FOREST NOTES 



Beginning June 7, the department of forestry 

 at Cornell will offer instruction during a full 

 summer term, in addition to the regular 

 winter terms heretofore conducted. The first 

 six weeks of the term, it is announced, will be 

 spent at Ithaca, and the remainder of the 

 time, up to September 22, will be in camp on a 

 large forest tract in the Adirondack mountains. 

 The courses offered form a regular part of the 

 specified work for professional students of 

 forestry in the college, though the courses will 

 be open also to those who have had three 

 years instruction at Cornell, or its equivalent. 

 The subjects include timber utilization and 

 measurement, silviculture, forest manage- 

 ment, and advanced research into various 

 other forest problems. Because of the advan- 

 tages of summer work, especially in a fully 

 timbered area such as the Adirondacks, 

 certain of the courses offered will be given 

 hereafter during the summer term only. 



In addition to the summer work in the 

 woods the students are required to spend the 

 ensuing fall in getting practical experience in 

 the logging woods, returning to Ithaca to 

 finish their college course in the spring. Those 

 who take graduate training for the degree of 

 master in forestry, must have an additional 

 summer term in the camp in the woods, and 

 then one more term at Cornell, to be graduated 

 in February- in time for the examinations for 

 the Federal Forest Ser\dce, or for the beginning 

 of spring activities in state or private employ. 

 The alternation of class room and laboratory 

 study with practical work in the field during 

 the final years at the University is believed by 

 those in charge of the course to offer a desirable 

 arrangement not only from the standpoint of 

 thorough instruction in forestry, but also it is 

 said to appeal to men seeking thorough 

 technical training. 



Secretary of Agriculture Houston has 

 completed an extensive tour of the National 

 Forests to find out for himself to what extent 

 their timber, forage, water power, recreational 

 and agricultural resources are being developed 

 for the public under present methods and to 

 make a study of the administrative problems 

 of the Forest Service. During May he visited 

 the forests in several of the Western States, 

 spending almost the entire time of his trip in 

 the wilds, seeking first-hand impressions of 

 the conditions under which the Forest Service 

 works. 



Conditions on the National Forests during 

 the summer are likely to be unusually arduous, 

 according to Forest Ser\4ce officials, in that a 

 dangerous fire season is indicated for many 

 of the forests bj' the abnormally slight pre- 

 cipitation of the winter. Unless the deficiency 

 is made up, the forests will be dry and in- 

 flammable earlier in the season than usual and 

 the water supply of many extensive regions 



746 



will be low. Numerous irrigation, reservoir , 

 and power projects are wholly or in part 

 dependent on National Forest protection of 

 watersheds, and it is beginning to be generally 

 understood that, aside from actual farming on 

 National Forest land, the agricultural interests 

 of the West are much concerned in the con- 

 servation of water supplies accomplished by 

 the Forest Service through lessened fire 

 damage and regulated grazing. In Southern 

 California the interest in maintaining a forest 

 cover on the mountains from which local 

 water supplies are derived is so keen that for a 

 number of years local funds have been raised 

 and paid over to the Department of Agriculture 

 in order to provide for more intensive pro- 

 tection than the federal appropriations make 

 possible. 



Under the methods employed in handling 

 the livestock grazing business of the National 

 Forests, agricultural development is benefited 

 not only through the prevention of injury to 

 watersheds but also through the opportunities 

 opened for ranch development. As new 

 settlers locate near the forests room is made 

 for their stock by cutting down, if necessary, 

 the number of stock allowed the larger per- 

 mittees. More than 16,000,000 cattle, sheep, 

 and hogs, including young stock, will find 

 forage this year on the National Forests. 

 The revenue from this source is expected to 

 exceed $1,200,000 in 1915. 



One of the difficult administrative problems, 

 now being rapidly worked out on the National 

 Forests is that of agricultural development 

 of land more valuable for farm than for forest 

 purposes. Extensive land classification has 

 been made possible by a special appropriation 

 of Congress for this purpose, renewed each 

 year since 1912. Up to date, about 16,000 

 agricultural homesteads have been listed within 

 the National Forests, opening to agricultural 

 development nearly 1,700,000 acres of forest 

 land. In addition, a certain amount of 

 agricultural development is provided for under 

 special use permits, where for any special 

 reason listing does not afford a practicable 

 means of meeting settlers' needs. 



More than 37,000 special use permits of all 

 kinds have been issued to the public since 1905, 

 granting free, or for a reasonable charge, 

 permission to conduct all sorts of enterprises 

 on National Forest land. They include 

 apiaries, bams, boat houses, botanical gardens, 

 cemeteries, churches, cottages, golf links, 

 hotels, mines, mineral springs, obser\'atories, 

 orchards, quarries, railroads, ranches, resi- 

 dences, restaurants, rifle ranges, roads, sani- 

 tariums, sawmills, slaughter houses, telegraph 

 and telephone lines, tennis courts, tramways, 

 tunnels, water power plants, wells, weirs, and 



