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.
FAO forestry and forest products studies
PATHOLOGY IN FOREST PRACTICE. D.V. Baxter. 2nd Edition 1952. pp. 601. Illus. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London. U.S. $7.50.
The present edition of this very comprehensive book on forest pathology includes much material new since the 1943 edition.
The incidence of disease is presented in relation to site and practice in nurseries, plantations, and in natural mature forests. There is an interesting discussion on relationship between fungi and other plant pests, and many practical notes on the care of shade and park trees. An important chapter deals with the handling and treatment of forest products, with regard to decay, stains and moulds, and other defects.
The new material, which shows the progress achieved since the first edition, includes interesting information on pole blight in the Northern Rocky Mountains, dieback of birch in New England, littleleaf disease of pine in the Piedmont region of the southeastern part of the United States. There is also new material on the use of DDT and 2-4-D, on virus diseases, on the use of preservatives, and chemicals to control stain and mould. A number of the illustrations are also new, including many excellent photographs and diagrams.
PROPERTIES AND USES OF TROPICAL WOODS - III. F. F. Wangaard and A. F. Muschler (Tropical Woods I June 1952). pp. 189. Illus. Yale University. New Haven, Conn. U.S. $1.25.
This report is the third of a series prepared under a research program of the Yale School of Forestry in co-operation with the U. S. Navy Department, to determine the basic properties of selected American tropical species. Reports I and II appeared respectively in Tropical Woods 95: pp 1-145, 1949 and Tropical Woods 97: pp 1-132, 1950; they describe the test procedures being employed and give the results for some 50 species of tests of specific gravity, mechanical properties of unseasoned woods, shrinkage, decay resistance, and airseasoning characteristics. Information was also supplied as to the source of the timber, its availability, and an evaluation of the present and potential utilization of each species.
The present report presents the results of tests of the mechanical properties of the same species in air-dry conditions, and brings up to date additional information which was not available in the previous reports, particularly with regard to strength properties of green wood. It also includes reports on studies of glueing, moisture absorption, weathering and steam bending for most of these species.
These three reports provide a valuable reference for those interested in the status of knowledge of tropical wood species of the Western Hemisphere and of the possible uses to which these species can be put.
SUR L'UNIFORMISATION PAR LE HAUT (UNE MÉTHODE DE CONVERSION DES FORÊTS SAUVAGES). C. Donis and E. Mandoux. Institut National pour l'Etude Agronomique du Congo Belge (I.N.E.A.C.). Serie scientifique No. 51. pp 77. Brussels, 1951. 100 (Belgian) francs.
This report is an interesting presentation of studies in the Belgian Congo to improve the composition, growth rate and age-class distribution in hardwood forests of the tropics. There are detailed descriptions of the topographic elements, studies of the soil, associated vegetation and light intensity, and comparison of these factors in relation to species composition, character of the regeneration, and growth of lianes and vines. Especially interesting is a description and discussion of the silvicultural measures followed on large experimental plots and on the results obtained. There are also brief comments on the application of the methods studied to large-scale programs for the conversion of tropical forest stands to greater yields of species with higher commercial value than exist in the original forest.
PRACTICE OF WILDLIFE CONSERVATION. Leonard W. Wing. pp. 412. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York. 1951. U.S. $5.50.
As wildlife conservation in the U.S.A. moved from the realms of exploitation, politics, perpetuation of bad hunting and fishing practices, rigid legal controls and the other familiar early stages into a partly scientific program, the growing need for trained men led to the teaching of wildlife management in colleges. At the same time, the need arose for already established foresters, range and farm managers and others dealing with land and water to know something of the effects of their normal practices on wild species and populations. A massive and growing volume of technical literature of widely varying quality came into being - little of it available to the college student or the land manager.
In this book, the author emphasizes early and wisely the biological basis of management, a science in which many managers and students are not well versed, and hence the reason for many past blunders. The techniques of field investigation and practice are also well developed.
Each of the major groups of birds and mammals - those of farm, forest and open range - have special characteristics, as has each of the main species, in general and individual habitat requirements, vulnerability to hunting, predation, disease and the like, and so effective management practices must vary for each.
Forest species of birds and mammals are greatly affected by different silviculture practices, and the author proposes measures that are unlikely to be welcomed by foresters; allocation of all but "first class" timberlands to wildlife and recreation, elimination of domestic livestocks grazing on winter ranges, modification of silviculture, perpetuation of openings, avoidance of one species stands, light cutting in small dispersed units. Emphasis on the practices helpful to wildlife is clearly desirable to balance the common concentration of managers on a single value of the forest.
Geographic groups and those defined in other ways - fur bearers, water fowl, non-game species, the rare, threatened and persecuted species are treated as well.
In the U.S.A., knowledge of laws of biology, management practices and the characteristics of species populations is incomplete preparation for the student or manager. A sometimes bewildering and occasionally uneasy division of legal powers has evolved between the sovereign States, the Federal Government and the landowner, adding greatly to the complexities of effective management, as well as the numerous Federal and State organizations dealing in one way or another with wildlife.
