ITEMS OF INTEREST September 12, 1908 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The members of the forestry division of the National Commission for the Conservation of Our National Resources, appointed by President Roosevelt last June, have just returned from a trip to Germany, France, and Switzerland, where they have been studying forestry conditions with the idea of adapting some of the foreign forestry methods to our forests. The chairman of the committee says, "One of the best administered forests visited was that of Sihlwald, fifteen miles outside of Zurich, Switzerland. The city of Zurich owns the forests. It is the best managed forest in the world. One hundred years ago Switzerland and Germany were in the same position we find ourselves to-day. Their forests had been cut away and there was little timber to be had. The forest of Sihlwald costs for administration $16.50 an acre. The city of Zurich receives $28.25 an acre from the output of the forest every year. So the net profit to the city is $11.75 an acre. The net profit on our own forest preserves is not more than ten cents an acre. They take stock every year. They know exactly how many million feet of lumber are in each of the divisions. The roads through the forests are beautiful. The dead limbs are collected as they drop from the trees. On every Friday the poor people of Zurich are allowed to come into the forest and carry off the broken limbs in little packages on their backs. Nothing goes to waste. They find abroad that they have to keep the forests up for the sake of the rivers. We have got to do the same thing for our rivers."

The National Association of Audubon Societies has mapped out every section of the United States and organized a force of speakers to bring home to all the people the necessity of protection for the native land and shore birds. It is hoped that eventually the Federal and State Governments will establish bureaus to meet adequately the national need for economic bird preservation. Seven able ornithologists have been assigned to cover as many divisions of the whole country and establish local headquarters in this campaign. At a cost of ten thousand dollars a year these trained workers will be kept on tour till every community in the land has had the opportunity to hear the story of the wisdom and need of protecting the birds.

The Argentine Republic has become a rival of the United States in the world's beef market, supplying 7.1 per cent of the entire cattle stock of the world, against 17.5 supplied by the United States. The Argentine Republic ranges in latitude from about 22 degrees south to 52 degrees and has an area of about three hundred and twenty thousand square miles and a population of less than six million, while the United States has an area of over three million square miles and nearly eighty million people.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS