308 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



storms ; systematic air patrol may be very important for a few weeks 

 at a time when a smoke blanket renders fire detection from station- 

 ary lookouts on mountain peaks ineffective. From selected points 

 an" average of from 25 to 50 flights yearly would be an important 

 adjunct to the other available means of controlling fire on the 

 national forests. 



It is therefore highly desirable that some way be found, if possible, 

 to resume the cooperation with the Air Service of the Army under 

 which aerial patrol was formerly maintained in parts of the West. 

 This, however, must probably await the time when the fiscal situation 

 of the Government admits of special provision for meeting the ex- 

 penses involved. 



In the expenditure of the improvement appropriation in recent 

 years pronounced preference has been given to protection facilities. 

 By sacrificing other improvements less urgently needed, the tele- 

 phone system so important to fire control has been brought up to a 

 total of 28,896 miles, leaving only 8,599 miles of additional line 

 needed to provide a reasonably adequate communication system for 

 fire purposes. With the regular improvement appropriation this 

 can be cared for fairly well, although the necessity for repair and 

 reconstruction is creating a growing burden. 



But little headway has been made, however, in the construction 

 of fire-lookout houses. No form of administrative control will keep 

 a man as continuously at his post as he should be if, while on his 

 peak searching for smoke, he is exposed to the wind and chill of a 

 high elevation or if his shelter on the peak is so small that he has to 

 do his cooking and sleeping at a cabin some distance below. Years 

 of experience have evolved a standard type of lookout house which 

 enables lookouts to serve effectively as the eyes of the fire organiza- 

 tion. One hundred and ninety-four such houses are now in use, 

 but 224 are still needed for primary lookouts. 



PROTECTION OF PUBLIC FORESTS FROM INSECTS. 



The extent to which valuable timber may be killed by forest in- 

 sects and the feasibility of preventing enormous losses through the 

 application of proper control measures have both been thoroughly 

 demonstrated in the large insect-control project in southern Oregon 

 and northern California mentioned in last year's report. Tlie work 

 on this project is now about two-thirds completed. It has been con- 

 ducted, under the leadership of the Bureau of Entomology, as a 

 cooperative project between the various bureaus of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment having jurisdiction over Government owned or con- 

 trolled lands in the region, the State of Oregon, and the owners 

 of private lands. The work so far donfe has saved timber to a value 

 of many times the expenditure for protection. Personal inspection 

 of the work convinced me that it had been conducted efficiently and 

 economically, with a fair distribution of the cost between the vari- 

 ous owners of the property protected. The Government's share was 

 financed out of a special appropriation, the unexpended balance of 

 which should be reappropriated in order to finish the task. 



Insects menace both publicly owned and privately owned timber 

 throughout the country, and heavy losses of stumpage are not in- 

 frequent. The danger is especially acute in practically all of the 



