EDITORIAL, 3 



mediately available. There was also an increase of $'24,400 in the 

 sum available for the preparation of sets of cotton standards and the 

 investigations of the handling, grading, and baling of cotton. 



Among the other groni:)s of projects may l)e mentioned the farm 

 management investigatiojis, which receive $iyO,OGO; studies of the 

 production, improvement, handling, grading, and transportation of 

 grain, which will receive $112,945; methods of crop production in 

 the semiarid or dry land sections, and for the utilization of lands 

 reclaimed under the reclamation act, for which $106,110 is granted; 

 and methods of growing, packing, and marketing fruits and melons, 

 which will have $T1,G15. 



For the Congressional seed distribution, which was continued on 

 the usual basis, $205,710 was granted, an increase of $3,390. The 

 appropriation for the introduction of rare and valuable seeds from 

 foreign countries was made $43,880. 



The Forest Service received a total of $5,008,100. This is as usual 

 by far the largest appropriation to any one bureau carried in the bill, 

 and also represents the largest increase made, being $351,900 in ex- 

 cess of the corresponding appropriations for the previous year. 

 The increase is attributed to the recent addition of 26,528,439 acres 

 to the national forests, mainly in xVlaska. 



The policy of further itemizing the expenditures from the various 

 lump funds, which Avas inaugurated the previous year for most of 

 the bureaus, was extended to the Forest Service. Instead of a single 

 large grant for general expenses there are definite allotments rang- 

 ing from $2,405 to $50,644 for the maintenance of each of the 150 

 national forests, together with $135,000 for fighting forest fires, 

 $221,040 for the purchase of supplies, $129,420 for investigations of 

 methods for wood distillation and preservation and the economic use 

 of forest products, $11,820 for investigations of range conditions 

 within national forests and range improvement, $66,640 for silvi- 

 cultural experiments in national forests, $108,010 for silvicultural 

 and dendrological investigations, which may be in cooperation with 

 other branches of the Federal Government and with States and indi- 

 viduals, and $115,470 for miscellaneous forest investigations and the 

 preparation and dissemination of the results of the experimental 

 work. The tests of plants and woods as to their suitability for 

 paper making, Avhich have been conducted under a general appro- 

 priation, were definitely assigned to the Forest Service, and $14,000, 

 an increase of $4,000, appropriated for the purpose. 



The allotment for permanent improvements on the national forests 

 was decreased from $600,000 to $275,000. The time during which 

 dead and insect infested timber from the Black TTills National Forest 

 in South Dakota can be exported from the State, which would have 

 expired July 1, 1910, was extended to July 1, 1912. 



