LII REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



COOPERATIA E WORK. 



One of the largest luanufacturers of agricultural machinery has 

 applied for a working plan for the tract From which his timber is to 

 come, and in cooperation with the Division of Forestry extensive techni- 

 cal forest work has ])een for the first time undertaken b}- a lumber com- 

 pany in the South. 



Practical cooperation with tree planters has been greatly extended 

 during the year. Field work began in September, 1899, and from 

 that time until the close of the fiscal year planting plans were made 

 for 59 applicants. The work extended from New York to California, 

 and from North Dakota to Texas, but it centered in the States of the 

 plains, where the necessity for wood lots, wind-breaks, and shelter 

 belts is very o-reat. Studies of the natural encroachment of trees upon 

 the plains were conducted in connection with the cooperative tree 

 planting, and considerable numbers of public meetings have been held 

 bj^ the agents of the Division engaged in tree-planting work. Careful 

 studies and measurements of the results of plantations already made 

 have formed one of the most useful parts of the work of the section of 

 economic tree planting, which is also engaged in a wholly unique 

 investigation of the relation of forest cover to the flow of streams in 

 southern California. Through the courtesy of Mv. H. B. Hedges, 

 engineer of the Arrowhead Reservoir Couipany, observations of pre- 

 cipitation, run-ofl'. evaporation, and temperature, uiade with complete 

 thoroughness and accuracy for a period of eight years, were placed at 

 the disposal of the Division, and strong hopes are entertained of valua- 

 ble results from the comparison of the run-oft' from various types of 

 cover. This Division is, with increasing frequency, receiving applica- 

 tions for planting and working plans for watersheds from which cities 

 obtain their supplies. A typical instance is that of the water company 

 of Johnstown, Pa., where one of the chief objects in view is to assist 

 in preventing the possibility of a recurrence of the great disaster. 



Cooperation with the United States Geological Surve}^ has continued, 

 and reports were completed upon two forest reserves and the field 

 work for two others was finished. In cooperation with the State geolo- 

 gist of Maryland an examination and report was completed for Allcr 

 gan}' Count^^ A short account of the Big Trees of California, with 

 maps and illustrations, was prepared for the Senate Committee on 

 Public Lands and afterwards reprinted as a bulletin, and an investiga- 

 tion was made of the forest on the watershed of Rock River in northern 

 Illinois, where severe cutting, coupled with excessive artificial drainage, 

 has very harmfully affected the regimen of the stream. 



THE EXHIBIT AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 



An exhibit was prepared for the Paris Exposition, illustrating the 

 relation of forests to agriculture in the United States. In addition to 



