FOREST SERVICE. 417 



localities to which they are particularly adapted in order to further 

 build up the much-needed knowledge of methods necessary to the 

 effective prosecution of this work. 



The most significant feature of the investigative work will be the 

 extension of the system of local experiment stations to include addi- 

 tional forest types and regions. Since the termination of the fiscal 

 year such a station has been established in the exceedingly valuable 

 belt of white-pine timber in northern Idaho. During the next year 

 at least one additional station will be established, probably in the 

 northern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Further stations 

 are under consideration in Utah or southern Idaho and on the west 

 slope of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon or Washington, and will be 

 developed as soon as local administrative conditions make them 

 practicable. The development of a chain of stations of this character 

 for conducting intensive experiments in the various forest regions of 

 the country will be of the greatest value in reducing our knowledge of 

 silviculture to a more exact basis and will bring a greater return for 

 the cost than any other investment which could be made in investi- 

 gative work. 



In grazing studies the grazing reconnoissance of different Forests 

 wdll receive the greatest attention, and the energies of the majority 

 of the technical men will be concentrated on this class of work, it is 

 of principal importance, because it will establish a definite basis for 

 all future scientific investigations connected with the grazing of 

 live stock upon the Forest lands. "While the number of technically 

 trained men available for tliis class of investigations is not adequate 

 to meet the demands being made by the different districts, it will be 

 possible to complete reconnoissance examinations of several of the 

 most important and typical Forests, and so to train the rangers 

 assigned to the work that independent examinations by local forest 

 officers will materially supplement those by the men regularly assigned 

 to the work. While the grazing and lambing pasture experiments 

 upon the Wallowa and Cochetopa Forests ^^^ll be continued, they 

 will only receive the attention necessary to secure accurate data 

 showing the results secured by the permittees using them, there being 

 no further need for detailed and continuous observations throughout 

 the season. Continued attention ^^iU be given to the natural and 

 artificial seeding of depleted ranges, the natural regeneration of 

 certain important types of forage grasses, the study of the effect of 

 grazing upon forest reproduction, and the study of the effect of soil 

 acidity upon various species of important forage plants. 



In order to coordinate the investigative work conducted throughout 

 the Service and insure the thorough consideration of all plans of work 

 before it is undertaken, a central investigative committee will be 

 organized in the Washington office, consisting of the most proficient 

 members of the Service in this line of work, whose function wiU be 

 to exercise general direction and control of the various investigative 

 projects of all lands in the interest of thoroughness, proper correla- 

 tion, and the avoidance of duplication. The central committee will 

 be supplemented by field committees in each district exercising 

 similar duties within the district. A series of pubhcations dealing 

 with the progress made in the various investigative projects, current 

 data obtained at experiment stations, and the results of minor pieces 



23165°— AGR 1911 27 



