92 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



stock through i)redatory animals. Protection of the Forests against 

 destruction by insect infestations and tree diseases is in the long run 

 fully as important a technical problem as that of protecting them 

 against destruction by fire. In attacking it the Bureaus of Ento- 

 mology and Plant Industry are contributing to the administrative 

 work on the Forests. The Bureau of Plant Industry has also done 

 very valuable ^^'ork through studies conducted by its specialists in 

 order to learn how the forage crop may be increased through natural 

 revegetation of areas depleted by overgrazing and through artificial 

 reseeding, how losses of stock from poisonous plants may be lessened, 

 and how the carrying power of the range and the condition of the 

 stock grazed may be improved through modifications of the methods 

 of handling the stock. The Bureau of Animal Industry also has, 

 in cooperation with the Forest Service, materially assisted the work 

 of range management by checking the spread of contagious stock 

 diseases. 



FIRE PROTECTIOX. 



In my report of last year I gave an account of the disastrous fires 

 which took place in the summer and early fall of 1910, and discussed 

 the means of fire protection. The final figures of losses and total area 

 burned do not vary materially from the provisional estimates which 

 I then gave. The fires of the calendar year 1910 covered more than 

 3,000,000 acres of Government timberland and 800,000 acres of private 

 timberland within the National Forest boundaries, and inflicted dam- 

 ages to National Forest timber, including young growth, estimated at 

 a little less than $25,000,000. The loss in timber destroyed or dam- 

 aged was slightly over 6,500,000,000 board feet. In a single season 

 the losses exceeded the total of all former years since Government 

 protection of the Forests began. Compared with the calendar year 

 1909, the estimated money loss in 1910 was in the ratio of more than 

 50 to 1. In fighting the fires special expenditures were incurred 

 totaling over $1,000,000, besides the cost in time of the regular pro- 

 tective force. 



I pointed out a year ago that these extraordinary losses were due 

 to unprecedentedly unfavorable weather conditions, and were, con- 

 sidering all the circumstances, unpreventable ; but I also f)ointed 

 out that they were not beyond the possibility of prevention, given 

 the time and the means for building up a thoroughly organized pro- 

 tective system. Even the terrific fires of 1910 would, beyond any 

 question at all, have inflicted enormously greater losses upon private 

 as well as public property, and very likely much heavier losses of 

 life, had it not been for the protective work of the Forest Service. 

 The experience of the season of 1911 has shown that the fires of 1910 

 were not without their benefits. They furnished an invaluable test, 



