DIVISION OF FORESTRY. 165 



The district inspectors, who must live within their district, appointed upon recom- 

 mendation of the chief of division, and placed under bonds, are responsible for 

 their districts and the acts of their rangers, and report to and advise with the cen- 

 ti'al bureau ; they superintend and regulate in detail the cutting of timber and other 

 necessary or prescribed work, see to the execution and observance of laws and 

 regulations, and act as intermediaries between the public and the central bureau. 



The central bureau, under a commissioner, with tlu-ee division inspectors or 

 chiefs of division, as a council, m^kes the regulations for district inspectors and 

 rangers, has disposition of the funds, according to the yearly budget, fixes price 

 and conditions for the sale of timber, and gi-ants privileges from year to year, de- 

 termines manner, method, and time of cutting, &c., and. in connection with the 

 Land Office, prepares the mapping of districts and the legal work. 



The chiefs of division ought at least once a year to make an inspection tour over 

 their division, composed of a number of districts, and so laid together as to facilitate 

 their inspection. One for tlie Pacific slope, one for the Rocky Mountain region, and 

 one for all other timber lands miglat suffice in the beginning. 



(6) Tlie disposal of timber to be cut under the regulations of the central bureau, 

 with a view to natural reforestation, should be made on the stump, and in the first 

 place for the requirements of the local demand only. 



The localities and areas to be cut over, also the lowest selling price for timber, if 

 even only nominal, must be established yearly upon the report of the district in- 

 spectors as to applications and local requirements, revised by the chief of division; 

 so that in proper season the places where cutting will be allowed, the conditions of 

 sale and other regulations, the Government rate, &c. , can be advertised, and at stated 

 days in each disti'ict, the timber may be disjiosed of at public auction to the 

 highest bidder, who must deposit tlie amount of his bid with the central bureau be- 

 fore cutting. Where local supply is the main object of such sales, they should be 

 in small parcels to suit. Where lumbering is to be considered above local need, 

 larger parcels may be disposed of. 



Permission to erect saw-mills, &c. , should in every case emanate from the central 

 bureau, which acts as the administrator of a valuable property, and should be given 

 the gi'eatost latitude in the division of the territory, the use of its forces, and in ar- 

 ranging for the co-operation of local and State authorities. Such an organization 

 would require, besides the head of the bureau, only three thoroughly trained forest- 

 ers as chiefs of divisions. The district inspectors are best chosen from men convers- 

 ant witli lumbering operations and woodcraft and with some knowledge of and inter- 

 est in forestry. The guards may be simply reliable men of discretion. 



(7) The cost of the total service depends of course on the number of districts to be 

 formed. Take Colorado alone, which we will assume contains about 5,000,000 acres 

 of public domain; for tliis we may require three hundred rangers and ten inspectors, 

 and the expense may be placed in round figures at .$300,000. This amount could be 

 saved by preventing only one-third of the forest fires, which seem to destroy over 

 $900,000 worth of public property in that State yearly, and the 50,000,000 cubic feet or 

 so of timber, which may be cut to satisfy the needs of the country for its development, 

 woiild certainly, without hardsliip to any one, yield enough to help pay the expense 

 of less favorable localities and of the central bureau. The expense of the latter, 

 with the necessary staff of clerks, &c., could certainly be kept within the sum of 

 $50,000. Even if the whole forest area were as thoroughly organized as proposed 

 for Colorado, the expense of the service would not be more tha,n 30 per cent, of the 

 income which might be derived from this domain, or, which could be saved, by pre- 

 venting one-half of the fires that yearly destroy about an equal amount. 



Thus the matter of cost appears as nothing. But I repeat that if the total income 

 from the domain were spent upon its preservation and improvement it would not 

 be an extravagance, and future generations of farmers, miners, builders, nay, of lum- 

 bermen, would extol the wisdom of the legislature which thus preserved the needful 

 forest cover of the mountains. — B. E. F. 



GOVERNMENT PLANTATIONS. 



That tlie operations of such a forest department might be prop- 

 erly extended to the creation of new forests, so as to produce benefi- 

 cial effects upon the agricultural conditions of the arid and semi-arid 

 regions of the Western States and Territories, suggests itself. It has 

 been shown that the climatic influences of the forest must be largely 

 dependent upon its size and density; therefore no considerable change 

 of the unfavorable climatic conditions of the plains can be soon 



