Slasher Magazine Summary: Publication No. 72 – December 1953
The scanned images of the Slasher were produced by and courtesy of the Forest Research Data and Information Team staff based at Roslin, where some of the original copies are located. The Forestry England Information Knowledge Management Team and New Forest Heritage made available copies of The Slasher from their collections. Brian Mahony of the FC Retirement Association devised and coordinates the Slasher Project and has been instrumental in locating many missing editions and coordinating the searches to locate all the earlier publication numbers.
The content summary below was again very kindly compiled by Diane Birkett, Bedfordshire. See PDF attachment link below the text summary to view the full document. A total of over 420 issues or publications were produced between January 1948 and the final publication in 2010.
Pending Retirement of Director, Wales
Mr A.P. Long, the Director for Wales, who is to retire next May, will be succeeded by Mr G.B. Ryle, who is currently a Conservator on the staff of Director, England.
Mr Long, who joined the Forestry Commission on its inception in 1919 is one of the last remaining Forest Officers in Commission service of the small group credited for opening up operations by the Department. He obtained diplomas in agriculture and forestry at St. John's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became an Inspector with the Forestry Branch of the former Board of Agriculture. From 1916 to 1919 he was a Divisional Officer with the Timber Supplies Department of the Board of Trade and the Interim Forest Authority.
Mr Long served as a Divisional Officer until 1937, when he became Deputy Surveyor of the Forest of Dean. In 1940 he was appointed Assistant Commissioner for England and Wales and on the reorganisation of the Commission in 1946 became Director for Wales. Thus Mr Long has been responsible in very great measure for the large-scale development of forestry in the Principality and he is now in control of about a quarter of a million acres of land, of which some 140,000 acres have been placed under plantations. In 1952 Mr Long received the C.B.E. for his meritorious service.
Mr Ryle obtained a diploma in forestry at Oxford in 1922 and was appointed a District Officer with the Commission in 1924, being stationed at Bedford and reporting, originally, to Mr Long. He was appointed a Divisional Officer in 1936, with headquarters at Cardiff and then, during the war, he was seconded to the Home Timber Production Department, later serving for a time in Germany with the North German Timber Control. On his return to this country in 1947, he became Conservator for South Wales, transferring in 1949 to the Office of Director, England, where he is primarily engaged on private woodlands duties.
Covering The Waterfront With An Eye Cocked Skywards
Most of the staff know that no bulk imports of Christmas trees are allowed, because of the need to prevent entry of new pests and diseases of the Norway spruce and other conifers. However, a very few trees are brought into the country under special licence, for example the tree set up each Christmas in Trafalgar Square.
The conditions covering the landing, transport and ultimate destruction of imported Christmas trees are strict and include provision for inspection at the port of arrival, and the technical officers who cover the waterfront have some amusing experiences.
To begin with, nobody seems to know until the last minute when, or by what steamer, any particular tree will arrive. And even after the ship has been sighted off the harbour, not even its agents are certain in what dock it will berth. The docks of the Port of London, for example, extend for some 20 miles on either side of the Thames, so that the game of 'hunt the Christmas tree' becomes quite complicated. it usually travels as deck cargo and on being unloaded, it attracts the attention of the Customs. Meanwhile a very large lorry has been summoned as transport and Press reporters and photographers gather round, so that the inspecting officer may find the tree in the centre of an admiring crowd and surrounded by bales of paper pulp, rolls of newsprint, cases of eggs, casks of fish, and other miscellaneous Scandinavian imports. At some docks the inspector will notice that everyone has his head on one side with one eye cocked skywards. If he is wise, he will follow the general example, before the next load of Danish bacon drops upon him from an unseen crane! One Norwegian captain was so relieved to be free of an embarrassing deck cargo that he invited an inspecting officer aboard for 'schnapps' and 'smorgasbrod'.
Rejoicing Means Big Business
The custom of setting an evergreen Christmas tree at the centre of family festivities has given forest owners and nurserymen a very profitable, though strictly seasonal, sideline. On some estates, Norway spruce trees are grown especially for the Christmas market, but the Commission is in the business more or less by accident. The trees we sell, of course, are either the tops removed from thinnings or are surplus stocks from the nurseries that have been 'grown on' for a few years. Nevertheless, we rank as one of the principal producers - last year we disposed of nearly 550,000 trees, which brought in more than £95,000 to our exchequer. In the past, most purchasers would only look at Norway spruce, but today many people gladly accept other conifers as Christmas trees, though at a lower price. This is a welcome development, because it increases available supplies at a time when demand for Christmas trees is plainly rising.
Honours For Foresters
Two Head Foresters whose names appeared in the Coronation Honours List have now received their British Empire Medals.
