The items appearing here are condensed from newsworthy material collected by FAO staff or submitted by correspondents. FAO assumes no responsibility for statements and statistic in items accepted in good faith from contributors.
Argentina
· Among the objectives of the Second Five-Year Plan is the creation of a "national forestry conscience" through education in the primary schools, high schools and colleges all over the country. It has been decreed that all the educational institutions coming under the Minister of Education and situated in both rural, urban and suburban zones shall, providing space permits, set aside a section of their area for the establishment of tree nurseries, to grow the species most appropriate to the region. The trees so obtained are to be planted in the school grounds or, in agreement with the competent authorities, along neighboring streets and highways. Trees can also be distributed on request to persons who undertake to plant them on their own lands.
School directors are required to work out with local government officers schemes whereby pupils and teachers can co-operate in the tending of public parks and gardens. They have to appoint a member of their staff to keep in contact with the Administración Nacional de Bosques to assure co-ordinated action.
Australia
· In the past, the use of sawnwood for boxes represented a considerable portion of total sawnwood consumption in Australia and provided a market for timber which often could not be otherwise utilized. Because this use was known qualitatively to have declined seriously in recent years, it was decided to determine the actual position and to make a first investigation of the causes of the decline in the State of Victoria. The results are published in a report entitled Wooden Case Industry of Victoria issued by the Director-General, Forestry and Timber Bureau, Commonwealth of Australia. The substitution of sawnwood by boards appears quite strikingly. In 1952/53 the utilization of timber for eases was only 56 percent that of 1947/48. The decrease in the use of hardwoods was markedly great, the quantities utilized now- being only 36 percent that of 1947/48. Whereas in 1947/48 some 18.7 million v, wooden cases were used in 1959/53 it was only 10 millions. The price rise of sawnwood favored the use of corrugated paper and of board-whereas prices for board rose in the past six years by 63 percent, and those of boxboards rose by 95 percent. There remains, however, a number of commodities for which wooden eases are still preferred.
The investigation has shown that price, weight, appearance, ease of labelling, handlling, storage, assembly and filling, favors boards as raw materials, although strength and moisture resistance make wood superior. Some markets for wood have been permanently lost and there is a possibility that further markets may also be lost unless efforts are made to improve the quality and cheapen the cost of wooden eases and better satisfy users' requirements. Any research which is likely to halt the decline in the use of wooden eases and perhaps reverse the trend, is not only in the interest of the industry but also of forestry, as a large number of small mills, situated in regions where other forms of utilization are not practicable under present conditions, depend on the fabrication of wooden boxes.
Austria
· Human labor in forestry was for a long time neglected as a subject of scientific research, but during recent years work science has caught up and developed into a very considerable branch of the forest research tree.
The German-Austrian Society of Forest Work Science (GEFFA) celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1952 and assembled a large number of scientists from Central Europe. In a series of excellent papers, experts reported on the progress reached in this field of research, on equipment and efficiency of working techniques, training of forest workers and foremen, establishment of wage-scales, and human relations at all levels of man management. All these subjects are important in any forest operation, and because of the interest aroused by these reports, they have been printed and made available in the form of a handy publication entitled Forstliche Arbeitslehre and Menschenfuhrung, published by Fromme and Co., Vienna and Munich.
Belgium
· The Seventh Congress of the International Federation of Building and Woodworkers, held in Brussels in September 1954, gave much attention to the conditions of employment in forest and woodworking industries. The executive body decided that it would, in conjunction with the International Landworkers' Organization, try to arrange a world conference to discuss the problems of forestry workers. Forestry was at a disadvantage as compared with many other industries. The conditions of employment were so diverse in the various countries that it was impossible to take up a unified position in relation to working conditions. Accidents occurred much too frequently. It was essential that an examination be made, not only on the purely forestry side but also in the vast sawmilling industry that is associated with forestry.
