Australia
Canada
China, Mainland
Cyprus
Denmark
France
Germany, Western
India
Turkey
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
United States of America
· A book to appear recently is The Eucalypts: botany, cultivation, chemistry and utilization by A. R. Ponfold, former Director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, and J. L. Willis, the present Director, and published by Leonard Hill (Books) Limited, London, and Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, pp. xx + 467. Issued in the World Crops series and thus emphasizing the important place in agriculture occupied by trees in this day and age, the book has, in addition to the 28 figures, 5 maps and 6 plates, a comprehensive bibliography, a subject index and an author index. All aspects of the eucalypts receive full treatment - biology, technology, anatomy, the classification of species varieties, and the utilization of products. The chapters on actual eucalyptus growing in countries where this species has been introduced from its native Australia are relatively less full in their treatment, a gap which may be filled from the information forthcoming on the occasion of the FAO Conference on eucalypts held in Brazil in August 1961.
· The Department of Forestry has in the past few years increased the number of French editions of its publications, so that at the present time there is a fairly comprehensive selection available. These can be made available to agencies in other countries, insofar as the supply permits. The list of titles may be obtained from the Department of Forestry, Ottawa.
· The forests of China by Wang Chi-Wu is the latest (No. 5) in the series of Maria Moors Cabot Foundation Publications (Botanical Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge 38, Mass., U.S.A. - Price 8 3.00). The book represents the fulfilment, of many years of study and thousands of miles of travel in little-known regions, and the writer has also made a valuable integration of the previous studies of a large number of different authors. No other first-hand report on the forests of continental China is likely to be available in English for some time.
· Cyprus became an independent republic in August 1960 but the existing forest policy and legislation remained unaltered. Ever since the establishment of the Forest Department in 1878, the Government has aimed at achieving certain definite objectives in managing the Cyprus forests. A formal declaration of forest policy was promulgated in 1950 when it was considered that the general public was ready to accept such a policy.
Reporting to the last session of the European Forestry Commission, the delegate of Cyprus explained that the Forest Department formed part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The internal organization of the department was set up into three territorial divisions, and five specialist divisions: management, research, utilization, education and engineering.
The minor state forests were recently surveyed and classified into a number of categories, depending on their proposed future use and they are still under the administration of district officers (previously called commissioners). The future status of these minor state forests will undoubedly form the subject of discussion and decision by the Government.
The extension service of the Forest Department encourages the planting of forest trees and it gives advice both for planting, tending and management of private woodlands free of charge. In some cases, the Department prepares simple working plans or plans of operation for private woodland owners. Legislation controls the felling of trees which are privately owned and provides for a licensing system whereby applications for tree felling we examined by the Forest Department and licences for tree cutting axe issued in accordance with the silvicultural requirements of the private plantation or forest under examination.
There is the closest co-operation between the agricultural and forest services and a combined effort is being made during Tree Planting Week to encourage private tree planting. No specific training courses are provided for private woodland owners but the Cyprus Forestry Association organizes tours for its members to the state forests where forestry operations are examined and discussed. The encouragement of private forestry through direct state subsidies is under consideration, as also the possibility of introducing a dedication scheme on the lines of that in force in the United Kingdom.
· The general motorization which has been developing during the last decade is now exercising a marked influence upon forest administration. First, motor transport has become usual not only for forest officers but also for rangers (and workers), enabling them to reach remote forests in a short time. Secondly, the introduction of power saws and other mechanized equipment has considerably reduced the number of workers employed, especially in broadleaved forests where, moreover, there is a tendency toward using full-tree logging methods and a distinct decline in local sales.
All this means that rangers, and in some cases also forest officers, can cover much larger administrative units, and a committee has been set up in the State Forests Department to consider these problems. It will probably recommend a gradual reduction of about 10 percent of personnel of district staffs.
· La conservation du matériau bois by Henri Mathieu, Ingénieur forestier D.P.E. (J. B. Bailhére et Fils Editeurs, 19 rue Hautefeuille, Paris 6e, France) is a reference manual which should be of widespread interest to all those promoting the use of wood in housing and construction. it contains a full section on processes, equipment and manufacturers.