Head Forester C.W. Redford, of Thetford Chase Forest, East Anglia, was presented with his British Empire Medal by the Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Cmdr. the Earl of Stradbroke, R.N. at a ceremony in the forest office at Santon Downham. Head Forester Redford was honoured for his part in organising and controlling Forestry Commission employees who volunteered for sea defence work, following the disastrous floods which occurred early in the year.
Head Forester A.N. Simpson, who has been continuously in charge of Tulliallan Nursery, in the West Scotland Conservancy for 32 years, received his medal from Lord Elgin, Lord Lieutenant of Fifeshire, on the occasion of the recent visit to Tulliallan of members of the Royal Scottish Forestry Society.
Enter The Pine Looper - Serious Outbreak At Cannock Chase
A serious outbreak of Bupalus piniarius, commonly known as the Pine Looper, has occurred at Cannock Chase Forest, near Birmingham, in the North West England Conservancy. As a precautionary measure, the Department has issued a statement, of which Dr Myles Crooke and Mr D. Bevan, the Forest Entomologists, are the authors, urging vigilance and the speedy reporting of any additional infestation and damage.
The Pine Looper is a serious defoliator of pine on the Continent, where it attacks trees sited on sandy soils in areas of low rainfall. The moth is of widespread distribution in Britain, says Dr Myles Crooke, but although it has been regarded as a potential menace, it has not hitherto caused severe damage in this country. Late this summer it was found that about 120 acres of Scots pine at Cannock Chase had been completely defoliated; the effects of the caterpillars' feeding did not become obvious until early September, though in the spring it was observed that badgers were turning over the needle litter in search of pupae, and the summer mass flight of the moths was seen.
The adults of the moths have a wingspan up to one and a half inches, the male being dark brown with white to yellowish white markings, and the female orange brown with darker brown markings. The eggs hatch within about a fortnight and are laid throughout the crown of the tree, clutches being placed in long rows on the needles. The effects of the feeding by the resultant caterpillars are first noticeable when a distinct browning of the foliage becomes apparent. Mass feeding is normally completed by early November by which time there is a complete absence of green, the brown remnants of the needles being lightly attached to the sheets or hanging from the twigs in long strands held together by the silk produced by the caterpillars. Feeding time over, the caterpillars spin down from the branches in silken threads or crawl down the stem of the tree and pupate just below the surface of the soil and litter.
The risk of the Pine Looper spreading is high, and while Scots pine will recover from a single year's defoliation, a high proportion of deaths in the crop can be expected should the attack continue for a second year; a third year's attack is invariably fatal for the infested plantations. Dr Crooke says experience on the control of the outbreak on the Continent is seldom effective, so that artificial controls, such as the use of insecticides, are necessary.
Unusual Nomenclatures!
At Headquarters are Messrs. Fagg, Wagg and Maggs (the last-named two officers occupying the same room) and Messrs. Stutter and Stammers who also share a room.
The Memorial at Clocaenog
In a file of old statements issued to the Press, this article was written nearly a quarter of a century ago.
"From a number of points on the road from Ruthin to Cerrig-y-druiddon, Denbighshire, North Wales, can be seen a stone pile in a dominating position on the moor which lies to the north. This pile, which stands at an elevation of 1,345 feet, bears an inscription that it was erected in 1830 to commemorate the completion of a large range of mountain plantations which skirted the base of the hill. The plantations have since been felled (during and after the 1914-19 war) and the land has passed into the possession of the Forestry Commissioners. By a coincidence, the Commissioners commenced the formation of Clocaenog Forest by replanting the felled areas in 1930, exactly 100 years later, and to record this fact a panel has recently been added to the memorial. In this way, in the centre of a forest which will eventually cover 9,000 acres, will be preserved what is believed to be the only memorial to the second planting of a forest area."
According to the record, it looks as though the area forecast was somewhat understated, for by September last, plantations at Clocaenog covered more than 8,500 acres and a further 3,000 acres of plantable land were in hand.
On Strange Coincidences
A colleague recalled how, one day in the street in Bristol, he bumped (literally) into a comrade of the Army which occupied Germany following the first world war - after a lapse of 22 years! They knew each other on sight.
Another recalled the occasion when, in younger days as a newspaper reporter, he asked the Editor to release him from a Saturday engagement, that he might go to the English Cup Final. No burying of grandmothers for him - just a plain statement that soccer was to be the order of the day. Came the match, and on taking his seat amid thousands, our friend sat down next to - the Editor!
Yet another coincidence related the peculiar experience of a former chief. In earlier days the gentleman in question was rubber-planting in Malaya or Borneo. On a Sunday morning he went to bathe in the river with another young planter, who rushed into the water without forethought - a dangerous thing in such parts of the world. There was an agitated splashing and a scream and then from the blood-reddened waters were recovered the remains of the impetuous bather, who had been seized by a stray crocodile. Not long afterwards, the surviving young planter was crossing America by train and, at lunch, sat by a woman in mourning - she proved to be the mother of the lad killed by the crocodile.