Belgian Congo
· The advantages and disadvantages, in relation to local conditions, of the method of spaced-group planting (see Unasylva Vol. 7, No. 2 "Spaced-group planting" by M. L. Anderson) were discussed in a paper submitted to the Fourth World Forestry Congress. Possible advantages are considered to be:
1. reduced cost of afforestation compared with traditional methods2. facilitates the establishment of stands on poor, stony or degraded soil and on soil liable to erosion;
3. in the ease of mixed stands to be established on irregular ground, permits the choice of the best ecological conditions for each species;
4. possibility of wide spacing of groups to allow a vegetative cover for forest grazing:
5. facilitates stand conversion. A forest worked by clear cutting in patches, groups or strips can be reforested by the spaced-group planting method with one or two selected species to replace the original growing stock, and this artificial re-stocking can be gradually extended as the original forest is cleared.
British Honduras
· During 1953, it was possible to restate forest policy, laying greater emphasis than ever before on the necessity for forest reservation. A policy statement was approved be the Governor in Council, together with an outline program for forestry. The first of the immediate aims of the Forest Department is "to establish an adequate forest estate by the creation of new forest reserves on Crown land." Once an adequate forest estate is established, the aim must be to enumerate and stock map the areas with a view to licensing concessions for 20-year periods for sawmills working on a sustained yield basis; to prescribing maximum and minimum cuts with area control: and to achieving a much higher degree of utilization per acre than the present "creaming."
A third objective is to implement various afforestation schemes under the Development Plan, according to detailed working or planting plans aimed at
(a) the replacement of the present out of mahogany and cedar by planting and assisted natural regeneration;(b) the replacement of about three-quarters of the present out of pine by planting and protection of natural regeneration on limited areas.
Canada
· The Forest Club of the University of British Columbia is the publisher of a comprehensive Forestry Handbook designed specifically for field practitioners in the province. 'the major subdivisions of this workmanlike publication indicate the wide range of knowledge and skills which the forester needs to have at his command:
(a) the major standardized engineering practices;(b) the fairly well standardized sampling methods used in various kinds of inventories and surveys;
(c) control of fire;
(d) the identification and control of the forest insects and forest tree diseasies;
(e) the identification of the many important tree species;
(f) knowledge of the various systems of forest classification worked out by the experts;
(g) knowledge of the basic silvicultural systems and accepted measures for appraising results;
(h) methods of planting and recommended practices for different species and types;
(i) the determination of rotation, allowable, cut, etc.. and the technical processes which have been evolved for each;
(j) the technology of the principal species;
(k) logging safety and first aid;
(1) practices relating to the ownership and disposal of Crown land;
(m) the accepted scale and grading methods applied to cut timber;
(n) the many growth and yield tables which have been prepared.
Information on all of these, together with well-selected statistics on forest industries, information about forestry organizations and businesses, and various standard conversion factors, are covered in the book. The authors recognize that improvements and changes will be desirable in subsequent editions, and revision about every four years is contemplated.
· During the past decade Douglas fir plywood has become recognized as a v valuable structural material, having special properties making it desirable for certain forms of use: and design methods, taking into account these special properties, have been developed by research institutions. The significant findings on design have been brought together by the Plywood Manufacturers Association of British Columbia and published in a Technical Handbook for Engineers and Architects, which deals with plywood design fundamentals, the design of built-up beams with plywood webs, and stress analysis of stressed skin panels with plywood covers.
· The Annual Report Highlights of the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests represents a most welcome departure from the usual prosaic and too often uninspiring annual reports of forest departments. It presents in concise narrative and pictograph form the outstanding achievements during the period. This is an interesting and understandable method of presentation which helps to create wider appreciation of the problems met with in promoting the wise use and conservation of the natural resources of lands, waters, forests and wild life, and the work involved in administering them, both from the standpoint of the need of today's citizens and those of tomorrow.
Ceylon
· Fifteen thousand young trees including seedlings from Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and United States were planted with ceremony during a "Tree Planting Week" in October last. The object of the campaign is to make the people more "tree conscious," encourage the planting of valuable timber species, and to counter illicit cutting of trees. The Ministry of Agriculture distributed Rs 30,000 among the 20 agricultural districts in the Island to be offered as prizes to foster the campaign.
