538 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



COOPERATION WITH PRIVATE OWNERS. 



The remarkable development of State forestry in the East and the 

 increase in the number of private foresters has made it possible to 

 restrict the scope of Federal cooperation wlien individual owners 

 may obtain assistance from these sources. To make certain that 

 the entire field is covered agreements concerning the part of the 

 work which will be covered by the Federal Government and the 

 part by the State organizations have been reached with Maine, 

 New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, 

 Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, 

 AVashington, California, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, and 

 Kansas. Applications for assistance and inquiries from these States 

 are now referred to the State organization for necessary field ex- 

 aminations and detailed information. The service merely forwards 

 available publications. 



In States where field examinations are still made by the service be- 

 cause of the absence of any State agency prepared to handle the work, 

 examinations have been mainly restricted to small holdings. Owners 

 of larger tracts are generally referred to private or consulting forest- 

 ers. For the sake of economy as well as to render the work of the 

 largest educational value, the service endeavors to make several ex- 

 aminations in a locality at the same time. The reduction in this work 

 makes it possible to devote more attention to an exceedingly impor- 

 tant phase of cooperative work. It is believed that the maximum 

 results can be secured with the least expenditures by issuing a series 

 of regional publications giving detailed advice on woodlot manage- 

 ment and forestation for the prevailing types of forests in the prin- 

 cipal regions of the eastern United States. Several publications of 

 this character are already available, and others are proposed. They 

 will be of decided value to private owners for direct application in 

 the management of their woodlands, as well as to State organizations 

 and to consulting foresters. 



There were made 13 woodland examinations for private owners, 

 covering in all an area of 44,334 acres. Excluding three large tracts 

 with a total area exceeding 42,000 acres, for which the examinations 

 were arranged prior to the adoption of the policy not to examine 

 large tracts, the average area of the tracts examined was 218.7 acres. 

 For one large tract of approximately 40,000 acres in the mountains of 

 Virginia and West Virginia the owner desired advice concerning the 

 best method of fire protection. Nine of the tracts are located in Vir- 

 ginia and West Virginia, neither of which has a forestry department. 



OTHER INVESTIGATIONS. 

 SILVICUIvTURAL AND DENDROLOGICAL STUDIES. 



During the year commercial tree studies, covering the growth, 

 volume, and yield of the tree, its utilization and life history, and the 

 best methods of management to secure natural or artificial reproduc- 

 tion, were completed for balsam fir, cottonwood, second-growth yellow 

 poplar, ashes, willows, loblolly pine in North Carolina, and eastern 

 white pine. Similar studies of five other species are nearing comple- 

 tion. Besides their future usefulness in the management of National 



