Item of Interest September 4, 1915 Issue

Items of Interest

The area of the Chugach national forest, Alaska, which is to be crossed by the railroad that the government is building from Seward to Fairbanks, is reduced nearly one half by a proclamation, signed by President Wilson, returning approximately 5,802,000 acres to the public domain. This action follows classification of the land by the forest service showing that the areas involved are not of high enough timber value to warrant government protection, and means the largest elimination of national forest land ever made by single presidential proclamation. The boundaries of the forest as redrawn contain approximately 5,818,000 acres, supporting about eight billion feet of merchantable timber. On the area thrown out there is in the aggregate a large amount of timber, but so sparse and scattered as to be of little or no commercial value. The land remaining within the forest, however, contains the largest and most accessible supply of timber for the development of the great mineral fields to the north of Bering river, and is the region in which the Alaskan engineering commission has been authorized to cut 85,000,000 feet of timber for use in constructing the government's new railroad.

Lassen volcano, in California, spent most of its energy in its violent eruptions of last May, according to reports received by the forest service, and it is believed that there is little likelihood of further destructive outbreaks. Since the upheavals of May 20 and 22, the volcano has been under the observation of officers of the Lassen national forest, in which the peak stands. The investigations have confirmed the opinion that the recent eruption when a river of mud was blown out of the north side of the crater and down Hat creek with considerable damage to government and private property, was caused by the melting of the snow on the peak, the snow water running into the crater and being converted by the molten lava into steam. Although it is possible that the volcano is simply conserving its energy for another outbreak, the indications are, according to the government volcanologist on the ground, that no further eruptions are likely to occur, at least until next spring, when another influx of snow water may cause a slight disturbance.

The marketing of farm timber presents some of the difficulties, but in an aggravated form, that the farmer meets in selling other crops, says a forest service contribution to the year book of the department of agriculture, just issued. The farmer finds it hard to get enough for his timber. Most farmers now sell their saw timber on the stump to a mill man, such sales ordinarily being made for a lump sum. The mill man, experienced in estimating, goes through the woods and sizes up the quantity and value of the timber he wants. The owner, being a farmer and not a lumberman, seldom knows anything about estimating timber and has only the vaguest idea of what it ought to bring. The consequence of this condition is, that the farmer often receives only a small fraction of the actual market value of his stumpage.

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