Chile
· Plantations of radiate pine (Pino insigne) exist at present from the province of Valparaíso (at 32°40'S) to the province of Llanquihue (at 42°S). However, by far the most suitable region is the so galled "Conceptión region" comprising the seven provinces of Maule, Linares, Ñuble Concepción, Bío-Bío, Arauco and Malleco, southwards from 35°S to about 39°S. The main plantations occur on the coastal part of these provinces and in the region of rivers Laja and Bío-Bío in Concepción, Bío-Bío and Nuble provinces.
Radiata pine prefers a climate with heavy winter rains. The annual rainfall at Concepeción is on an average 1,300 mm., of which about 80 percent occurs in the winter months, from April to August. Inland, in the central valley, the rainfall is somewhat lower. The temperature in this optimum zone ranges from an average maximum of 20°C in January to an average minimum of 8°C in July. In winter the temperature often goes below freezing point, sometimes reaching -8°C.
The plantations have been made chiefly on poor, dry and sandy land, partly flat, as around Yungay, but mainly on hilly, high lying tracts on the coastal Cordillera, where the many steep slopes are liable to erosion. Many of the plantations are on land which has been cleared from natural forests and was for years planted with wheat, but became eroded. Thus Pino insigne has been an important weapon in erosion control.
Plantations may be readily established by planting, the principal method, or by sowing or seed spotting. After the first clear cut, it has been found that natural regeneration is strong and easy. The planting is done during the rainy winter, from May to August and mainly small plants, sown the previous spring, September-October, are used. At present about 2,500 plants are planted per hectare.
Planting is mainly done by private initiative but the Government has created several nurseries, supplying plants at low prices. The plantations have 30 years' tax exemption, which naturally has greatly encouraged planting activity. Many of the plantations belong to privately-owned farms or to companies. However, the numerous planting societies have planted large areas and sold "parcelas" of one hectare to anyone interested in investing his money in "safe and profitable" pine plantations. Credit up to five years is usually granted and the common opinion is that this "savingsbank" method has been of considerable importance in forming the existing large radiate pine plantations. In addition, considerable areas have been planted by government controller institutions, such as the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (CORFO), by the numerous social security "Cajas" which are very important and characteristic in South American e countries, anti by the Chilean Forest Service. (Sec also Unasylva Vol. VIII, No. 4 "Radiata pills in Chile.").
Colombia
· The University "Jorge Tadeo Lozano" in Bogota has established a Faculty of Indo-American Natural Resources. It is intended to train technical experts to preserve, develop and exploit the large natural resources of the country. Upon completion of their training, these men will be in a position to undertake the organization of centers for the development of agricultural and related industries, and for the propel utilization of wastelands, forests and water resources. The Dean of this Faculty is the Chief Forester of Colombia.
Cyprus
· A recent number of Forest Treasures, issued by the Cyprus Forestry Association, contains the following open letter from the Conservator of Forests to all members of the public who intend to pass through the forests this summer:
"You are cordially invited to visit and enjoy our forests this summer. They are yours to enjoy but they are also yours to protect. As you ride or walk through their welcome shade anti picnic in their beauty spots, please remember that a moment's carelessness on your part may destroy them or cause irreparable damage. A cigarette-end, a match, the embers of a camp fire or even a piece of broken glass exposed to the sun, may cause a forest fire which can turn a whole green hillside or valley into a barren waste that will take many years and much e capital to clothe again with trees. and may even remain an ugly, eroding sear for ever."
Finland
· Three national surveys of the whole country have been carried out in Finland, the first in 1921-24. the second in 1936-38 and the third in 1951-53. From the material gained in the second survey, it was possible to assess the loss of forest resources to the country in 1944 through the cession of territory to the U.S.S.R. This amounted to 3.2 million hectares of forests with a growing stock of 190 million cubic meters and an annual growth of 4.9 million cubic meters.
All inventories have employed a method of combined line and sample plot survey. The third survey was helped by aerial photography. Some data from the new inventory have been published in the Communicationes Instituti Forestalis Fenniae, from which the following figures have been taken:
Greece
· This translation from the Critias of Plato (427-347 B. C.) has been widely reproduced in forestry periodicals:
"Thee are mountains in Attica which can now keep nothing but bees, but which were clothed, not so very long ago, with fine trees producing timber suitable for roofing the largest buildings, and roofs hewn from this timber are still in existence. There were also many lofty cultivated trees, while the e country produced boundless pasture for cattle.
