REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AaRICULTURE. LI 



the most serious of all hindrances to the progress of practical forestry 

 in this country. Public interest in forest matters is just now not only 

 keener and wider than at an}- time heretofore, but it is growing' with 

 a rapidit}' altogether without precedent. To fail to use this unequaled 

 opportunit}' for the protection and preservation of our forests would, 

 1 believe, be of the nature of a real misfortune. 



Until the past year the requests which came to this Department for 

 working plans originated altogether from private sources, and they 

 were, as I have said, far more numerous than the resources of the Divi- 

 sion of Forestry could meet. During the past year not onl}" have the 

 requests from private owners of forest lands continued in undiminished 

 number, but the work of the Division in this direction has been recogf- 

 nized by official requests covering enormous areas of forest land. The 

 most important of these came from the Secretary of the Interior in the 

 form of an application for working plans for the whole area of the 

 national forest reserves. This lirst step toward the introduction of the 

 principles of forestry on Government forest land was heartily seconded 

 by this Department, and in spite of the fact that the Department of 

 the Interior was unable to bear any share of the expenses, preliminary 

 examinations of several reserves were undertaken, and the preparation 

 of a working plan for the Black Hills Forest Reserve was begun in the 

 very early spring. This working plan was pushed forward vigorously 

 during the summer, completed as to field work in the late autumn, and 

 will be entirely finished during the coming winter. It will give com- 

 plete and explicit directions for the harvesting of the forest crop in the 

 Black Hills in such a way as to perpetuate the supply of native timber, 

 without which the enormous mining interests of this section must suffer 

 most severely. 



The second official request came from the Forest, Fish, and Game 

 Commission of New York in the form of an application for working- 

 plans for the whole area of the New York State Forest Preserve — about 

 a million and a quarter acres in extent. Work was begun in June on 

 township 40, which includes Kaquette Lake, and the completed work- 

 ing plan will be submitted to the commission before the close of the 

 present calendar year. 



The total requests for working plans amounted, at the end of the 

 last fiscal year, to .51,192,714 acres, of which about two and a half mil- 

 lion acres are for private lands. It should be noted that all of the 

 working plans hitherto put in operation by the Division of Forestry 

 have been continued, in most cases under greatly improved circum- 

 stances, and in no case with any loss of efficienc3\ In addition to the 

 official work above noted, personal examinations were made during the 

 year of 48 tracts in fourteen States, covering 878,670 acres; working 

 plans were prepared for 200,000 acres, and 50,000 acres were put under 

 management. 



