Items of Interest September 9, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

Secretary Houston of the United States department of agriculture has just announced the plan to be pursued in spending the $10,000,000 appropriated by the Federal aid road act for the construction and maintenance of roads and trails within or partly within national forests, and has tentatively allotted among the various national forest states the $1,000,000 which can be expended this fiscal year. The tentative allotments to the principal national forest states are as follows: Alaska, $46,280; Arizona, $59,795; Arkansas, $11,294; California, $140,763; Colorado, $62,335; Idaho, $108,010; Montana, $69,901; Nevada, $19,195; New Mexico, $42,622; Oregon, $127,794; South Dakota, $8115; Utah, $40,982; Washington, $91,739; Wyoming, $40,566. In addition, a total of $9552 has been tentatively assigned to Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Oklahoma, while the eastern states,—Maine, New Hampshire, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia,—in which the Government is purchasing lands for national forests, have been allotted $21,057.

One of the ranking industries of Spain is the cultivation of cork and the manufacture of cork goods. The raw material comes chiefly from Andalusia, Extremadura, and Catalonia, while the manufacture of cork goods is centered in Catalonia. The success of the manufacturer depends largely on his capacity to utilize all of the cork to the best advantage, and in Catalonia the machinery used is of high perfection. Besides bottle stoppers, cork discs, floaters for fish nets, and life-preservers, other articles are now being made of cork, such as hats for the gendarmerie of Spain, and three-cornered military hats. Cork waste is utilized in the manufacture of linoleum, an industry as yet not well developed in Spain, and accordingly much cork waste is exported. Cork in sheets and planks is made for building and floor coverings. Cork paper is an important branch of manufacture and is exported in large quantities. Fifty thousand metric tons is a conservative figure of the amount of cork produced in Spain annually. The industry affords employment to some thirty thousand operatives.

For exceptional natural power and storage advantages the Winnipeg River is probably unequaled in Canada and possibly on this continent. It drains an almost circular area of 53,500 square miles, dotted in all directions with innumerable lakes. The balance of the basin is fairly well forested, the precipitation is regular and well distributed, and the runoff is, in consequence, remarkably uniform season to season, the maximum high water in a normal year seldom exceeding four times the minimum flow. The principal result of the power and storage investigations can be briefly summarized by stating that it has been determined that a minimum flow of 20,000 cubic feet per second is feasible at all seasons, with an efficient and systematic control of the river run-off. It is possible to concentrate practically the entire unused river fall in Manitoba into seven economic power concentrations with a minimum output of 175,000 horse-power for a continuous twenty-four hour power production under present conditions of flow, and of 313,000 horse-power with a river regulated to a 20,000 second-foot minimum.

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