"The annual supply of rainfall was not lost, as it is at present, through being allowed to flow over a denuded surface to the sea, but was received by the land in all its abundance, and stored in impervious clay -and so the drainage of the heights could be discharged into the valleys in the form of springs and rivers with a great volume and a wide diffusion. The shrines that survive to the present day on the sites of extinct water founts are evidence for the correctness of my present argument."
Mexico
· A poster contest was recently held in Mexico on the subject of "The Tree and its Role in Mexican Life" as part of a nation-wide tree planting and conservation campaign. The Under Secretary for Natural Resources, in presenting the awards, said that forests were unquestionably one of the greatest heritages of the nation and therefore to be protected by all sections of the public. He thanked the participants in the contest on behalf of the Government for this valued co-operation towards "the conservation of our forests."
New Zealand
· For a long time forestry, the timber trade and wood users generally in the country have felt the need for a journal devoted exclusively to their interests. The New Zealand Timber Journal and Forestry Review has appeared to meet that need. In establishing this journal, the first publication of its kind in New Zealand, the dominating motive has been how best to serve forestry and timber, and all their allied interests, The new monthly is designed to provide a medium for supplying foresters, saw millers, timber merchants and timber consumers with information about themselves and their activities; to develop circulation among all wood users, but especially builders, architects, local bodies, Government departments and trade circles, to achieve a high standard in technical and trade contributions: to become all open forum for frank discussion of problems to serve the industry with the most up-to-date news and statistics; and, finally, to assist the timber industry wherever possible in the fields of promotion, publicity and public relations.
FINLAND NATIONAL FOREST RESOURCES. 1921-1953
|
|
1921 - 24 |
1936 - 38 |
1944 |
1951 - 53 |
|
Forest area (million hectares) |
|
|||
|
TOTAL |
25. |
24.8 |
21.7 |
21.8 |
|
Northern part |
11.4 |
11.3 |
10.1 |
10.1 |
|
Southern part |
13.8 |
13.5 |
11.6 |
11.7 |
|
Productive forest |
20. 1 |
14.6 |
17.1 |
17.3 |
|
Growing stock (million m3 incl. bark) |
|
|||
|
TOTAL |
1 588 |
1 560 |
1 370 |
1 491 |
|
Northern part |
544 |
534 |
483 |
513 |
|
Southern part |
1 048 |
1 026 |
887 |
978 |
|
Pine |
777 |
706 |
624 |
652 |
|
Spruce |
480 |
503 |
441 |
532 |
|
Birch |
290 |
295 |
257 |
273 |
|
Other species |
41 |
65 |
48 |
34 |
|
less than 10 cm. at breast height |
223 |
-119 |
.. |
189 |
|
10 to 20 cm. |
659 |
717 |
.. |
614 |
|
20 to 30 cm. |
523 |
482 |
.. |
535 |
|
30 cm. And more |
183 |
142 |
.. |
153 |
|
Annual growth (million m3 excl. bark) |
|
|||
|
TOTAL |
46 |
46 |
41 |
45 |
|
Northern part |
10 |
10 |
9 |
10 |
|
Southern part |
36 |
36 |
32 |
35 |
|
Annual growth per hectare (m3 excl. bark) |
|
|||
|
All reports |
1.85 |
1.85 |
1.9 |
2.0 |
|
Productive forests |
2.2 |
2.2 |
2.3 |
2.5 |
Northern Ireland
· In an attractive illustrated pamphlet issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Northern Ireland, it is stated that forest policy is governed by three principal factors.
1. There is the compelling need, which two world wars have so painfully demonstrated, to reverse the centuries-old process of deforestation and create home-grown timber resources equal at least to emergency requirements.2. There is the need, no less compelling, to provide productive work in rural areas of serious unemployment, the existence of which not only impoverishes the areas themselves but, by causing a drift to towns and overseas, accentuates the social problems of the whole country. Afforestation projects in these areas (which are predominantly marginal land) offer an ideal solution by providing a source not only of immediate employment but of future national wealth.
