Items of Interest July 15, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

An application to buy all the bark of black birch on a large watershed in one of the national forests in the Southern Appalachians has been received by officers in charge, who say that the bark will be used by the mountaineers to make sweet birch oil, a substitute for oil of wintergreen. Sweet birch oil has been made in this country for many years, and is obtained from both the wood and the bark of the black birch. The oil is a product of steam distillation plants, where, in addition to the twigs, bark, and young sprouts of the birch, the entire tree is sometimes used. By primitive methods about twenty-two bushels of bark are used for every run, and it is said that this amount yields approximately four pounds of oil.

The forests in the East purchased by the Government are reported to contain large quantities of birch and are expected to become an important source of supply. The foresters say that the birch is not a very desirable tree in the southern mountains. It can seldom be sold for lumber, and it occupies ground which could support more valuable timber; consequently they are glad of an opportunity to dispose of it. The officials state that provision will be made to utilize the tree more closely than has been done in the past, and to regulate the cutting in such a way as to provide for a future supply.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has made public a plan of wide scope for insurance and annuities for college professors in the United States and Canada. The pension system which the foundation adopted when it was established ten years ago, and which has consisted largely in the granting of retiring allowances to aged professors in certain colleges, has, it is declared, been found "unsound," and it is proposed to do away with it. The faults of the present system and the features of the new plan were set forth in a report by Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, president of the foundation. While the new plan has not yet been adopted, the report in favor of it has been issued with the full authority of the trustees of the foundation, and some time during the year they will consider the question of putting the scheme into practice.

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