438 United States. 



ranks by Filipinos. To be sure, the activities of this 

 forestry bureau went hardly beyond the collection of 

 dues for timber licenses, which yielded little more than 

 the cost of the service, although on paper excellent in- 

 structions were found elaborated. 



It so happened that an officer of the American army, 

 Captain George P. Ahem, had for some time given atten- 

 tion to forestry matters in 1:he States, and he naturally 

 was placed in charge of this bureau, in 1900. There 

 were found to be around one million acres private and 

 church property, the rest being considered State lands, 

 but all private owners were required to register their 

 holdings before being allowed to exercise their rights. 

 A system of licenses for cutting timber, and of free use 

 permits to the poor population was continued after 

 Spanish models. Not only was gradually an efficient 

 administration secured, but the technical side of 

 dendrological and silvicultural knowledge was as 

 rapidly as possible developed under the able administra- 

 tion of Captain Ahern, a continuously growing literature 

 being the result. 