3. Though private planting can contribute usefully to the solution of both these problems, under present economic conditions any such contribution can inevitably do no more than touch the fringe, and the principal share of direct action must therefore be taken by the State.
The program which has resulted from these considerations of policy and which is now being carried out is the creation within the next fifty years of a total area of 150,000 acres (61,000 ha.) of productive State forest, with a sustained yield roughly equal to the present level of consumption of timber, some 30,000 standards annually or 5 million cubic feet, of sawn timber (141,000 m3.). This great enterprise is made feasible by the feet that the demand is overwhelmingly for softwoods, which will grow on lands that cannot economically carry stock or crops. In former days, when the demand was for hardwoods for barrel staves, charcoal and shipbuilding, forestry and agriculture were in competition for the same type of land, as useful hardwoods will not grow well on poor land. But now forestry and agriculture, so far from being in competition, are complementary to each other - the new plantations providing wood for use on the farms, shelter for beasts among the open hill tops, and generally priming the pump of agricultural well-being in areas where the poverty of the soil has only too often resulted in the impoverishment of its occupiers
Philippines
· The First Philippine Forest Conservation and Reforestation Conference was held in Manila on 30 September and 1 October 1954. The President of the Philippines called this conference and entrusted its organization to the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, as a valuable step towards finding ways and means for the orderly utilization and proper conservation of the country's forest resources.
Some excellent papers were contributed to form the basis for the open discussions. 'Pine main titles were:
Necessary balance of forest cover by Valentin Sajor, Chief, Division of Forest Investigation;Logging systems under sustained yield management by Felipe R. Amos, Director of Forestry;
Forest exploitation in relation to forest conservation by Carlos Sulit, Chief, Administrative Division, Bureau of Forestry;
Physical protection of the forest by P. San Buenaventura, Chief, Division of Reclamation and Reforestation;
Reforestation with public funds by José Viado, General Inspector of Reforestation Projects;
Reforestation through private initiative by José Mapa Gomez, President, Sugar Planters Association:
Educational campaign for forest conservation by Luis Serrano The Manila Times, and Roberto Villanueva, Manila Chronicle.
H. G. Keith, FAO Technical Assistance Officer, drafted a statement on the nation's forest policy for discussion by the conference.
Sweden
· In 1935, the Boliden Mining Company started to manufacture the Boliden Salt Wood Preservative. At that time there were seven or eight creosoting plants in Sweden treating wood for the big industrial consumers, but the high cost of the equipment precluded the establishment of small scale plants to serve the small consumer. Salt treated lumber, which is clean and odorless, can find many uses where creosoted wood cannot be used, but the potential market could not be tapped until a new and less expensive type of plant had been developed which was cheap to construct with relatively unskilled labor. Such a plant was designed by the Boliden Company consisting of the following units: a treating cylinder, pressure cylinder and air compressor; dissolving, mixing and storage tanks for the treating solution, and a few pipelines and valves. The simplicity of the equipment made it economical for even small wood industries to build their own plants, with the result that the use of treated wood was considerably extended.
The original salt put on the market in 1935 was a mixture of arsenic acid, sodium arsenate and sodium bichromate, which was then mixed with a solution of zinc sulphate. This solution produced a chemical reaction leaving precipitates of insoluble chromium and zinc arsenates in the fibers, but had the disadvantage of also producing some soluble sodium sulphate. In 1949, two new salts were put on the market, in one of which some of the zinc and in the other all of the zinc, was replaced by copper. These ingredients resulted in a complete absence of any soluble salt in the treated wood. Wood so treated is particularly suitable for constructions exposed to humidity, such as fencing, silos, water - pipes and drinking troughs, and has proved a satisfactory building material in tropical countries.
The largest construction of salt treated wood in Sweden is the flume of the Hjälta Power Station. There are now 63 treating plants working in the country and most local timber dealers carry treated wood in stock. The Boliden company is developing new and improved salts.
