EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 99 



scale than in the past, although there is still need for intensive work 

 with investigation as its prime purpose. From the standpoint of 

 obtaining a maximum return from the expenditure involved much 

 further study is needed. Nevertheless, the loiowledge already ob- 

 tained justifies making a considerable start upon the actual work of 

 reforesting portions of the great area of denuded lands. As suffi- 

 ciently conclusive experimental results are secured the work will 

 be extended into new regions. 



One field in particular calls for early action. The watersheds of 

 certain streams used for municipal supplies or for irrigation are 

 in urgent need of improvement by the establishing of a forest cover 

 at the earliest possible time. While it would be improper to expend 

 large sums in attempting reforestation, even on such watersheds, 

 before methods known to be successful have been worked out, imme- 

 diate attention can be given to the betterment of a number of im- 

 portant municipal and irrigation water supplies. This work has 

 already been entered upon. 



The cost of the seed, nursery stock, equipment, and labor required 

 to reforest the 25,000 acres covered last year was about $134,000. The 

 Forest Service is now prepared to reforest 30,000 acres annually, 

 without asking any increase of its total appropriation. To divert 

 from other lines, which are essential for proper protection of the 

 Forests, and for enabling the public to use them, funds which would 

 provide for a greater extension of the work of reforestation would, 

 in my judgment, not be justifiable under present conditions. 



Certain important facts have been discovered concerning the rela- 

 tive merits of different methods. The success of direct seeding in 

 all regions in which the supply of soil moisture is not fairly good 

 must be regarded as at the best problematic, but reasonably good 

 results ha^e been obtained in planting nursery stock in some of 

 the drier regions. The use of European seed appears inadvisable, 

 though it can be bought at a lower cost than that involved in col- 

 lecting western seed. About 53,000 pounds of coniferous seed was 

 collected by the Forest Service, at an average cost of $1.24 per pound, 

 while about 27,000 pounds was bought at an average cost of 78 cents 

 per pound. Devices have been developed for extracting and cleaning 

 seed by machinery at extracting plants located at central points, to 

 which the cones can be sent. The cost of collecting seed has been 

 found to vary widely, depending principally upon the abundance of 

 the seed crop, and it will be the policy in future to gather large quan- 

 tities of seed in years when the crop is abundant, spending much 

 of the money available for reforestation in such years in obtaining 

 seed for use in following years. As a result of the study of the 

 effects of storage it is now certain that seed can be carried over from 

 one season to another with slight loss of fertility. The problem of 



