REPORT OF CHIEF OF FORESTRY DIVISION. 



Sir : I have tlie honor herewith to transmit my annual report for 

 the current year, embracing in its first part, besides the outline of 

 work pursued in this Division, a brief review of the questions which 

 underlie the consideration of Government action in regard to a forest 

 policy, and also an account of the present condition of forestry in the 

 United States. In the second part I have attempted to state briefly 

 the elementary principles which must be understood before we can 

 hope to establish a successful forest management. In this part the 

 often-asked questions, "What to plant" and "How to plant" have 

 received a broad consideration, such alone as can be given to them in a 

 report of limited size and for a country with such diversity of soil, 

 climatic, floral, and economic conditions. 



I beg leave to report that with the studies of the biology of our 

 timber trees, just inaugurated, a new and important line of work has 

 been begun, which, if continued in the same spirit as undertaken, 

 may eventually form the basis of future American forestry; teaching 

 us the life-history of our important forest trees and the conditions 

 upon which their development in the forest depends; deducing from 

 observations made from practical rather than botanical points of 

 view rules of management directly applicable to the forester, a work 

 which has not heretofore been systematically attempted. This most 

 necessary work will naturally require a series of years of patient 

 labor and observation before the results can be generalized upon and 

 practically apj)lied. It can only be expected to progress satisfacto- 

 rily if liberal provision is made for those engaged in it, who should 

 be persons of special fitness, with ample means to supply needed 

 elementary knowledge. 



With its present appropriation the Division cannot, in my opinion, 

 satisfactorily undertake extended forest statistical inquiries, and 

 should, therefore, confine itself mainly to the work of establishing the 

 methods upon which forest planting and forest management can be 

 carried on in our country with our native timber trees. 



The distribution of seedlings, the only satisfactory manner of sup- 

 plying plant material, would be of great benefit to the Western tree 

 planters especially, and would enlarge the area of forest planting; 

 but without facilities to grow the supply, without the means of satis- 

 fying the demand of every applicant, and in the absence of a discrim- 

 inating system of distribution, this mode of encouraging forestry has 

 not yet borne the results which might be expected from it. 



As will appear from the wording of the Act, instituting its work in 

 the year 1876, the Forestry Division was originally intended to fur- 

 nish data upon which a true conception might be formed of the con- 

 dition and importance of our forests and forest supplies, and by pre- 

 senting the methods of management pursued in other countries to aid 

 the legislator in formulating a forest policy for this country. 



This work, mainly of statistical or historical character, so far as 

 general information goes may be deemed concluded, and although 



(149) 



