FOKEST SERVICE. 333 



By the post office appropriation act of June 19, 1922, Congress 

 authorized a forest-road appropriation of $6,500,000 for the fiscal 

 year 1924 and an equal amount for the fiscal year 1925. Of the 

 $6,500,000 authorized for the fiscal year 1924, only $3,000,000 was 

 directly appropriated. However, the Secretary of Agriculture was 

 authorized to apportion the remaining sum of $3,500,000 and to 

 incur obligations against this apportionment. 



This constitutes a departure from the previous policy of Congress 

 in appropriating for forest roads and trails. The intent of the 

 legislation is to reduce the amount of undisbursed balances while still 

 permitting work to proceed on the same scale as if the entire $6,500,- 

 000 had been directly appropriated. In effect, the total of $6,500,000 

 is guaranteed, but of this only $3,000,000 is made available for 

 actual expenditure. While it is possible to carry the work on for a 

 limited period under this installment method of making appropria- 

 tions by drawing in the balances from all road funds in the States 

 where construction has proceeded slowly for one reason or another, 

 it is evident that sooner or later either supplemental amounts must 

 be appropriated outright or the scale of work more than cut in half. 

 This will actually come about not later than July 1, 1924. By that 

 date no further road projects can be programmed or contracted un- 

 less additional appropriations taking up substantially the authoriza- 

 tions carried by the act of June 19, 1922, are made. 



MAPS AND SURVEYS. 



Forty-three maps of individual national forests on various scales 

 were compiled and drafted by the Forest Service and printed during 

 the fiscal year for administrative use. A number of forest maps 

 were also used for recreation folders, which, with printed informa- 

 tion and fire precautions on the reverse side, are issued to the public. 



More rapid mapping and surveying of the national forests would 

 greatly assist in fire detection and protection. Approximately 60,- 

 000,000 acres — about 33 per cent of the gross area of the forests — 

 are sufficiently well surveyed and mapped to afford adequate assist- 

 ance in planning and organizing fire protection, leaving 67 per cent 

 of the area greatly in need of further surveys. Of the 146 forests, 

 47 are entirely without surveys which can be classed as good, 49 

 forests have less than 50 per cent of their area covered by good sur- 

 veys, and the remaining 50 forests have from 50 per cent to 100 per 

 cent of their area covered by adequate surveys. 



RESEARCH. 



TIMBER-GROWING INVESTIGATIONS— FOREST EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



Only by intensive management on all the forest lands in the United 

 States can timber production be increased sufficiently to meet our re- 

 quirements. The wolf will not be driven from the door until four 

 times our present growth of wood is secured. Forest investigations 

 are necessary to develop the technical practices by which this can 

 be done, and forest experiment stations are the cutting edge of the 

 investigative organization in this field. They have a very concrete 

 part to perform in the program of national forestry — to increase our 



