194 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



SILVICULTUEAL AND DENDEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 



Field study of the eastern oaks secured much new information on 

 this extremely important group of trees. At the close of the year 

 the study was under way in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. 



Farm woodlot market studies were completed for Georgia, South 

 Carolina, and Maine, and begim in North Carolina. Such studies 

 have now been completed in 11 Eastern States. In connection with 

 the North Carolina study a special forest survey is being made of 

 two Piedmont counties, in cooperation with the State. 



The field work and the principal tabulation of the data on the 

 economic survey of farm woodlots in the eastern United States in 

 cooperation with the Office of Farm Management were finished. 

 Sixteen counties in 14 States, representing all types and conditions 

 of woodland and farms in the North, South, and Middle West were 

 covered. The field data comprise records from 1,000 farms and cover 

 178,000 acres of farm land, valued at $13,500,000. Thrcrugh coopera- 

 tive agreements with the States Relations Service, foresters were de- 

 tailed to the Offices of Extension Work in the North and West and 

 Extension Work in the South, to assist farm woodlot owners by 

 demonstrating the best methods of handling farm woodlands, mar- 

 keting products, and planting trees for production or for protection 

 of crops and buildings. The work will be largely cooperative with 

 the extension departments of State agricultural colleges and with 

 State foresters. 



Late in the year methods of increasing the use of wood for fuel in 

 place of coal as a war emergency measure were made a subject of 

 study. Reduction of the pressure on transportation facilities is one 

 of the objects sought. A larger prospective use of fuel wood from 

 farm woodlands creates a need for instruction of the owners in such 

 matters as thinning and marketing. Rightly handled, increased utili- 

 zation may be secured without reducing the productive capacity of 

 the woodlands and with improvement of their condition. 



As a part of the study of the forest regions of the United States, 

 a map showing natural forest units was prepared for publication 

 by the Office of Farm Management in the Agricultural Atlas series. 



Fifteen thousand tree measurements were worked up, and 26 

 volume, 3 yield, 6 growth, 5 form, and 25 miscellaneous tables were 

 prepared. About 2,200 range notes were added to the files, 600 iden- 

 tifications made, and 215 distribution maps revised. Forest maps 

 were prepared of Panama and Cuba, and additional data compiled 

 on the forest resources of Mexico and Central and South America. 



In the dendrological study of forest trees of the United States, 

 hitherto unpublished data on miscellaneous conifers of the Rocky 

 Mountain region, gathered in the field work of many past years, were 

 assembled and prepared for publication as another volume in the 

 series under way, which has now covered all the trees of the Pacific 

 coast and all the conifers of the Rocky Mountains. Under a co- 

 operative agreement with the Letchworth Park Forest and Arbore- 

 tum, at Letchworth Park, Wyoming County, N. Y., the dendrologist 

 of the Forest Service continued to give advice regarding the Avork in 

 progress there. The plantations made during the year at Letchworth 

 Park comprised various mixtures of 150,000 native pines, spruces, and 

 cedars in forest blocks, while 110 seed beds were sown with some 80 



