January 11, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

73

NATIONAL FORESTRY SCHEME.

National afforestation, both as a measure of war
precaution and as a means towards national improve-
ment and social benefit, is strongly urged by the
Forestry Sub-Committee of the Reconstruction Com-
mittee. Their report, just issued by the Ministry of
Reconstruction, considers the problem intimately from
both these points of view.

It is shown that afforestation, when left to private
enterprise, as it has been for the most part in Great
Britain, has little chance against other employments
of capital. The return is too long delayed. But con-
sidered as a national investment, the case for afforesta-
tion, both on the grounds mentioned and on financial
grounds, is well-nigh unanswerable.

The Committee recommend a scheme of State plant-
ing, which in an emergency would keep the United
Kingdom independent of imported timber for three
years on a present day war basis of consumption. The
total cost for the first 10 years would be about
£3,500,000, allowing not only for the direct cost of
afforestation, but for all incidental charges for adminis-
tration, education, research, etc.

Against this expenditure must be considered not the
financial return on the capital, which, though certain,
would be distant, but the sum that it has cost us
during this war through the enormously enhanced
prices of imported timber. During 1915 and 1916
alone we paid £37,000,000 more than its pre-war
value for the timber we imported. “ Such a sum,”
say the Reconstruction Committee, 1 i would cover
several times over any possible loss which could be
incurred on a well-conducted afforestation scheme.”

More important from a war point of view than cost
was the amount of tonnage absorbed by these imports,
which the report states at 7,000,000 net tons of
shipping, equivalent to approximately 14,000,000 tons
dead weight. We may be less fortunate in a future
war. We have greatly depleted our existing woods to
supply the urgent needs of the moment, and the greater
part of our imports of timber come from foreign
countries with which we might be at war. The propor-
tion got from the Empire fell from 22 per cent, in
1899 to 10 per cent, in 1913. The practical utility of
afforestation at home is proved by the fact that 90 per
cent, of our imports are the soft woods of coniferous
trees which could be grown in this country.

The Reconstruction Committee estimate that there
are not less than three and probably more than five
million of acres of land utilised for rough grazing, but
capable of growing first-class timber of the same char-
acter as that imported. Of this area, two million acres
could be put under timber without decreasing the home
production of meat by more than 0-7 per cent., and it
would ultimately give employment to at least ten times
the number of men now employed by grazing.

The scheme which the Committee recommend pro-
poses to afforest 1,770,000 acres. Taking 80 years as
the average rotation, two-thirds of the whole should
be planted in the first 40 years. From the 15th year
onwards the scheme would begin to provide pitwood
from the quicker-growing species on the better kinds
of mountain land. By the 40th year the plantations
made in the first 10 years alone would contain enough
timber to keep our pits supplied in emergency for two
years at the present rate of consumption. The total
cost for the first 40 years may be £15,000,000. After
that time the scheme should be self-supporting. The
whole sum involved is therefore less than half the
direct loss incurred during the years 1915 and 1916
through dependence on imported timber.

The report points out that if the Government should
wish to employ the maximum number of men dis-
charged from the services during the period of demobi-
lisation, the rate of planting might be greatly speeded
up. The Committee propose that at least 150,000
acres of the initial 250,000 should be planted by direct
State action, and that for the remainder (left to local
bodies and private land owners) there should be State
assistance and control. “We do not believe (says the
report) that State afforestation means expensive and
inefficient action. On the contrary, we have the long
experience of all the countries in which afforestry has
reached a high pitch of development, and the pro-
mising methods of management in certain of the Crown
woods of recent years, to prove the opposite.”

The Committee’s scheme of State control and
management is to create a special authority, a
Forestry Commission represented by a Parliamentary
Commissioner in the House of Commons. The Parlia-
mentary Commissioner would be appointed by the
Government of the day in the same way as the Parlia-
mentary Ecclesiastical and Charity Commissioners.
He would answer for the Department and would prac-
tically be its Minister. The Commission would consist
of six members, three of them whole-time salaried
officials, the others unpaid. There would be consulta-
tive committees for England, Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland.

For carrying out the scheme, forest officers, foresters
and foremen would be required, and would have to be
trained. Forest officers would be inspectors engaged
on survey, planting plans, supervision of planting, and
advisory and experimental work. It is estimated that
the service would require 60 officers by the fifth year
of operation. Probably 20 reliable men with a good
knowledge of British conditions would be available
at the outset. These men would have to be university
trained, and the standard necessary is that repre-
sented by a good honours degree in science.

The foresters would be in charge locally of planting,
and the foremen would work under them, four to
each forester. Foresters and foremen would be
trained in forestry schools after leaving the secondary
or continuation schools at the age of 18 or 19.

It is recommended that the Forestry Commission
should undertake the general control of forestry educa-
tion, and should maintain “ demonstration woods ” for
practical work.