Switzerland
· Wood research societies were established in Germany (DgFH) and Switzerland (LIGNUM) early in the thirties, and in Austria (OeGH) after the second world war. These societies have devoted their combined energies to timber production research and utilization in an effort to bridge the gap between research and its application.
As the problems of forestry and wood utilization in these three countries are in many ways related, mutual exchange of ideas has proved very valuable, and their second "Three-Country-Meeting" was held in Switzerland, 20-25 September, 1954. The meeting was organized by LIGNUM in two separate parts, each dealing with a major problem of wood utilization. The first part, held in Lucerne, consisted of a symposium of papers on the question of how to increase the timber yield. As the capacity of the wood-working and, in particular, the sawmill industry in all three countries has, generally speaking, been extended beyond the available sustained raw material supply, increased timber supplies are of major concern to primary consumers. The papers presented on research in the field of forest productivity were supplemented by field trips to nearby forests where modern equipment and methods for improved timber harvesting were demonstrated in action. The meeting also provided an opportunity to visit the 1954 Swiss National Exhibition of Agriculture, Silviculture and Horticulture, which was held currently at Lucerne.
The second part of the meeting, which took place at Biel, was devoted to the problems posed by the ever increasing trend to substitute structural timber by other materials. Delegates and guests visited the up-to-date Swiss Woodworking School, founded in 1952 as a training and education center for timber technicians, sawmill managers, carpenters, and other woodworking executives. Timber experts from the three countries contributed a series of papers on problems and new developments in the field of timber engineering, wood technology, utilization of timber for interior finishing, etc. The meeting concluded with visits to particular examples of timber engineering, such as wooden bridges, market halls, etc. and some modern wood-working factories.
United Kingdom
· Decay or timber in boats often necessitates extensive repairs and considerable expenditure, and is most serious in vessels that are laid up for part of the year or held in reserve. A recent publication, Prevention of Decay of Wood in Boats (Forest Products Research Bulletin No. 3l of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) describes the fungi responsible for this decay and the conditions under which they develop.
Decay is caused by wood-destroying fungi, living plants which feed on damp timber and through which their filaments actively penetrate, causing decay. The decay may be entirely invisible or may spread to the surface. Serious risk of infection occurs if wood for construction or repair is not properly selected and stored, and if pieces of wood which have already begun to decay are built into boats.
While pointing out that certain eradication of active decay is difficult and expensive, the bulletin outlines certain proved remedial measures as well as methods of preventing its development in new craft by the use of naturally durable timbers and modern wood preservatives. A table is included showing the degree of resistance to decay of timbers used or recommended for use in boat -building.
United States of America
· Experiments in growing shelterbelts in the northern Great Plains of the United States were started in 1914 by the United States Department of Agriculture field station in the State of North Dakota. Much work has been done, largely on a co-operative basis, in the Northern Plains region including parts of North Dakota, South Dakota and western Montana. A total of 4,070 plantings have been made to date with 12 deciduous species, 8 conifers and 8 deciduous shrubs on a wide range of sites varying in topography, exposure and soil type. During the 1930's, much shelterbelt work was done here and elsewhere in the plains area by the U. S. Forest Service.
Climatic conditions of the area are severe, with an average annual rainfall of 15 inches (380 mm.), maximum summer temperatures of over 100°F (38°C), minimum winter temperatures of -30°F (-34°C), and a frost free period of 130-135 days.
The main conclusions reached in analyzing experience to date are:
1. In selecting sites, slopes facing north or east are best and those facing south least desirable.2. The land should be left fallow the summer before planting and should he freed of all live sod.
3. Best species for the outside row on the windward side are Caragana arborescens, Elaeagnus angustifolia, Prunus virginiana and Lanicera tartarica. For interior rows, green ash, boxelder Siberian elm, American elm and ponderosa pine are best, for the outside leeward row, red cedar.
4. Plantings 5 to 10 rows in width generally give adequate winter protection and have a better chance of success than plantings containing larger numbers of rows.
