1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



been touched upon in a paper on " Exper- 

 imental Plantation of the Eucalyptus, near 

 Rome," hy Franklin B. Hough, first chief 

 of the Division of Forestry at Washing- 

 ton. 



Baron Sir F. von Mueller, Government 

 Botanist in Melbourne, who died a short 



time ago, should be called the " Father of 

 Eucalyptology." By his writings and by 

 the distribution of seeds of various species 

 of Eucalyptus over the globe, he has done 

 great service to mankind. 



JOHN GIFFORD, D. CEc., 



Ithaca, N. Y. 



A Year's Work in Forestry. 



/ 



Annual Report to the Secretary of Agriculture on the Work of the Division 



of Forestry. 



BY THE FORESTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



During the year the work of the Divis- 

 ion has been reorganized throughout. The 

 changes entailed, together with the intro- 

 duction in the United States of practical 

 and paying forestry among lumbermen, 

 on a large scale, the progress of extensive 

 investigations in tree planting, as a prep- 

 aration for practical work with tree plant- 

 ers, and the very marked manifestation of 

 public cooperation and interest in the work 

 of the Division, especially among lumber- 

 men, are the salient facts of the year. The 

 extent of the cooperation is well indicated 

 by the action of the Redwood lumbermen 

 of San Francisco, who have voted to sub- 

 scribe $1000, of which $550 is already 

 in hand, and have offered free transporta- 

 tion over their roads and free subsistence 

 in their camps to the agents of the Divis- 

 ion, for the sake of advancing by a year 

 the time when the Division, otherwise 

 hindered by lack of funds, could begin 

 work on the growth and reproduction of 

 the Redwood. 



In spite of the increase in its resources 

 made by the last Congress, the Division 

 finds itself' wholly unable to cover the field 

 of necessary work which lies before it. 

 Public demands upon it for work of the 

 first importance to the preservation and 

 right use of forests in the United States 

 remain unanswered for lack of means. 

 It is earnestly hoped that the Division may 

 be enabled adequately to take and use 



during the next fiscal year the unpre- 

 cedented opportunities created by the rapid 

 awakening of the public mind to the mean- 

 ing and value of practical forestry. 



In accordance with the plans set forth 

 in the last annual report, the work of the 

 Division has been very largely field work. 

 Since two weeks after the beginning of 

 the fiscal year there has been no time, ex- 

 cept during the Christmas holidays, when 

 there have not been from one to seven 

 parties in the field. Practical and paying 

 forestry has been successfully introduced 

 on two tracts of a total area of 108,000 

 acres, and has now entered its second year 

 under greatly improved circumstances, 

 while the preparation of working plans 

 for conservative lumbering has been in 

 progress on more than twice that acreage. 

 Important modifications in practical meth- 

 ods of lumbering have been suggested by 

 the Division and introduced by private 

 owners on a large scale with marked suc- 

 cess. Altogether more than 400,000 acres 

 have come under the care or scrutiny of 

 agents of the Division with a view to the 

 practical introduction of improved meth- 

 ods, while the total requests for such work 

 to date have exceeded 1,600,000 acres. 

 The Division is totally unable to meet the 

 public demand upon it in this direction. 

 The necessary preparations have been 

 completed for an offer, similar in its con- 

 ditions to that which gave rise to these re- 



