254 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



i'an<i;e \vas improved. Similar results, tlu)ii<^h not always so marked, 

 are l)ein<; widely secured on the National Forest cattle ranges. 



At the Cireat Basin Experiment Station intensive investigations 

 have shown that removal of the herbage of range forage plants four 

 times in a season caused the yield to decline until at the end of the 

 third year most of the plants had heen killed. AVhere the herbage 

 was remo\ed but once or twice near maturity the yiehl increased with 

 each year and was many times greater. The vigor and root systems of 

 the plants were also markedly better. 



On many ranges full utilization of the forage is possible only by 

 grazing both cattle and sheep on the same range, but failure to adju.st 

 the ratio of cattle to sheep in accordance with the forage available 

 may have undesirable consequences. This subject will receive further 

 study. 



The work of eradicating tall larkspur by grubbing was further 

 extended. By the end of the fiscal year about 3,580 acres had been 

 grubbed at an average cost of $5.50 per acre, while 8,800 acres more, 

 where the larkspur was present in small quantities, had been cleared 

 at about 20 cents per acre. The total cost has been $19,930, of which 

 stockmen paid about one-half. The value of stock saved is estimated 

 at over $34,000 annually. Stockmen generally are willing to con- 

 tribute 50 per cent or more of the cost of eradicating poi.son plants 

 and in some cases are undertaking the eradication of their own 

 accord. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Twenty-three new publications were issued. The distribution of 

 Forest Service publications totaled 213,599 copies. About 111 ad- 

 dresses were made, mainly at expositions and upon request from 

 National Forest users, lumbermen's associations and similar trade 

 bodies, technical societies, and educational institutions. The distri- 

 bution of lantern slides and traveling exhibits was extraordinarily 

 effective this year, the number of persons reached being more than 

 six times as large as the year before. Lantern slides were loaned 

 to mo)'e than 417 persons engaged in educational work. These were 

 shown 1,095 times and to 70,898 persons. Additions to the lantern 

 slide collection totaled 1,627, and 101 bromide enlargements, 44 trans- 

 parencies, and 2,263 lantern slides were colored. Traveling exhib- 

 its of photographs, maps, drawings, and wood samples "were loaned 

 to 241 schools and libraries. Through sales, loans, and gifts 4,650 in- 

 dividual photographic prints were made available for outside illus- 

 trative purposes. 



More extensive use than eA'^er before was made of the Forest Serv- 

 ice librar}^ in Washington. Loans from it, more than two-thirds 

 of Avhich were periodicals, totaled 11,143, or an increase of nearly 

 28 per cent over the previous year. Additions to the library amounted 

 to 705 books and pamphlets bringing the total number on file at the 

 end of the year to 21,619. Several bibliographies were prepared, 

 the most extensive of which was one on Douglas fir, containing some 

 350 titles. Additions to the 162 field libraries of the Service brought 

 to 31,878 the books and pamphlets recorded in the main library, be- 

 sides numerous State and other publications not so recorded. 



