104 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



ries, would of itself absorb the wbole present force of this Division for 

 many years. To prepare working plans for the New York State For- 

 est Preserve, of a million and a quarter acres in extent, is a far smaller, 

 yet, from the point of view of the resources of this Division, a gigantic 

 task. In a similar way the section of economic tree planting finds it 

 impossible to meet the demand upon it for practical cooperation with 

 tree iilanters throughout the treeless West and for the study required 

 to make the experience of past planting available for guidance in the 

 future. So also the section of special investigations is checked by the 

 lack of funds in its attemjDt to bring about a reduction in the number 

 and destructiveness of forest fires and to acquire information of crit- 

 ical necessity to the best management of our forest resources. 



When to all this is added the various other work of indispensable 

 importance which overwhelms the three field sections, and the severe 

 strain upon the section of office work involved in the multiplied cor- 

 respondence and in the elaboration of results, it becomes still more 

 evident that the Division of Forestry is being held by its inadequate 

 resources far below the measure of service which it ought to render, 

 and for which the demand is already of the most insistent kind. 



There is no subdivision of agriculture dealt with by this Depart- 

 ment which approaches the forest in the amount of its contribution to 

 the material welfare of the conntr}' or in tlie money value of its prod- 

 ucts, and none which is in such pressing danger or in so imperative 

 need of agitation and i)ractical Avork. 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RESULTS. 



During the year applications were received for working plans for 

 48,078,44:9 acres, personal examinations on the ground were made of 

 2,103,670 acres, working plans were begun upon 1,325,000 acres, plans 

 were completed for 179,000 acres, and 54,000 acres were put under 

 management. In accordance with the request of the Secretary of the 

 Interior, the preparation of a working i^lan for the Black Hills Forest 

 Reserve was begun as the first step toward conservative lumbering 

 on the national forest reserves. The working plans already in oper- 

 ation under the sui^ervision of this Division were all continued, and 

 the character of the work was in nearly all cases much improved. 



Planting plans were prepared for 59 land owners in 11 States. A 

 unique and most promising study of the effect of forest cover on the 

 flow of streams was begun in southern California through the courtesy 

 and cooperation of the Arrowhead Reservoir Company of San Bernar- 

 dino. Studies of forest fires were made in 26 States, and the grazing 

 investigation requested by the Interior Department for the national 

 forest reserves was inaugurated. Working plans were also begun for 

 the New York State Forest Preserve. 



The investigations of the growth and reijroduction of commercial 

 trees were continued and extended, and the studies in the historj^ of 

 forestry i^roduced important results, now ready for j)ublication. A 

 report upon the Big Trees of California was prepared for the Senate 

 Committee on Public Lands and was printed as Senate Doc. No. 393, 

 Fifty-sixth Congress, first session. A complete compilation of the 

 laws relating to forestry in all the States was finished, and will shortly 

 be submitted for printing. In addition to the reprints from the Year- 

 book, 5 bulletins and 1 circular were published during the year, with 

 a total circulation of 89,000 copies, and more than twice as mau}^ 

 papers were awaiting editorial revision at the end of the year. Of 



