616 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
comforts? On the Rocky Mountains and other mountain districts, 
how should we manage the natural forests so as to secure their re- 
newal and the benefits on water-flow which their continuity alone 
assures? while on the Pacific slope all the considerations contained 
in these questions have place. 
It is gratifying to note that some of the States have awakened to 
their duty in dealing with this forestry question in earnest. 
Kansas and California have started upon practical work in aid of 
active forestry; Colorado is gradually moving in the same way} 
Michigan and Pennsylvania have awakened to the conception that 
their forestry interests deserve attention, and in other States, as will 
appear from the detailed accounts,.the interest in forestry matters 
has considerably increased within the last two years, and as a result 
in some of the States action has been taken by the legislatures for 
the protection of their forests. 
In addition, the forest planter will find much of interest in the col- 
lected ‘‘Tree-notes,” and will be benefited by studying the many 
experiments relating to practical forest management and forest grow- 
ing described in the report. 
Even the casual reader will no doubt gather from the few hints 
here given that the field of activity and usefulness of the division 
is capable of extension in a great variety of directions, In proportion 
to the amounts appropriated and the facilities provided for its work. 
But such extension can hardly be expected under present conditions. 
The budget of the Prussian forest administration for the year 1888- 
’89 shows, for forest scientific purposes alone, an appropriation of 
$46,934 (area 134,400 square miles), whileit is expectéd that this great 
and growing but undeveloped interest, extending over the vast and 
varied regions of the United States (3,062,990 square miles), will be 
subserved by an expenditure of $10,000, out of which to pay for ex- 
periments, investigations, and report upon forestry, and ‘‘the col- 
lection and distribution of valuable and economic forest-tree seeds 
and plants.” 
While it may not be necessary to devote proportionately as much 
to the scientific development of forestry in a country in which prac- 
tical forestry is almost unknown as in the older countries, it must 
appear even to the uninitiated that under the present conditions the 
struggle to do justice to the technical and missionary demands upon 
the division must be unequal; that for the accomplishment of the 
objects for which it is established but slow progress can be madein 
any one of the proposed directions, and that the greatest difficulty is 
to find the proper limitations rather than the possible extensions of 
its work. 
Yet the time seems to have arrived when it is desirable to take up 
at least some of the work outlined in thisreport more vigorously and 
more thoroughly; to leave the missionary work to the forestry and 
other associations, newspapers, etc.; to establish the division as a 
center for original scientific experiment and investigation in forestry 
matters upon which to develop a reliable basis for forestry manage- 
ment in the United States. 
Respectfully submitted. 
B. E. FERNow, 
Chief of Forestry Division. 
Hon. NORMAN J. COLMAN, 
Commissioner. 