This book, based on sound knowledge of technical work done to date, and taking account of interrelations with the other and usually dominant forms of land use concerned with wildlife management, remains constantly aware of present difficulties. Moreover, it will help students to take a balanced and positive place in the future evolution of wildlife management as part of the general field of natural resource conservation.
AMERICAN RESOURCES. J. Russell Whitaker & Edward A. Ackerman. pp. 497. Harcourt, Brace & Co. New York. 1951. U.S. $4.50.
Most writing on natural resources deals with a single resource, reference being made to others inasmuch as they concern the main subject, or treats the destructive aspect of the whole field with too little attention to the constructive side. Many, too, are in textbook form or present difficult reading for the intelligent layman.
If it is accepted that conservation involves all resources and their essential unity, and that the rate of progress in conservation is dependent on informed public support, then clearly there is need for books such as this, which cover the management and conservation of all resources and which are comprehensible to the ordinary reader.
Such is the quantity of reference material and so great the diversity and relative importance of the different resources in the various areas of the U.S.A. that to give an accurate and even adequate account of the subject presents a formidable task. Technicians or others primarily concerned with forests, grasslands, water, or any other single resource may be disappointed at the compression in individual chapters - obviously required to deal with the whole in a single moderate-sized volume. Such readers will -find little that is new to them in their particular fields.
They will, however, find something above and beyond a mere compilation of authorities; the story of status and trends in use and abuse of each organic and inorganic resource; conservation measures, and whether and to what extent they are being applied; organization diagrams and charters of the many agencies dealing with natural resources are however omitted, since the authors have no panacea for the vexed problem of governmental reorganization in the fields of natural resources.
The opinions expressed are generally penetrating and discriminating, for example, in the little considered relations of mining to forestry. The authors hold firmly to the conclusion that regulation of private timber exploitation and further acquisition of forest lands unattractive to private ownership are necessary steps in forestry.
The authors' major contribution is "An American Citizen's Guide to Conservational Resource Management", an answer to the urgent but baffled question of the man in the street, "What can I do to help?" The ways are outlined; by personal elimination of waste; by stimulating and supporting prudent and effective governmental action and by applying social pressure against waste by industry and citizen alike.
This book deals primarily, but not exclusively, with one country, but other countries will doubtless find here a worthy example of one productive way to go about capturing the general public without whose effective support the best official plans will fail.
FORESTRY IN FARM MANAGEMENT. R. H. Westweld & the late Ralph H. Peck. (Revised edition 1951). pp. 340. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York. U.S. $5.00.
Much needed improvement of forestry on farms must come, in part, from an increase in the number of professional foresters who are trained in the particular methods, practices and controls applicable to the problems of farm owners to whom, generally, the forest is an incidental part of the whole property.
The publication of this second edition a decade after the first has been made necessary by the very large amount of new data accumulated as a result of research by many institutions and individuals, and by recent concepts of land use and their applicability to farm properties.
The problem of whether to deal with such subjects as protection from fire, grazing, insects, diseases, wild animals and climatic extremes as separate entities or not has been wisely solved by handling them as factors in improving and perpetuating farm forests along with such other elements as cutting, logging, soil preparation and slash disposal. The complete range of farm forest problems has been treated, including such aspects as measuring volume and growth, determining the most valuable products, marketing of products, best uses of wood on farms, managing for special products, etc.
Thus, as a teaching text the book is directed to the problems of the farm owner and to the methods and devices which the forester should know in order to be of service.
Planning a National Forest Inventory
A treatise an modern methods of taking a forest inventory, containing chapters on classification, map-making, aerial photography, sampling, etc. pp. viii + 88. Available in English, French and Spanish. Price $ 1.00.
Forest Policy, Law, and Administration
A thorough, lucid study of forest policy with reference to specific laws in various countries. Available in English and French. 211 pp. Price $ 2.00.
FAO Technical Committee on Wood Chemistry
The proceedings of the fifth meeting of the above Committee, held at Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S.A., in September 1951, will shortly be published in the Forestry Studies Series. In the meantime, the series of papers on Tropical Woods as a Source of Pulp presented at the meeting has been reprinted in the April 1952 issue of TAPPI, which is published monthly in the U.S.A. by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry. In an introduction, Harry F. Lewis, Dean, The Institute of Paper Chemistry, says "One of the important issues facing those interested in expansion in the manufacture and use of pulp and paper on a world-wide scale is the source of the fibrous raw material from which to make first the pulp and then the paper. Certainly the wood resources of the United States, Canada, and the western half of Europe cannot support in any permanent way a greatly increased industry, and the enormous wood resources of the U.S.S.R. are not available. It becomes necessary, therefore, to locate currently unused fibrous materials (and) define the possibilities inherent in the two greatest available fibrous reservoirs - namely, the tropical woods and the agricultural residues... It will quickly become apparent that the problems of the forester and pulp manufacturer have not all been solved."
Other Forestry Studies
Two other forthcoming publications in FAO's Forestry Studies Series are Elements of Forest Fire Control, and Grazing and Forest Economy. Both of these deal with aspects of forestry which are of world-wide importance, and the latter especially is of the greatest concern at present, when emphasis is being more and more laid on integrating the proper use of land to achieve the maximum output of food and of industrial products.
These two important books are already in course of production and should appear within the next few months.
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
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.
