DIVISION OF FOEESTEY. 329 



wliat is practioall}' a eomliination of arbitration and forest manajje- 

 inent is a gratifying niarlc of the influence of tlie practical field work 

 of the Division of Forestry in the Adirondaeks. 



The total area of private forests actually under the management of 

 the Bureau of Forestiy is now 176,975 acres. 



Of the tracts of which preliminary examination was made during 

 the year and for which detailed working plans will be made as soon as 

 possible, one of the most promising is that of the Okeetee Club, near 

 Ridgeland, S. C. This consists of 60,000 acres of Longleaf Pine land 

 in Beaufort and Hamj)ton counties, about 30 miles north of Savannah. 

 It presents a notable opportunity for the study of the Longleaf Pine 

 and of the relation which fire bears to its reproduction. The fact that 

 it is at the same time thoroughly well adapted for practical forestry 

 makes the preparation of the working plan one of the important i^ieces 

 of work to be undertaken by the Bureau. 



The tract of the 31oose River Lumber Oompanj^, in the Adirondaeks, 

 has been examined and a working plan recommended. That this 

 working plan is now in preparation is significant of the growing appre- 

 ciation by lumbermen and business men generally of the advantages 

 of conservative forestry. 



PUBLIC LANDS. 



During the past year the Division, as rapidly as its force and its 

 appropriation would allow, has pushed the preparation of working 

 plans for the National forest reserves. This exceedingly important 

 piece of work is the result of a request upon the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture from the Secretarj'of the Interior for technical advice regard- 

 ing the management of the reserves, which comprise an area of 

 46,828,449 acres. 



During the year the field work necessary to a working plan for the 

 Black Hills Forest Reserve was completed. It occupied a party of 

 16 men for four months, and included a thorough stud}^ of the West- 

 ern Yellow Pine, or Bull Pine, of local questions of lumbering, grazing, 

 and fire, and of those conditions generally which must determine the 

 best management of the reserve. The total stand of timber and 

 young growth was measured upon 10,234 acres and the rate of growtli 

 of 4,500 trees was ascertained, to serve as a basis for calculations of 

 volume and yield. The working up of these results is nearing com- 

 pletion. There is no other forest in the Imited States in which prac- 

 tical forestry is more urgentlj^ needed, or in which results of such 

 importance may be more easily achieved than in the Black Hills For- 

 est Reserve. It is practicallj^ a pure forest of Western Yellow Pine, 

 remarkable for the aliundance of its reproduction and its thorough 

 adaptation to practical forestry. LTpon its preservation depends the 

 timber to supply a great and rapidh' growing mining industry which 

 has built up and now maintains the i)rosperity of this region. Its 

 effect upon the water supiDlj', without which mining in the Black 

 Hills must fail, offers a most striking example of the influence of 

 forests upon stream flow. Already vast expenditures have been made 

 to bring from other streams the indispensable water supj)!}' formerly 

 taken in abundance from sources which have failed since the destruc- 

 tion of the forest. 



Examinations preparatory to working plans were made of the Pres- 

 cott. Big Horn, and Priest River forest reserves, a total area of 

 2,249,600 acres. 



Next in importance among the duties of this section to the work in 