5. Desirable spacing between rows is 12 to 15 feet (3.5 to 4.5 m.), and in the row 6 to 8 feet (1.2 to 2.5 m.).
6. Planting must be carefully done to avoid bending the roots, and trees must be set at proper depth and the soil firmly packed about them
7. Failures should be replanted the second year.
8. Clean cultivation should be done as long as it is possible to work among the trees without interference from the branch development.
9. All shelterbelts should be fenced to protect them against livestock, and a cultivated strip outside each belt is required to keep out weeds, persistent grass and fire.
10 If possible, all shelterbelts should he given additional water.
The methods and practices are generally well worked out, but it must be remembered that shelterbelts cannot be established and maintained without considerable work.
· The American Society of Range Management has in preparation a handbook on methods and techniques in range research. The main subjects covered include:
(a) methods of studying vegetation quantitatively and qualitatively by means of various sampling techniques;(b) methods of inventorying vegetation by density, range condition, and key species;
(c) assessment and control of ecological factors including climatic, edaphic, biotic and physiographic factors;
(d) methods of studying root habits and developments;
(e) forage utilization including palatability, preference and degree of use;
(f) types and breeds of live-stock for grazing trials, including species best adapted to a particular environment;
(g) general livestock procedures and management, including experimental design and methods of measuring the effect of procedure on livestock;
(h) experimental grazing;
(i) statistical estimates by sampling, with special reference to range management;
(j) patterns of experimental designs;
(k) economics of range research;
(l) possible studies of specific problems in range management.
The handbook, when completed, should bring together all useful modern methods and should lead in the direction of desirable standardization in range research.
The Journal of the Society continues to include articles on range problems in other parts of the world. Recent issues include papers on range management as a world problem, Argentine literature on range management, and grassland management in New Zealand.
· An FAO officer, who recently visited the new Tennessee pulp and paper mill of the Bowater Organization, describes it as the most up-to-date of its kind in the world. Initial capacity is 133,000 tons of newsprint a year and 55,000 tons of either unbleached or bleached kraft pulp for sale as pulp. Every day the newsprint output requires about 360 tons of pine groundwood and 120 tons of bleached kraft pulp, or, including that for sale, 310 tons. The daily consumption of chemicals amounts to approximately 20 tons of saltcake, 8 tons of caustic soda, 14 tons of lime and from 8 to 18 tons of chlorine, while water requirements account for some 25 million gallons (95 million liters) per day.
Steps are already being to increase output of newsprint to 150,000 tons, while a production level of 170,000 tons is foreseen in the next two years.
The mill, situated on an 1,800 acre (730 ha.) site alongside the Hiwassee River at Calhoun, is equipped with two 252 inch (640 em.) wide news machines designed for speeds up to 2,000 feet a minute (600 m.) and is operating seven days a week. For sheeting and drying pulp for sale a feltless wet machine and a hot-air dryer are used. About 800 people are employed in the plant itself, and about the same number are engaged indirectly in connection with pulpwood supplies.
Pulpwood transportation to the mill is by river barge, railway and truck, and among the species of southern pines which are used are Pinus taeda (loblolly pine), P. echinata (shortleaf pine), and P. virginiana.
A striking feature of the whole Bowater operation is the remarkable wood-handling and preparation plant, which is unique in conception. It centers around a huge artificial "wood pond" made of concrete and 500 feet (150 m.) in diameter. This circular storage pond, believed to be the first of its kind ever built, is so designed that 30,000 cords (77,000 me) of pulpwood may be kept submerged indefinitely in water. Such a system has obvious advantages in maintaining the moisture content of the logs and preventing their deterioration - a factor particularly important from the groundwood aspect. Sufficient timber may be stored in the pond to keep the mill running constantly for about six weeks.
In extensive forestry operations associated with maintaining supplies of timber to a plant of this size, the Bowater Organization is acquiring 200,000 acres (80,000 ha.) of forest lands in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama as its own timber reserves. Much land has already been acquired, which the company is in process of planting with pines. By the end of 1954 it was expected that nearly 10 million seedlings would have been planted.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
· A bound collection of reports and articles for the Fourth World Forestry Congress, written by Soviet scientists and workers in the field of forestry, includes a paper on Forests of the U.S.S.R. and their Management by V. P. Taseplayev of the Forestry and Shelterbelt-planting Administration. Ministry of Agriculture.