· From 28 May to 8 July a seminar on forestry in tropical countries was held in Berlin, organized by the German Foundation for Developing Countries (Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsländer) in co-operation with FAO.
This highly successful seminar was the first to deal with forest development and planning in a series organized by the Foundation, which has been in operation for a year. It was attended by 29 senior foresters from Burma, Federation of Malaya, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Sudan and Thailand. Professor Week, Director of the Federal Forest Research Institute, Reinbek bei Hamburg, was in charge. G. R. Gregory of FAO was co-director, and his particular subject was forest economics in guiding forest policy and developing industries. Egon Glesinger, Director of the Forestry and Forest Products Division of FAO, gave the introductory lectures and three other members of the FAO staff assisted for short periods.
After the initial period of discussions at the Foundation center in the Villa Borsig, the participants dispersed on a three-week field tour in Western Germany, concluding with an "evaluation week" at Hanover.
· A leading U.S.A. pulp and paper company has signed an agreement with an Indian company to provide technical assistance and patent rights for the production of newsprint from bagasse. The proposed plant, for which the Government has already granted an industrial licence, will have an annual capacity of 60,000 tons of newsprint. The cost is reckoned at approximately U.S.$20 million.
The new process, which has been developed in collaboration with the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, is stated to represent a technological advance over existing methods for refining and pulping bagasse. The pulp itself has been manufactured in industrial-size digesters, converted into newsprint on standard newsprint machines without technical adaptations, and the finished paper has been run on modem high speed rotary presses. Its mechanical and printability performance was of commercial quality and no adjustment to the presses was required.
The attributes of quality newsprint are smooth surface, good opacity and good ink absorbency. With wood as the fibrous raw material these characteristics are obtained by grinding the wood against a stone or by the recent technique of treating wood chips in a disk refiner. It is apparently the latter method that has been successfully adapted for bagasse. The furnish is a mixture of chemical and mechanically-refined bagasse pulps.
· Of interest in view of the United Nations Special Fund project for the integrated development of the Antalya region, is that a southern forest research station under the Central Forest Research Institute was established in Antalya in 1958. Experiments started on two research forests and several experimental areas were established.
The main forestry problems of the Mediterranean region of Turkey are:
1. forest fires;2. forest grazing;
3. reforestation - selection of species to be used, seed, nursery and planting techniques;
4. afforestation - plantations of fastgrowing species (e.g., eucalyptus) and economically valuable species (e.g., cork oak), stabilizing and planting sand dunes; establishment of windbreaks;
5. watershed management and improvement; flood control; soil erosion control;
6. forest management practices;
7. accessory products (e.g., resin, cork, storax, etc.);
8. tree exploitation improvement studies of important species of the region.
Most of these problems are of common concern to all countries of the Mediterranean area, and the FAO Mediterranean Forestry Subcommission is attempting to work out a co-ordinated program of research, in collaboration with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations.
· An edition in Russian, edited by P. V. Vassiliev and P. B. Vipper, has been issued of World geography of forest resources, originally prepared and published by the American Geographic Society, and earlier reviewed in Unasylva. Translation into Russian slightly condenses the original text.
Material on forest resources in socialist countries has not been included in the translation on account of the availability of more recent and exhaustive data in Soviet literature. However, the introduction includes a rather comprehensive statement on basic economic data of forest and forest industry in these countries.
The final part brings out various conclusions reached in different parts of the book, and incorporates the editors' views on the future of forests and forestry.
There is an index of more than 1,500 names (in Latin and Russian) of species mentioned in the book, and an addendum to the original text gives a world statistical compilation based on recent FAO publications.
United Kingdom a There has been a considerable extension of the application of work study to logging operations by the Forestry Commission and it is reported that the following advances have been made:
1. substantial improvements in felling and logging tools used and their maintenance; and an increase in the use of power saws;2. a number of devices to minimize heavy lifting and heaving have been introduced; notably long-handled tongs for pulling down thinnings and a horse-drawn sledge based on a Swedish design;
3. an increase in the use of loading devices, notably hoists for loading logs, poles and pulp lengths;
4. introduction of the first regional piece-rate schemes based on time studies of sound working methods.