The increase of population on the land under the
Committee’s scheme would be considerable. It is esti-

mated that it would result ultimately in the settle-
ment on the soil of not less than 25,000 families, or
125,000 persons in all. This in itself, observe the
Committee, would be a national asset of no mean
value.

In its 70 foolscap pages, the report forms a complete
survey of the whole subject, and a digest of all the
information that has been gathered in many years by
Royal Commissions and expert private bodies.

But the necessities of war govern the whole report
and are never lost sight of. A few passages may be
quoted from the general summing-up of the military
case for afforestation : —

“ So far as timber is concerned, the surprises of the
war have been the immense amount of wood consumed
by military operations and the scarcity of ships to
carry it. Through the lack of sufficient reserves of
its own, the United Kingdom has been compelled to
continue the importation of timber on a very large
scale. It has done so at a heavy loss.”

11 We have, to speak plainly, run risks against
which every other considerable country has long taken
care to protect herself.”

11 The country has ultimately been thrown back on
its own timber resources, and it can only be accounted
as a fortunate circumstance, unlikely to recur in a
future war, that the nation was able to draw for so
long—even at great pecuniary loss—on other countries
for supplies of a material vital to the conduct of
hostilities.”

“ The war has disclosed no demand which could not
have been satisfied by timber grown in this country,
with its favourable soil and climate and abundance of
waste land.”

“It is only a question of time before the whole of
the country’s growing timber which is fit for commer-
cial use must disappear. The result is a depletion
which the Government cannot afford to neglect. This
country, poorer in timber at the beginning of the war
than any other European country except Portugal,
will be more destitute still at its close. Even if every
acre felled is re-planted, it will be many years before
the present output can be repeated.”

The Sub-Committee point out that, among other
advantages which may be expected from the adoption
of an extensive national scheme of afforestation are
‘the following: —

(1)	That, without encroaching on land capable of
cultivation for the production of food, there are
between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 acres of land capable
of growing timber of the same class and quality as the
greater part of that which has hitherto been imported.

(2)	That, with only a proportion, namely, 2,000,000
acres, of such land afforested, we should, in from 50 to
60 years, be largely self-supporting in the matter of
timber, both for military and commercial purposes,
and to a great extent independent of imported timber.

(3)	That this would result in: —

(a)	The retention of money at home for expendi-
ture on a home industry of great importance.

(b)	The profitable utilisation of very considerable
areas of land in this country now almost entirely
unprofitable.

(4)	That afforestation will provide employment for
an increased rural population, and that such popula-
tion will, during those months of the year in which
there is little demand for labour in forestry, but a
considerable demand in agriculture, be available for
agriculture and food production either on farms or
small holdings.

(5)	That the employment of a larger rural popula-
tion in these forms of industry under the best and
healthiest conditions will result in great benefit to the
general health and well-being of the nation.

The Minister of Reconstruction is now giving careful
consideration to the report, with a view to ascertain-
ing how far and by what means effect may be given
to the Sub-Committee’s recommendations.

MINERS AND MILITARY SERVICE.

Our Mining Correspondent writes that a good deal
of dissatisfaction has been caused among the workmen
in several of the coal mining districts in connection
with the “combing out” of men for military service.
An arrangement was made between the Coal Con-
troller and the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain
by which a large number of men of military age and
physical fitness were to be “ combed out” of the pits
for military service, the condition applied by the
Miners’ Federation being that the men 1 ‘ combed out ’ ’
were to be taken from those who had come into the
coal mining industry since August 1914. Under the
terms of this agreement, the managers of the collieries
have supplied to the Recruiting Department of the
Ministry of National Service the names of all the men
employed at the colliery who have begun their employ-
ment there since August 1914. These lists of names
have been treated as those of men who have come into
the industry since the outbreak of war; whereas many
of them are men who have been miners all their work-
ing lives, and have simply changed over their employ-
ment from one colliery to another. The coal mining
industry is one in which there is a good deal of indus-
trial change of this kind; and in some cases it may
be found that men have worked at as many as four
different collieries during the period of the war. The
men whose names appear on the lists have a right of
appeal, but men who regarded themselves as exempted
under the agreement have been either careless or
indifferent, and taken no action until they received
their calling-up papers. Then the trouble began. The
matter has been laid before Sir Auckland Geddes, and
steps taken to put it right. In those cases where men
have been called up, their position will be reviewed,
and if they had been employed in a coal mine previous
to August 1914 they will be released from military
service and return to the mines. In all other cases
the greatest care will be taken to see that the agree-
ment made is fully observed, and the “ combing out”
limited to men who have come into the industry from
other occupations since 1914.

TESTING AND MAINTAINING THE
EFFICIENCY OF DRILLS.

By H. H. Hodgkinson.

