustained in particular years. The task of first importance, therefore, which this work performs is to gather together all the relevant facts and present them in a concise and well-annotated work of reference. In the current volume gall midges are dealt with under the trees they attack, arranged alphabetically in two sections - Coniferous Trees and Broad-leaved Trees - and contains an index to generic, and popular names, as well as a plant index and a general index.
WATER VERSUS FIRE. Alva G. Neuns. pp. 36, illus. U. S. Forest Service, California Region, San Francisco. California, U.S.A., 1950. $0.20.
Published at the end of 1950, this little booklet prepared by the California Forest and Range Experiment Station of the U. S. Forest Service, presents, in a striking form the fundamental principles of "fighting forest fires with water," in the words of its sub-title. It is written in the language of the men who fight fires and each operation is described with the aid of color diagrams. It begins with a short description of the physical effect of water on fire and subsequently emphasizes the various ways of using water as a fire fighting agent. Both simple and elaborate items of water delivering equipment are described and illustrated together with the specific problems of fire suppression, which they may be called upon to meet. In addition, it contains much useful information, such as tables of discharge rates for different nozzle sizes at varying pressures, together with the appropriate pump pressure required; in all a concise and graphically presented fire fighting manual.
THE CLOSING OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. E. Louise Peffer. pp. 372. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. U.S.A. 1951. U.S. $4.50.
The student of present-day American land policy and of the elaborate governmental structure, which directs or forms policy, must have many unanswered questions: why laws and programs dealing with broadly comparable lands are often in conflict, why cohesion of policy and public effort has still to be achieved. The answers to such illogical perplexities are to be found mainly in the past, and perhaps particularly during the period 1901-1910 in which Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot led, and largely controlled, public opinion and action. What they thought and did arose from their interpretation of the then existing state of the public domain, of the role it could and should play in the nation's life, and of the urgent need for public action. As is well known, they met determined and skilful opposition, overcame apathy and stimulated active support, compromised when forged, made strong friends and equally strong enemies, and above all accomplished much, though by no means all, of their aims.
Pinchot has told his own story of the "fight for conservation," as seen by the leading participant. This new book, based on the study of a vast number of published records, deals with the same events, conditions and problems, but from the viewpoint of the historian. Whatever the validity of the interpretations and conclusions, it is well to have a detached view brought to bear on public domain history.
In working out the successive steps of preserving public forests and later putting them under administration, of establishing a reclamation program and withdrawing from the public domain land originally given to aid new builders, of withdrawing water power sites and fuel and mineral reserves and potash deposits,: of developing leasing practices, of classifying arid lands suitable for homesteading - the background has always been one of conflict. There was divergence of interest between east and west, between stockman and homesteader, between monopolist and would-be monopolist and the little man.
Roosevelt and Pinchot played the game to win. However, the President's powers to withdraw were finally curbed and Pinchot was dismissed as a result of his excessive zeal. The author seems to find this zeal and his ruthless adherence to all forms of conservation regrettable, and even attributes to them some of the present-day cleavages within and outside the Government. It would seem somewhat doubtful, however, whether scrupulous and gentlemanly tactics would have been effective in the early years of this century. Although there was violent opposition in the west to forest and other reservations, there was also far more statesmanlike support for the developing program of conservation than in the east. On the other hand, this study explains why attention to the public ranges was delayed until 1934 and was then so feeble and ineffective.
It is not clear whether the author recognizes the full significance of breaking up administration of the public lands into separate agencies as a factor in slowing down the conservation movement, in weakening public support for the whole pro gram and in setting up divergent or conflicting piecemeal programs within the structure of the Federal Government. History and not the reviewer will finally judge the accuracy of some of the author's interpretations; that they run counter to those of many who took part in the closing of the public domain is evident, but an author who labors so sturdily is entitled to express an opinion.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS. William G. Cochran & Gertrude M. Cox. pp. 454. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1950. U.S. $5.75.
Most forest research, at least until relatively recent years, has been done without the application of statistical methods or the advice of statisticians on the design of the experiments. Similarly, the apparent results have been reported and interpreted without subjecting them to the rigors of statistical testing for validity. Since, in the statement by the authors of this book, most researchers are not trained statisticians and most statisticians do not conduct research, they have prepared the book to explain the many ways in which the science of statistics can and should be applied in the initial planning of experiments, so that results may be statistically justified and methods of analyzing results may be fully explained. A good many examples, analyzed from these standpoints, are taken from the field of agricultural research, as well as from other fields. Many highly specialized methods have been devised for laying out experiments, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of each of these in dealing with particular broad types of problems are fully explained, and the mathematical and tabular material necessary is given.
In well-organized forest research today, more and more researchers are being given basic training in the statistical methods applicable to their work and, in most oases, the services of trained statisticians are available through universities or industries. While most practising foresters will probably not avail themselves of the services available from the science of statistics, the researchers can, and often should do, so as to improve the accuracy of their work. The book provides a thorough and up-to-date summary and critical analysis of developments in this highly complex field.
FAO FORESTRY and FOREST PRODUCTS STUDIES
Planning A National Forest Inventory
Prepared by FAO after extensive investigation, this study is intended to be of service to those who may be required to plan large-scale forest inventories. The book, of approximately 100 pages, is available from FAO sales agents; price US $1.00.
Forest Policy, Law, and Administration
This study offers those responsible for forest management and utilization the basis for the establishment and implementation of a sound forest policy. The book, of approximately 248 pages, is available from FAO sales agents; price US $2.00.
Further studies will be forthcoming during 1952
Yearbook of Forest Products Statistics, 1951
This, the latest volume in the series, will be published shortly, presenting statistical data on forest products from over 100 countries. Bilingual English/French with Spanish supplement. Price US $2.50; available for local currency from sales agents listed overleaf.
Some Other FAO Publications of interest to Foresters
PROGRESS AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF FARM MECHANIZATION
FAO reports on farm machinery, its production, use, trade and economic problems. Facts have been drawn from Europe, America, Africa and the Near and Far East. Tables of figures give the latest information in the clearest form for those who are interested in the advancement of their country's farming equipment. 88 pp., In English, French or Spanish. Price $1.00.
FAO Agricultural Studies:
THE EFFICIENT USE OF FERTILIZERS
An extremely practical and sound study covering the preparation and use of different types of fertilizers under varying conditions. 184 pp. In English, French or Spanish. Price $2.00.
WEED CONTROL BY GROWTH REGULATING SUBSTANCES
A short, practical guide to the use of hormone weedkillers. 35 pp. In English or French. Price 50 cents.
