; REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 37 
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The division has collected during the last year information in ro- 
gard to the minor wood-using industries, and several reports are on 
hand for future publication. 
- Bulletin No. 1, on the relation of railroads to forest supplies and 
_ forestry, has found a most gratifying attention and interest among 
railroad managers, and I am glad to see, from the demand for this 
_ publication, that an important class of business men of the com- 
_ munity have become interested in the subject and seem to derive 
tangible benefit from the work of the division. 
I urged in my last report the necessity for the Government to re- 
vise its legislation in regard to the forest lands remaining in its 
hands, especially in the mountain regions of the West. I repeat, 
that the present state of affairs works injury, increasing every year, 
to the mining as well as the agricultural interests of the country ad- 
joining those mountain forests, and the special forest legislation 
recommended is demanded by the people of thoseregions. To serve 
as a basis for such legislation, an exhaustive report on the forest 
conditions of the Rocky Mountains has been prepared by the divis- 
ion and is about to be issued as a separate bulletin. 
In the absence of experimental grounds, without an arboretum, and 
without the aid of forest areas upon which to conduct directly practi- 
cal experimentation, the work of the division must consist mainiy 
in collecting, sifting, and arranging information found scattered 
through our literature, and adding to it what may be elicited by 
correspondence. The study of the biology of our timber trees by 
expert agents is being continued, the reports upon the most impor- 
tant conifers being nearly ready for publication. These studies, if 
systematically and thoroughly carried on, would give answer to 
many questions of practical forestry. 
While we may go on gathering opinions, a reliable basis for forest 
management can only be derived from exact methods of investiga- 
tion. To establish the rate of growth of the different species under 
different conditions, upon which alone a true estimate as to their 
adaptability for profitable forest culture can be formed, numerous 
measurements must be made, which are expensive. The field of in- 
quiry is large, the number of available expert observers limited, and 
the means for this work lacking. 
Another most important line of inquiry which calls for special 
_ attention from the division are investigations into the structural dit- 
ferences of our important timbers, and the factors influencing their 
quality. Lacking this knowledge, a good deal of useful material is 
wasted, either by being applied to purposes for which inferior ma- 
terial might have been employed or by remaining unused when it 
night have been usefully employed. 
The distribution of plants has been mainly confined to coniferous 
trees, which, while most important in forest growing, do not tind 
