CURRENT LITERATURE AND REVIEWS. 



Report of the Forester for igo2. By Gifford Pinchot, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 1902. Pp. 109-136. From Annual Reports, 

 Department of Agriculture. 



The work of the Bureau of Forestry has greatly increased in 

 the past year. Applications were received for working plans for 

 4,700,000 acres, but for lack of men and money only about 8% of 

 these applications could be acted upon. Planting plans were 

 made for 3,400 acres. Extensive investigations of important tim- 

 ber trees were made. Various forest industries and conditions 

 were studied. The personnel of the Bureau was also increased. 

 Notice of the many excellent publications as they appeared, has 

 previously been made in these pages. 



The work of the Bureau not only has increased in quantity but 

 in quality. Compare for instance, the Working Plan for Town- 

 ship 40, made two years ago with the similar report just appear- 

 ing in the Maine Forest Commissioner's report. In the former 

 the word reproduction hardly occurs and considerations for the 

 future beyond a short period of years are dismissed almost with 

 the single sentence : "a sufficient number of seed trees will be 

 left to insure the reproduction of spruce ; " compare this with the 

 report from Maine where six pages are devoted to the considera- 

 tions of reproduction, sexual maturity, influence of exposure 

 and of light, of seed beds and of seedlings ; surely there has been 

 a creditable improvement. 



Fourth Report of the Forest Commissioner of the State of Maine. 

 Augusta, 1902. Pp. 152. Illustrated. 



The act of the Maine legislature of 1891 which created the 

 office of Forest Commissioner required that officer to make annual 

 report of his inquiries and investigations. In pursuance of that 

 act, the fourth report of the Commissioner has just been pub- 

 lished as a well appearing volume of 150 pages with numerous 

 plates illustrative of the forest conditions of the state. 



Maine's great manufactures of pulp and paper render it natural 

 that the current volume should deal largely with spruce. Further 

 than that, it is perhaps inevitable that Commissioner Ring, with 