Writing of the state of forestry in the U.S.S.R. today, he emphasizes that the objects of forest management must vary from region to region because of the great variety of forest environmental conditions in the territories of the U.S.S.R. and the different stages of economic development reached in the various parts.
In the taiga zone, forestry must concentrate on producing for the timber needs of the national economy; on reforestation of out-over, burned and cleared areas; and on large-scale protection against fire. In the forest-steppe zone, besides the production of the maximum amount of wood that can be obtained under sustained-yield management, a basic task is to strengthen the protective role of the forests especially by restoration of forest cover on the upper reaches of rivers and on watersheds, as well as by favoring the formation of uneven-aged mixed stands.
In the steppe-zone, forests are primarily of importance in protection, and the task of forestry is to aid this function by appropriate silvicultural measures, including the rehabilitation of stands now of little value. New shelterbelts have to be widely planted in these regions together with protective stands in ravines, gullies and on sands as a protection against erosion and to enable sustained harvests of agricultural crops to be grown.
In the mountains of the Caucasus Central Asia and the Crimea, the value of the forests differs according to their location. In the high mountain regions of the Caucasus, the forests must both furnish timber and serve a protective function. In the resort areas of the Caucasus and the Crimea, the forests have mainly an amenity value, while on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, in moist subtropical conditions, forestry is directed towards the propagation of particular valuable species such as Eucalyptus spp., Quercus saber, Diospyrus sp., Juglans regia, as well as to ensuring the protective function of existing and newly-established plantations.
In the zone of deserts and semideserts of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the purpose of forestry is to preserve and extend the scrub of white and black saxaul and other shrubs (Calligonum caput medusae, Salsola richteri). This is attempted chiefly through control of grazing and by seeding from the air. An important task is the planting of new stands to consolidate bare shifting sands. In contrast, in the green zones around Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Leningrad and other cities and industrial centers, forestry is concerned mostly with preserving the amenity value of the forests.
Throughout the Union, forests are classified for management purposes into the following categories:
Group 1 comprises forests of state forest nurseries, protective forests in eluding shelterbelts and "green zones ", shelterbelt pine forests and steppe forest groups. Clearing is not allowed and cutting is restricted to regeneration fellings, silvicultural thinning and selective cutting of overmature trees. The same restrictions on cutting are in force in regard to shelterbelts along rivers railways and main automobile roads. Forests in this category are dispersed throughout the different regions of the country but predominate in the central and southern regions.
Group 2 comprises mainly the forests of thinly-forested (forest-steppe) areas and of the central regions, especially around the densely populated industrial centers. As a rule, these forests are worked on a clearfelling system but the cut must not exceed annual growth.
Group 3 includes all other exploitable forests, notably the abundant forest resources in the northern regions of the European part of the U.S.S.R, in the taiga zone of Siberia, and in the Far East. All systems of cutting are allowed.
The entire management of forestry in the U.S.S.R. comes under the Forestry and Shelterbelt-planting Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture of the U.S.S.R., headed by the chief of the Administration who is at the same time a Deputy Minister. In the various Republics, Forest Administrations of Ministries of Agriculture are established, the chiefs being simultaneously deputy-chiefs of regional (territorial) agricultural administrations. Leskhoz is a production unit directly subordinated to the forest administration in a region or territory, and on the average composed of five forest divisions.
To carry out the work of exploring, surveying and inventorying forests, there is the All-Union Aerial Photo Forest Organization (Lesoproyekt) which is under the direct control of the Forestry and Shelterbelt-planting Administration. The Forest Patrol and Fire-control Service also comes under the central Administration, as does Agrolesoproyekt which is responsible for the planning of new forests in woodless regions.
The administration of state forest nurseries, seed collection and storage, and the provision of seed and seedlings to collective farms is the responsibility of Glavlessempitomnik.
For about a quarter of a century, all forest exploitation in the U.S.S.R. for state needs has been controlled by the Ministry of Forest Industries of the U.S.S.R., which continues to be the main official body in charge of extraction operations and agencies.
