1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



number of positions. In the field, the 

 student-assistants work under the super- 

 vision of trained foresters, with results of 

 marked value to the Division, chiefly in 

 the preparation of working plans and the 

 study of commercial trees. Living usually 

 at lumber camps, they keep the same 

 hours as the men, and often, on the testi- 

 mony of the latter, do the harder work. 

 The practical experience they gain is in no 

 sense intended to replace thorough train- 

 ing at a forest school. The pay of a 

 student-assistant is $25 per month. About 

 twenty-eight student-assistants have been 

 on the rolls of the Division since July i. 



The expenditures for salaries of all kinds 

 during the year reached 62.2 per cent, of 

 the total appropriation. This proportion 

 would have been somewhat reduced had 

 the field expenses borne by private owners 

 been paid by the Division. A larger pro- 

 portionate amount of field work during the 

 present year will, it is hoped, tend to 

 lower the present figure, which, under the 

 circumstances, is not unsatisfactory. Last 

 October, through the medium of Circular 

 No. 21, an offer of practical advice and 

 assistance was made to farmers, lumber- 

 men and others in handling their forest 

 lands, with a view of bringing about the 

 substitution of conservative for destructive 

 methods. The offer provided for the 

 preparation of working plans with full 

 directions for work, as well as for practical 

 assistance on the ground, without cost to 

 the owner of wood-lots, but in the case of 

 larger tracts at the cost to the owner of 

 traveling expenses and subsistence, to- 

 gether with the* necessary helpers, for the 

 agents of the Division while in the field. 



In response to the circular there were 

 received during the year applications from 

 123 owners in thirty-five States for assis- 

 tance in the management of 1,513,592 

 acres. Of these applications 48 were for 

 large tracts covering together 1,506,215 

 acres, and the remainder were for farm 

 wood- lots. Personal attention on the 

 ground was given to 41 tracts covering 

 about 400,000 acres in nineteen States. 

 On the majority of these tracts it was 

 found possible for the owners to carry out 

 the working plans without personal as- 



sistance, but on 15 of them the partici- 

 pation of the Division is required for the 

 execution of the plans. On two of the 

 latter, with a joint area of 108,000 acres, 

 the working plans were put in execution 

 early in the year, and at the present writ- 

 ing the first year's work has been success- 

 fully completed, and the second year's 

 work is well advanced under very favor- 

 able conditions. A calculation based on 

 exact measurements of the amount of 

 lumber wasted by the prevailing practice 

 of cutting high Spruce stumps in the 

 Adirondacks led to a decided change for 

 the better on the tracts just mentioned, 

 and at the same time a marked reduction 

 in the amount of young Spruce cut for road 

 building was brought about. These are 

 influential changes. A detailed account 

 of the work on these two tracts, entitled 

 ' Practical Forestry in the Adirondacks," 

 by Henry S. Grave?, Superintendent of 

 Working Plans, is now in press. 



The total expense during the year under 

 the ledger head " Working plans" was 

 $4,133.35, or 14.5 per cent, of the total 

 appropriation. The expenditures of pri- 

 vate owners, under the terms of Circular 

 21, amounted to 8 per cent, of the same 

 sum, or $2,239.23. 



The work between July i and August 

 31 of the present year consisted in the 

 preparation of working plans upon two 

 large tracts in the Aclirondacks, compris- 

 ing an area of about 100,000 acres, in 

 making preliminary examinations of seven 

 additional tracts, and in the continuation 

 of the work already in hand. In con- 

 nection with the first a special study was 

 made of the growth and production of 

 Spruce on the eastern side of the Adiron- 

 dacks and of Birch and Maple on the west- 

 ern slope. Additional application has 

 been made for about 100,000 acres. 



Studies have been in progress during 

 the year on five species of commercially 

 valuable trees to determine their rate of 

 growth and to ascertain their special 

 qualities in forestry. The more im- 

 portant of these studies deal with the Lob- 

 lolly Pine in North Carolina, a tree of the 

 first economic importance, and the Red Fir 

 in Washington, also called Douglas Fir, 



