REVIEWS 



Report of the Forester for the Year Ended June 50, ipiy. By A, K. 

 Potter, Acting Forester. U. S. Department of Agriculture. Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 1917. Pp. 36. 



This report, business-Hke and meaty from beginning to end, was pre- 

 pared by the Acting Forester, A. F. Potter, in the absence of Mr. 

 Graves, who had gone to France on the staff of General Pershing to 

 organize the work of the Engineers (Forest) Regiment. Every United 

 States forester is expected to peruse in its entirety this expose of the 

 activities of this remarkable Service. We can here only place on record 

 some of the salient points. 



The report starts in with a very satisfactory financial statement of 

 the operations of the Service. The receipts, increasing by over $633,000 

 over the previous year, with nearly $3,500,000, promise within another 

 year to increase to four million dollars and thus make the operation of 

 the forests appear self-sustained. This is, however, not quite true, for 

 other funds are used to improve at least the accessibility of the forests. 

 It is claimed that if the grazing charge were advanced to cover the full 

 value of the grazing privilege this self-sustained condition would be 

 attained. At present the two main sources of revenue — timber receipts 

 and grazing receipts — participate in almost equal shares in making up 

 the total. While the receipts for the 727 million feet cut (in another 

 place stated as 840 million) brought in 1.5 million dollars, the sales of 

 timber exceeded two billion feet, valued at 3.7 million dollars, the 

 largest sales of 688 million feet, valued at over one million dollars, 

 being made in Oregon. 



The area of the National Forests has as usual experienced additions 

 and deductions, but since 1910 the area has undergone steady reduc- 

 tions, and now the 147 forests contain an area actually owned by the 

 public of 155,166,619 acres, besides 21 million acres privately owned. 

 The largest increase, of 540,000 acres, took place in Colorado ; part of 

 the eliminations were made to increase Lassen and Rocky Mountain 

 National parks. Land classification, with a view to eliminating agri- 

 cultural lands, which had already covered over 127 million acres, was 

 continued^ 57 million having been classified during the year and 50 



576 



