36 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE 
farmers with but poor means for conducting such experiments, If _ 
this work of testing and distributing seed could be done by the sta- _ 
tions and the Department be relieved of this duty, it would enabie 
it to work in other directions of great importance to the agricultural 
interests of the country. It is hardly necessary to state that it takes 
much of the time of the Commissioner, and that it is difficult to 
make distribution to give satisfaction to all parties and to all parts 
of the country. While the germ of the Department of Agriculture. 
was the seed distribution, it has grown until it mow reaches into 
many fields of science, and many more lie beyond which as yet it has 
not had the time or means to enter. 
FORESTRY DIVISION. 
The limited appropriation available for this division naturally 
limits the field of its activity and the extent of its usefulness. Our 
people do not realize yet the importance of its work. There is 
scarcely an industry with which other industries of the country are 
more intimately connected than that which utilizes and manufact- 
ures the products of the forest, nor is there any other factor of cli- 
matic influences within the power of human regulation more im- 
portant than the forest cover.. The undeniable interdependence 
between forestry and successful agriculture calls for timely atten- 
tion on the part of the people, and especially of the Government. 
The idea of considering forest products as a crop, which, like other 
crops, can be cared for, improved, and reproduced, is still so new in 
our country that it seems difficult to persuade our people of its im- 
portance. When we consider the fact that this crop requires from 
twenty to one hundred years to mature, and that the sower rarely 
reaps the harvest, the comparative indifference of the grower and 
the need of stimulating reproduction are apparent. The original 
growth is being exhausted, and the new spontaneous crop, through 
the fault of man, is greatly inferior and smaller from the same area. 
Increasing needs of enlarging population can only be satisfied by 
proper care of the new crop and by increasing the crop area, 
Those engaged in the lumber industry and wood-using manufact- 
ures appear to be more or less unconcerned about their future sup- 
ply, either because their interests are ephemeral, or because they lack 
a definite knowledge of total present demand and total visible sup- 
plies. With information as accurate as that in regard to other crops, 
prices for wood material would quickly rise to a level more ade- 
quately representing true values. In consequence, supplies would 
be better husbanded, more carefully protected, and more thoroughly 
utilized, and we would soon regard the forest as a valuable ‘‘ herit- 
age, not for spoil or to devastate, but to be wisely used, reverently 
honored, and carefully maintained.” 