The Merits of Chopwell Wood - The Past in The Midst of The Present
District Officer S. Forrester says the much neglected and oft forgotten Chopwell Forest, or, as the local people call it Chopwellwood ranks with the Dean and New as one of the oldest Forestry Commission units.
Chopwellwood is, perhaps, not much to look at if you compare its 800 acres with the wooded tracts of the greater forests. But after leaving the open moorlands of West Durham and driving through miles of the industrial north east, it is heaven to turn out of a colliery village, up a steep bank, and find yourself in a woodland road with tall larch and beech on either side. After half a mile or so, you turn down through white gates and encounter a little country community, half a dozen houses and bungalows clustered around the forest office and buildings, with the two acre nursery over to your left. It is indeed an oasis. From here, you have a fine view to the south west up the Derwent Valley, where the Durham Hills and the Blanchland Fells form the western horizon. The sun perhaps, is setting behind the hills in a blaze of colour. To the south, a much wooded bank of the valley stretches up to a closer skyline, where the only sign of industry, a colliery chimney, peers down at you. To the east and north, the wooded slopes screen a view of the surrounding collieries.
As night comes in, there are tell-tale signs that this is not the depth of the country. An ever-present glow to the north-east tells of Newcastle only ten miles away. Periodically, a glare in the sky to the south informs you that Consett Iron Works is not so far off, and fortunate it is that the works themselves are hidden from view. True, you can see signs of the times throughout the woods. A colliery railway runs through the northern end, causing fires on occasions. Pitfalls are common everywhere, an air-shaft is tucked away in a clump of trees, and on one slope, some masonry speaks of the entry to a colliery drift, not so long abandoned.
Such is the background to Chopwellwood, whose history goes back to Norman times, and obviously it was a wood long before that. It is known that in the twelfth century the area belonged to the monks of Durham Priory. It was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that the woods became Crown property, "on the attainder for treason of one John Swinburne." The wood was the subject of various leases during the following two centuries, during which time the timber was progressively cleared. The long bridge at Berwick was repaired with oak from Chopwellwood and part of the harbour of that town was built of timber from the same source. Tanners in Newcastle were supplied with bark from the self-same trees. "The Sovereign of the Seas", later known as "The Royal Sovereign", was built largely from Chopwell timbers.
By 1800 the wood was divided into five farms with intervening belts of woodland; there are still signs of four of the farms, the names still surviving.
At the time of Trafalgar, one of the periodic scares about supplies of timber for Britain's 'wooden walls' led to the replanting of the area with oak, but this largely failed and the whole area was replanted between 1856 and 1859 with larch. The present crop consists largely of larch, Sitka spruce and beech, planted by the old Office of Woods from 1907 to 1918 and by the Forestry Commission from 1923 right up to 1951. Such is Chopwell, a part of the past in the midst of the present; a rural area in the midst of industry.
Newcomers
District Officer J.C. Voysey to N(W);
District Officer E.H.M. Harris to Education;
Foreman R. Adam to E(S);
Assistant Engineer A. Fasnocht to NW(E);
Clerical Officer F.J. Belshaw to S(S);
Clerical Officer H.J. Gidders to E(E).
Mr M.L. David has joined the Headquarters staff as Principal. He was formerly with the Central Land Board and War Damage Commission
Transfers
District Officer J.M. Gwynn from Cairnbaan, W(S) to Aberfoyle, W(S);
District Officer B.P. Grabasky from Aberystwyth to Narberth;
District Officer F.M. MacRae from Fort William, N(S) to Roy Bridge, N(S);
District Officer J.T. Wildash from Savernake, SW(E) to Cambridge;
District Officer D. Plant from Research to Lynford Hall School;
Forester W.J. Humphries from Nether Stowey, SW(E) to Gardiner, SW(E);
Forester R.S. Angus from Loch Katrine. W(S) to Ardfin, W(S);
Forester C.J. Lewis from Gardiner, SW(E) to Savernake, SW(E);
Forester E.R. Francis from Grizedale, NW(E) to Kershope, NW(E);
Forester J.M. Martindale from Low Dalby, NE(E) to Osgoodby, NE(E);
Foreman A.E. Harwood from Newton Nursery, E(S) to Culbin, E(S);
Foreman J.W. Barraclough from Mortimer, NW(E) to Corvedale, NW(E);
Foreman T. Fraser from Inchnacardoch, N(S) to Craig Nan Eun, N(S);
Foreman J. Scott from Strathnairn, N(S) to Farigaig, N(S);
Clerk of Works D. Bennett from Barcaldine, W(S) to Aberfoyle W(S).
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