Items of Interest August 7, 1915 Issue

Items of Interest

As the result of experiments carried out by a Swedish paper expert, it has been ascertained that Argentina produces in abundance a tree which provides excellent raw material, better even in quality than that usually employed in making paper pulp in either the United States or Europe. This tree is the Araucaria imbricata. The United States minister of agriculture commissioned two government engineers to investigate and report upon the properties of this tree. These gentlemen recently presented their report, from which it appears that in the territory of Neuquen this tree is found over an area of more than two million four hundred and seventy thousand acres. Three and one half average trees suffice to produce one ton of pulp. Where news print-paper is concerned, two and one-half trees will provide one ton of pulp. The average value of paper and cardboard imported into Argentina during each of the years 1909 to 1914 is given as $5,000,000 gold ($4,825,000 United States currency), while in the same years the wood-pulp imports varied between $460,000 and $960,000 gold (between $443,900 and $926,400 United States currency).

The secretary of the United States department of agriculture has promulgated a set of regulations for administering the new law, which provides that national forest land may be leased for summer home sites and other recreational purposes in tracts of five acres or less for periods not to exceed thirty years. This law supplements the revocable permit system under which recreational use of the forests had already developed considerably. Many users have been unwilling to make substantial improvements because of the uncertainty of tenure involved in the old form of permit, which, however, is still expected to meet the requirements of persons who are not likely to occupy the land for more than a few years or to make elaborate improvements. Since permittees receive special benefits, it is regarded as only fair that they should reimburse the government for the expenditure incurred in administering the forests. The rates range from five dollars a year up, in accordance with the location of the land, the demand for it, and the use to which it will be put.

Officials of the Detroit United Railway have made public a letter which is being sent to the stockholders of the road recommending that they vote in favor of the proposed purchase contract under which the city will take over the ownership of the company's street-car lines in Detroit. The purchase price of the street-car lines and equipment is to be decided by the judges of Wayne county, in which Detroit is located, and it is reported that it will amount to more than twenty-five million dollars. The city's payment under the proposed contract shall be made to meet the mortgage debt of the Detroit United Railway so far as the purchase price fixed by the court shall extend toward that debt, and such payments are to be made out of the earnings of the lines, if the earnings are sufficient to meet the required amounts due.

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