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.
The centralized title service of The Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, Oxford, England
STABILITY AS A FACTOR IN EFFICIENT FOREST MANAGEMENT. A. Koroleff. Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada. Montreal. 1951. Price: Can. $ 4.00.
The author, Director of the Woodlands Research Division of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, defines the aim of his study as providing material for the use of the Canadian pulp and paper industries in their planning for greater continuity and stability in the use of forest labor and forest areas. The book deals mainly with forest management in eastern Canada, but contains some useful references to other countries.
The first chapter is devoted to forest labor management, and tackles the problem of stability and efficiency of forest labor as well as that of eliminating the effect of the season on logging. It is stated that in Canada the last item is a phenomenon of the greatest importance. While, for instance, about 85 percent of Canada's labor force are permanently employed, forest work is to such an extent a part-time occupation that in the eastern part of the country the labor force engaged in pulpwood logging during the winter has been as much as 3 to 7 times as great as in the summer. Since 1940, annual fluctuations of the total labor in pulpwood camps east of the Rockies have varied between a minimum of about 6.2 million and a maximum of about 11.6 million man-days. Moreover, there has been a very high, and apparently increasing, turnover of workers in pulpwood camps.
While it has not been possible to show with indisputable reliability whether there has been a definite upward trend in the output rate (which in eastern Canada for the last eleven years has averaged 0.69 cords [1.76 m3] per man-day), the daily earnings of forest workers, the majority of whom are semi-skilled, have been rising faster than the average remuneration of labor in the eight main industries of Canada. It is pointed out that a continuation of this trend will soon result in transient and semi-skilled forest labor being paid at a higher rate than permanent and skilled workers in the major industries.
High "seasonability" of logging does not foster a stable and efficient labor force. It bad its advantages when there was a supply of cheap transient labor, but this source of manpower has diminished, due to increasing industrialization of logging and to higher wage rates obtainable elsewhere. Also, the former great advantages of winter haul have been, or can be, nullified by mechanization.
It is stressed in this study that in certain conditions at least, it is not only possible, but even advantageous, to make logging and transportation entirely independent of the seasons by intensified mechanization. Two companies in Ontario which have recently changed to year-round logging are reported to have attained a relatively high degree of labor stability and some gains in efficiency.
In fact, in eastern Canada there has been an increase in the percentage of summer pulpwood cutting. In other parts of the country, as well as in certain other northern countries, there has been a more or less distinct trend to cease confining pulpwood logging to the winter, and to increase the percentage of permanent forest labor and the use of logging machinery and all-season roads.
The problems mentioned above are intimately linked with forest management, and it is this interrelationship with which the second chapter of the book deals. A number of papers were prepared especially for this book by Canadian, United States and European foresters and operators, dealing with the relative merits of the intermittent use of forest labor and forest areas versus their continuous use.
Under the present "nomadic" system, based on widely intermittent utilization of forest areas, practically all merchantable pulpwood is cut at once, and logging operations are then moved to a new place. Logging is thus advancing into less accessible areas. Heavy losses are suffered through abandoning temporary improvements, wood losses, inappropriate age of timber cut, etc. Also net growth of merchantable wood, per year per acre, is small and restocking often - inadequate. Most of the measures by which wood losses can be reduced and growth and yield of wood increased are precluded by such nomadic operations. However, the application of the system in remote areas of mature and over-mature timber can be, for economic reasons, quite dependable. On the most accessible and best forest areas, the investments required for the stabilization of operations and intensification of forestry will be justified by the substantial economies resulting from forest management, good permanent labor, and continuous operating with high productivity and low costs.
According to findings of the study, there are five inter-related measures which form a group and should be introduced jointly: (1) "de-seasonalization" of logging; (2) logging mechanization; (3) a competent and contented labor force, with as many permanent employees as are needed for the minimum annual wood production; (4) continuous operating of each working unit on a sustained yield basis; and (5) integration of logging with silviculture and forest protection, to obtain the full benefits of sound forestry.
Since pulpwood operations in eastern Canada vary greatly according to physical, biological and economic factors, with even some important psychological factors, no uniform solution for their management problems is put forward. Planning has to be made individually for each case, and much specific research in forest management is still needed to give definite indications as to the most efficient methods.
RANGE MANAGEMENT - PRINCIPLES AND PRACTISES. A. W. Sampson. 570 pp. illus. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Chapman & Hall Ltd. London. 1952. U.S. $ 7.50.
This new work by the Professor of Range Management at the University of California undoubtedly represents a landmark in the history of the conservation and proper use of natural rangelands. It could not have been written except by a man of research, an ecologist, but it has the richness and quality that can only come from a lifetime of productive participation in the field. Professor Sampson's experience stretches back to his youth on the family farm in Nebraska and a photograph shows us the buildings there, protected by dense windbreaks of pines and hardwoods.
One of the great merits of the book is that it is the whole, rather than the separate parts, which is of the greatest interest. At the same time it balances theory and practise, without loss of emphasis for either point of view. In places the author does not hesitate to use the method of question and answer, for instance to deal with such complex problems as control of noxious woody vegetation on rangelands in the United States, or to show the practical implications of the conclusions that research has already reached. But Professor Sampson is especially to be commended on his success in covering all aspects of range management, tieing up on the one hand all the underlying scientific principles and techniques and on the other all the physical, economic, administrative, and social factors which are involved.
A brief analysis of the form of the book can best make this clear. It is divided into four parts. The first part sets out the problems of range management in their proper perspectives. After showing the economic importance of rangelands, not only for the United States but for the world generally, the relationships of the problems involved to plant physiology and ecology are explained. Then, after discussing the characteristics of rangelands in the United States, the author broadly traces their historical development and the consequences of this development. Of special interest are the passages dealing with synecology and theories on the evolution of plant communities, as they apply to the range. The second part is concerned entirely with the botany of the principal forage species that go to make up the "range" in the United States.
The third part deals with management and improvement. Due weight is given not only to natural re-seeding but also to the various methods of artificial re-seeding which have proved their worth in the United States and elsewhere. Economic considerations are the limiting factor and cannot be disregarded in plans for rangeland improvement. A chapter is devoted to methods of gauging range "condition" which permit a determination of the relative stage of succession reached by a range and hence the type of management which will be to the best advantage.
Problems of protection are treated in the last part of the book, which does not have quite the same homogeneity as the earlier parts, and covers questions as diverse as the protection of livestock against predatory wild animals and injurious plants, the protection against livestock of valuable natural flora other than the range forage, and the protection of the rangeland against erosion. These various subjects have nothing in common except that they all relate to "protection," but on the other hand they could scarcely be fitted in appropriately elsewhere in the book. It is a pity that the author does not have a summary chapter on the protective functions that the rangeland itself performs, or should perform, in relation to other lands and to the water regime. The importance of these functions is such that it can of itself justify the creation of special administrative services, such as those in the United States described in the last chapter of the book. Even though in North America this importance may be taken for granted, elsewhere in the world it is apt to be lost sight of by the wide circle of readers that Professor Sampson's book merits
As both a precursor and a supplement to its regular quarterly journal, Forestry Abstracts, the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, at Oxford, England, has recently developed a Title Service, whereby the stream of master reference cards prepared in the day-to-day work of abstracting can be duplicated and mailed regularly to subscribers. A subscriber is thereby made aware of world forestry literature 4 to 5 months before the printed Abstracts.
Such a service offers both more and less than the Abstracts. More, because for every 1000 abstract notices appearing in print, another 200-300 less important references are filed, unpublished, in the card index, and all of these go to Title Service subscribers; also because the title references carry extra standardized bibliographical detail, e.g. an individual decimal coding (Oxford Decimal Classification), and an indication of the number of maps, diagrams, graphs, etc., in the various publications. Less, because it is only when the abstracts are very brief that they can accompany the title reference in the standard size used.
In short, the service makes its subscribers as quickly as possible aware of world forestry literature; the printed Abstracts complete the in formation with the necessary details regarding the substance of the vast majority of the publications referenced.
The actual service
1. Replicas of the Bureau master cards, size 5 X 3 in., are mailed to subscribers 3-4 times a month, either on cards (surface Mail) or flimsy paper (air mail, at over 30 per ½ oz.), in serially numbered batches.
2. These are mailed unsorted, but each card or flimsy carries its full decimal coding.
3. The references can be supplied in sets covering:
(A) the whole of forestry;
(B) utilization only (sections 3, 7 and 8 of Forestry Abstracts);
(C) forestry minus utilization.
A finer degree of subdivision is not at present feasible.
Service (A) involves some 5000 title slips annually; Service (B) nearly 2000 annually.
Terms of subscription and rates
Subscriptions are normally accepted for the run of title references corresponding to a complete volume of Forestry Abstracts. Since collection of material for a particular issue begins some 6 months before its publication, a subscription covering the references to be published in Vol. 14 - the first number of which is due to appear in January 1953 would have to be entered before July 1952. The service can, however, be started at any time and will be charged for proportionately, but in this case the subscription must cover the references that will appear from the date of entry up to the end of the corresponding volume of the Abstracts. The Service is current from the date of entry: it is not practicable to furnish references issued before that date.
