98 ANNl'AL RF.PORTS OF DKPARTMKNT OF AORICl'LTI'RE. 



out the employment of other agencies than (he control of fires and 

 the regulation of use. At the estimated present rate of forest ex- 

 tension it will take about 50 years to comi)lete the process. Arti- 

 ficial reforestation must be employed on the other half, and will 

 doubtless also be employed to some extent, as the need for timber 

 supplies grows more pressing, to hasten the process of natural forest 

 extension. It may also be called for as the best means of reestab- 

 lishing the forest after lumbering on certain classes of cut-over 

 lands. 



The object sought in reforestation is not only the production 

 of timber for cutting, but also the improvement of stream-flow 

 conditions. 



The work of the year in artificial reforestation included both 

 seed sowing and tree planting. The seed sowing was applied on a 

 little more than 23,000 acres under a variety of methods. The tree 

 planting was applied on 2,000 acres with the use of nursery stock 

 grown in nurseries on the National Forests. Aside from the stock 

 furnished without charge to settlers in western Nebraska under the 

 Kincaid Act, the annual product of these nurseries will within 

 three years be sufficient, after providing for losses incident to the 

 various stages in the development of hardy seedlings, to plant 8,000 

 acres annually. 



On most of the National Forest areas which are in the greatest 

 need of artificial reforestation the work is exceptionally difficult. 

 Where the natural conditions are favorable, the Forests tend to re- 

 store themselves. Success in establishing a new forest growth under 

 semiarid conditions depends on the discovery of methods based on 

 careful experiment, and even so must always involve a certain ele- 

 ment of luck, due to the vicissitudes of seasonal variations. In a 

 certain sense, almost all of the work hitherto done is to be regarded 

 as experimental; that is, it is the process of w^orking out commercial 

 methods rather than the application of methods w^hich have been 

 reduced to a strictly business basis. The practical expediency of 

 reforesting any area as a wise business policy could be decided 

 only by balancing the probable cost against the probable benefits; 

 this Avould require a reasonably accurate estimate of the cost. The 

 object of the work which has been actuall}^ undertaken has been 

 rather to find out what the cost will be and to test the relative cost 

 and success of different methods. Considered as a business opera- 

 lion, the average cost has been high and the variation in cost has 

 l)een extreme. The practical value of the work lies in this very fact, 

 for results are being secured in the light of which future operations 

 may be directed along the best and most economical lines. 



In regions where the conditions are relatively favorable, as on 

 the west slopes of the Rocky Mountain and Cascade Ranges in the 

 Northwest, the results obtained justify operations upon a larger 



