No. 4.] U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 187 



in 25 States and Territories, and in Porto Rico. The cost 

 of the work per square mile varies from 71 cents in the 

 Covington area, Georgia, to $5.02 in Porto Rico. The 

 average cost has been $1.83 per square mile. 



Some time aofo the officials of the Bureau beiran an 

 experiment with Sumatra tobacco in the Connecticut valley, 

 and it has been demonstrated that this tobacco can be 

 grown successfully in that locality. The ordinary tobacco 

 grown in the open fields in Connecticut brings, on an aver- 

 age, from 18 to 20 cents a pound, while the average price 

 paid for the Sumatra tobacco is $1.20 per pound. It is be- 

 lieved that the Sumatra tobacco can be grown in other 

 localities than the Connecticut valley. 



Bureau of Forestry. 



The importance of the work of the Bureau of Forestry 

 is being recognized more and more as its work becomes 

 better known. Applications for assistance in introducing 

 practical forestry were received for 4,709,120 acres in the 

 last year. The Bureau, for lack of men and money, was 

 obliged to defer over 90 per cent of these applications, and 

 aid was given in the case of only 373,463 acres. Forests 

 in the United States are very largely owned by private 

 persons, and this inability to respond to more than 8 per 

 cent of the requests for advice forms the most serious check 

 on the progress of forestry. 



Public forest reserves on Sept. 1, 1902, aggregated 58,- 

 850,925 acres : and in the past year the Bureau has pre- 

 pared for the Secretary of the Interior working plans for 

 conservative lumbering on these reservations. Field work 

 was done in 5 public forest reserves, and trained foresters 

 supplied for all the national reserve. At the request of the 

 Secretary of War, working plans were made for 8 military 

 wood and timber reservations, including the military reser- 

 vation at West Point, covering an area of 117,4()8 acres. 

 Computations for 16,678 acres were completed, and meas- 

 urements of the i-ate of growth of 10,786 trees of 25 

 species in 13 States were made. 