Owing to the wide variations in postal charges, rates have to be quoted separately for each application. An example of rates to the U.S.A. is as follows:
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By air |
Surface mail |
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(flimsy) |
(cards) |
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Service (A) |
$ .50 |
$ .50 |
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(B) |
$ .20 |
$ .20 |
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(C) |
$ .33 |
$ .33 |
This works out at about 1 cent per reference supplied.
Application should be made direct to the Commonwealth Forest Bureau, Oxford, England.
Commonwealth Forestry Bureau Oxford, England
This unit of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux is an information center on every aspect of world forestry. It publishes two quarterly journals and a series of Technical Communications.
FORESTRY ABSTRACTS
A survey of current world literature in some 30 languages, covering over 500 periodicals 800 serial publications and many miscellaneous papers and books. Each issue normally contains a review of the literature on some particular subject and items of world news. The annual subscription for 1952 is 45/- or $6.50 in the U.S.A., post free. In 1953 the subscription is being raised to 60/or $8.40 U.S.A.
FOREST PRODUCTS AND UTILIZATION ABSTRACTS
A separate of the Products and Utilization sections of Forestry Abstracts for the logger, sawmiller, timber trade and industries using wood and its by-products. It also covers resins, gums, oils, fibers and the many products of a forest estate. Annual subscription for 1952 is 15/- $2.10 in the U.S.A., post free. In 1953 the subscription is being raised to £. 1 or $2.80 U.S.A.
GUIDE TO THE USE OF FORESTRY ABSTRACTS
Containing a directory of publishing sources, analysis of an abstract notice, a key to abbreviations and many other aids. Price: 5s. 0d. or $0.70 in the U.S.A., post free.
TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS
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Gas Producers for Motor Vehicles and their Operation with Forest Fuels. I. Kissin (1942) |
3s.0d. |
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Co-operation in Forestry. I. Kissin (1944 |
4s.0d. |
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Forestry Credit. I. Kissin (1945) |
2s.6d. |
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The Application of Meteorology to Forest Fire Protection. J. G. Wright and H. W. Beall. (1945) |
2s.6d. |
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Management Control in Selection Forest. H. Knuchel (1947) |
3s.0d. |
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Forest Tree Breeding and Genetics. R. H. Richens (1945) |
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(published jointly with the Commonwealth Bureau of Plant Breeding and Genetics) |
5s.0d. |
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The Use of Aerial Survey in Forestry and Agriculture. J. W. B. Sisam. (947). |
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(Published jointly with the Commonwealth Bureau of Pastures and Field Crops). |
7s.6d. |
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The Use and Misuse of Shrubs and Trees as Fodder... (1947). |
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(Published jointly with the Commonwealth Bureaux of Pasture and Field Crops and Animal Nutrition) |
9s.0d. |
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The Establishment of Vegetation on Industrial Waste Land. R. O. Whyte and J. W. B. Sisam. |
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(Published jointly with the Commonwealth Bureau of Pastures and Field Crops) |
10s.0d. |
Orders should be sent to the Publishing Manager,
COMMONWEALTH AGRICULTURAL BUREAUX
FARNHAM ROYAL, BUCKS. ENGLAND.
1951: Yearbook of forest products statistics
Fifth Yearbook of international forest products statistics to be published by FAO. It contains 1950 official information on production and trade and revised data for 1949, as reported by more than one hundred countries and territories in reply to a standard questionnaire.
The statistical tables are preceded by a short text which gives some salient features of the 1950 world situation. World and regional figures given here include estimates for non-reporting countries; in the statistical tables, the totals are for reporting countries only.
This Yearbook provides the most consistent and useful body of international forest products statistics now available. The tables cover the following topics:
· ROUNDWOOD
Total Output
Sawlogs & Veneer Logs - Trade
Pulpwood - Trade
Pitprops- Output & Trade
· PROCESSED WOOD
Lumber, Plywood, and Sleepers -
Production - Consumption - Trade
· WOOD PULP, NEWSPRINT,
PAPER AND PAPERBOARD,
AND FIBERBOARDS
Production - Consumption - Trade
· WORLD TRADE - Summary
Volume of Imports and Exports
Value of Imports and Exports
· COMPARATIVE DATA
Forest Products Balances
Per Caput Consumption
of Forest Products
Forest Areas
1951 YEARBOOK OF FOREST PRODUCTS STATISTICS. published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Bilingual: English-French. With Spanish supplement. Paper bound. 8½ X 11 in Rome. Italy, Price US $2.50 12s 6d.
ROMA, 1952 - SOC. TIPOGRAFICA CASTALDI
