SPECIAL REPORT 



OF 



FORESTRY BUREAU, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



By Capt. GEORGE P. AHERN, Ninth United States Infantry, 

 In charge of Bureau. 



WAR DEPARTMENT, 

 Washington, D. C., July 30, 1901. 



SIR: Pursuant to instructions from the office of the Secretary of 

 War, I have the honor to submit the following report of the opera- 

 tions of the forestry bureau, Philippine Islands, from its organization 

 in April, 1900, to the present date: 



The undersigned, at present on leave of absence, has been author- 

 ized by the Philippine Commission while in the United States to visit 

 the forestry schools at Cornell, Yale, and Biltmore for the purpose of 

 conferring with professors and students with the object of securing 

 graduates of these schools for the Philippine forestry service, and 

 was also authorized to have exhibited at Buffalo, N. Y., and later at 

 the Agricultural Department at Washington, D. C., a collection of 

 Philippine woods. 



The forestry bureau was organized by the undersigned pursuant to 

 General Orders, No. 50, Office United States Military Governor in the 

 Philippines, Manila, P. I., April 14, 1900. A report detailing opera- 

 tions of this bureau up to and including June 30, 1900, and one dated 

 May of this year have been submitted to the governor of the Philip- 

 pine Islands. 



PERSONNEL. 



The Spanish Government had inaugurated the forestry service in 

 1863, some three hundred and forty years after their occupation of the 

 islands. The forestry officials were selected from the forestry service 

 of Spain, where a similar service had been started and a forestry 

 school organized. The subordinate places in the service in the Philip- 

 pines were partly filled by Filipinos, and at no time, up to the Ameri- 

 can occupation in 1898, had a Filipino risen to any of the higher 

 E laces in the service. This was due principally to the fact that none 

 ad taken the necessary course in the forestry school of Spain. 

 After the undersigned took charge of this service, notices were sent 

 to the former forestry officials to make application for service in the 

 bureau if they so desired, such men, acquainted with the country, 

 forest botany, people, language, and former regulations being consid- 



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