This work is part of an extensive program of investigations, by various governmental agencies in Canada and the United States of America, into the cause of damage to birch in the forests of Eastern North America. Birch, once considered as little better than a weed tree, is now in great demand as the source of an increasingly popular and useful hardwood. This intensive utilization of birch wood could have revitalized the old hardwood industries of the east and might even have encouraged the establishment of new ones had not the source of raw material been drastically reduced by an insidious malady now generally known as birch ‘dieback’. Fullerton (1952) sums up the past, present, and future status of birch from the industrialists’ viewpoint in these words:- “A fact to be reckoned with is that birch wood has never been so much in favour or demand, for either industrial or decorative purposes, as at present. Once used mostly as fuel for home fires it now ... ranks among the high class woods of the world. Present demand for birch is for use in manufacture of flooring, interior house finish, doors, board lumber, veneer and plywood, furniture, tool handles, implements and body parts, and in recent years airplane frames. The shortages are not imaginary or artificial. New Brunswick, heretofore a heavy producer, is now buying birch from Quebec and Nova Scotia, but the latter province has itself a problem in getting the supplies it needs for its own use." [...]

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.