The New Jersey Zinc Company, Franklin, N. J.,
was among the first to realise that efficiency in mining
depends largely on supplying the men with efficient
drills—machines which will drill rapidly; whose air
consumption is low; whose maintenance is a minimum;
and machines which, when put to work, will stay on
the job. In the testing and development of drills, the
company has gone to considerable expense, and judging
from the results obtained, it has unquestionably paid to
do so. When a new type of drill is received, every effort
is made to get the best results in regard to drilling
speed and, air consumption that can be obtained from
that drill, and in addition the maker is given every
assistance possible in his effort to develop a drill to meet
the condition at hand. A drill testing plant has been
established at the mine, in an abandoned pump station
in the limestone hanging-wall. This white, coarsely
crystalline limestone makes excellent ground in which
to test the drilling speed of machines, having the advan-
tage of being more homogeneous than the ore, while at
the same time it has about the same drilling speed. The
roof and sides of the old pump station afford an ideal
place to test drills, making set-ups most convenient.
Compressed air is delivered to the station by means of
a 3 in. pipe, at an average pressure of 95 lb. per sq. in.
The apparatus used for testing the air consumption of a
drill consists of two tanks both of the same dimensions,
made by screwing blind flanges to the ends of a 12 in.
pipe and boring out and tapping the pipes and flanges
to make the necessary connections. The one tank
is equipped with two gauge glasses, upon each of
which a marker is placed at an interval of 34|in. The
other is filled with water by means of a | in. pipe, which
is fitted with an elbow plug to facilitate the refilling of
the tank when required. By means of a 1J in. four-way
valve, compressed air is supplied to the small receiver,
alternately from the two tanks. When the first tank
starts to supply the air, the second tank is full of water,
and the meniscus in the gauge-glass is at the lower
marker; as the air passes out of the first tank the water
in the second tank flows through a connecting pipe and
rises in the first tank until it reaches the upper marker;
in the meantime the volume of water which passed over
this tank has been displaced by an equal volume of
compressed air. The valve is then reversed quickly by
means of the lever, and the water gradually returns to
the second tank, the air displacing the water in the first
tank until the meniscus in the lower gauge-glass reaches
the lower marker, and so on. The water is coloured so
that the meniscus is clearly defined in the artificial light.
To facilitate the passage of the water back and forth
between the two tanks, the connecting pipe is 2 in.
in diameter, while the remainder of the piping is
1| in. The third tank is a small wrought iron
receiver, which. acts as .an equalising reservoir
and supplies air to the drill at a more constant
pressure and in addition catches any water in the
air, or water which might have possibly come over
from the first and second tanks in case the four-way
valve has not been closed properly, thus preventing the
water from reaching the drill. This tank makes it
possible to read the pressure gauge mounted at the
top of the tank more accurately, as the indicator of the
gauge does not flutter with each movement of the
valve of the drill, as would be the case if it were not in
the system. At the bottom of the receiver tank is a
small pet-cock to drain any water so that the volume of
the receiver is not cut down, in addition to keeping it
away from the drill. Another small pet-cock is pro-
vided for the purpose of raising or lowering the water
in the tanks to the markers in order to start a test.

By using these tanks in testing a. drill, the volume of
compressed air is kept constant for each run, while the
time, inches drilled and air pressure are the variables;
that is, five tanks of compressed air are supplied for a
run which is equivalent in this case to 11'38 cu. ft.
The time required by the drill to consume this amount
of air, the inches drilled and also the pressure in pounds
per square inch are recorded. A 1J in. raised centre
cross-bit is the standard used for testing purposes, and
the condition of the bit at the end of each run is noted
as being either fine, good, fair or poor. Good results
cannot be obtained when the drill bits are poorly
made.—Engineering and Mining Journal.

Pig Iron Output.—In 1913, Germany was producing pig
iron at the rate of 19,000,000 tons, and steel at a slightly
less annual rate, while Austria-Hungary produced about
2,300,000 tons of both pig iron and steel ingots in a year.
It is evident, says the Wall Street Journal, that the United
States to-day is producing as much pig iron as Germany,
Great Britain, France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary com-
bined, allowing for a falling-off in the production of both
France and Russia. In 1913, these four countries, together
with Belgium, produced 41,400,000 tons of pig iron. The
steel production was somewhat less. In 1916, the United
States produced approximately 39,435,000 tons of pig iron
and 40,400,000 tons of steel ingots. The 1917 output of
pig iron will be somewhat less, but the ingot output will
be 2,200,000 tons greater than in 1916. An output of
42,600,000 tons of steel ingots in a year indicates a total
production of 32,000,000 tons of finished roll products.
Early in the year there was a promise of a larger gain in
United States steel production, and had the railroads been
able to serve the steel companies adequately, furnishing an
ample supply of fuel, and had labour been efficient to the
full extent of its ability, the United States would have
contributed fully 10 per cent, more last year to the world’s
output of crude and finished steel. It is pointed out,
however, that at the present time it is more a question of
the ability of the manufacturers of the country to fabri-
cate all of the steel supplied by the mills than the total
tonnage of plain material available for both war and com-
mercial purposes. Canadian manufacturers are being
called upon to assist the United States in producing pro-
jectiles and also in the fabrication of steel for ship-
building.