In mechanization, an entirely new system is on trial for the haulage of long logs by standard wheeled tractor, without using a timber arch or other supplementary vehicle. The object is to raise the butt ends of a trailed load of logs (so that the butts are clear of the ground) and to carry the load at a point forward of the rear axle of the tractor with the tips of the logs trailing on the ground. The load is thus carried on the driving wheels (where it assists wheel grip) instead of being carried on a dead axle (as is the case with a timber arch). Moreover, the tractor is easier to handle on the return journey as it does not have to trail an empty arch. A feature of the device is its ability to lift the load off the ground through the geometry of the hitch arrangement, so dispensing with the need for a tractor winch. The cost is substantially less than that of a timber arch.
· Research to determine how forests can be used to increase water supplies is to be conducted at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, over a five-year period with the assistance of S 100,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Members of the School of Forestry will undertake fundamental research to determine how the maximum supply can be obtained from ground water sources fed by watersheds through the use of forests as cover crops that collect and hold water.
In the humid eastern United States, urban building and highway construction have substantially affected ground water supplies, and the practice of impounding excess stream water in reservoirs, feasible only to the extent that the rights of landowners downstream are not infringed, has proved inadequate to the expansion of urban and industrial development and the intensification of agricultural production. The results of the research should have widespread application to hilly forested lands in the less well-developed agricultural regions of the world.
· Seven men of international repute in forestry and conservation were awarded 50th Anniversary Distinguished Service Medals during the golden anniversary celebrations in April 1961 of the State University College of Forestry, Syracuse University, New York. They included Frank H. Kaufert, Director, School of Forestry, University of Minnesota and Conrad L. Wirth, Director, National Park Service. The other five men have been closely associated with FAO. Richard E. McArdle, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, was given the award "for inspiring administration in public forestry," and Eino Saari, Professor of Forest Economics, University of Helsinki, "for devoted service to world forestry," I. T. Haig, who received the medal "for creative leadership in national and world forest science," was on the staff of the Forestry and Forest Products Division of FAO from 1951 to 1958. During the next two years, he was executive secretary of the organizing committee and later, Secretary-General for the Fifth World Forestry Congress. Recently, he has been appointed Carnegie visiting professor of forestry at the University of Hawaii for 1962/63.
George A. Hunt, who received the award "for inspiring guidance in forest products research," was formerly Director of the United States Forest Products Laboratory; since 1954, under the FAO technical assistance program, he has been special adviser to the Philippines Forest Products Research Institute and, on completion of his assignment recently, became the first American scientist to receive the Outstanding Achievement Award of the [Philippines] National Research Council for his studies on forest products utilization and for distinguished service in the establishment and development of the Institute.
Herman F. Mark, Director, Polymer Research Institute, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Now York, is Chairman of the FAO Panel on Wood Chemistry. He holds positions of leadership in world-wide scientific groups, and has received many international honors. His award was "for penetrating discoveries in polymer chemistry."
· Books lately received include the following:
1. BRAUNS, F. E. and BRAUNS, D. A. The chemistry of lignin, Supplement Volume, Academic Press, New York and London, 1960, 804 p., $18.00, a critical review of the literature published from 1949 through 1958.2. ISE, John. Our national park policy, Resources for the Future Inc., Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Md., vii + 701 p., S 10, which will be particularly well received now at a time when the social values of the forest are being increasingly recognized.
3. MACDERMID, W. (ed.). The use of chemicals in southern forests, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, La., contains the proceedings of the ninth annual forestry Symposium.
4. RASMUSSEN, Edmund. Dry kiln operator's manual, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington, which will be of most direct usefulness to owners.
5. ANDERSON, Roger F. Forest shade tree entomology, John Wiley and Sons, New York and London, 1960, 428 p., ill., $ 8.50, intended both as textbook and reference manual.
6. COOKE, Giles B. Cork and the cork tree (Volume 4, Botany, International Series of Monographs on Pure and Applied Biology), Pergamon Press, Oxford, England, 1961, 50s., which provides a single source for all important general information about cork oak and its products.
Two paperbound reprints issued by Dover Publications Inc., New York, are:
1. FROST, S.W. Insect life and insect natural history, 526 p., ill., $2.25, a revised edition of the author's General entomology which appeared in 1942, and2. PEARSONS Frances T. How to know the ferns, xiv + 215 p., $ 1.25.
