Si8 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



December^ 



the land is not mineral in character, and 

 that the location is made for speculative 

 purposes, to arrest the locator as soon as 

 he begins to cut timber. The only de- 

 fense he can make will be to show that 

 the land is mineral in character, and that 

 he is cutting timber to develop his claim 

 as allowed by law. Should he fail in 

 that, he will have to pa}- the penalty. 



THE FOREST RESERVES. 



New forest reservations have been 

 established during the 5'ear, the forestry- 

 service extended, a better and more 

 thorough system of patrolling the reser- 

 vations has been perfected, and the 

 work of reforestation on the various 

 reservations has been entered upon with 

 satisfactory results. There are now 

 fifty-four forest reserves, embracing 



60, 175,765 acres. Duringthe last fiscal 

 year four existing reserves have been 

 enlarged, four have been reduced, and 

 fifteen additional have been established. 



The adequate protection of the forest 

 reserves and the extension thereof to 

 other public timber lands as occasion 

 arises must necessaril}- go hand in hand 

 with the operations looking toward the 

 reclamation of the arid lands of the west. 



Timber on the unreserved public 

 lands cannot now be properly protected;, 

 existing laws relating thereto, and 

 especially the act of June 3, 1878, known 

 as " The timber and stone act," if not 

 repealed or radically amended, will re- 

 sult ultimateh- in the complete destruc- 

 tion of the timber on the unappropriated 

 and unreserved public lands. The sit- 

 uation demands the passage of remedial 

 legislation. 



THE HARDY CATALPA. 



INTERESTING STUDY OF A VALUABLE TIMBER TREE. 

 RATE OF GROWTH COST OF PLANTING PROFIT IN 

 RAISING CATALPA IMPORTANT CULTURAL POINTS. 



' ^ ^T^HE Hardy Catalpa, ' ' a bulletin 

 A. just published, is a valuable 

 addition to the series of studies of 

 American commercial trees which the 

 Bureau of Forestry has undertaken. 

 The value of this publication will be 

 greatest in the middle west, where the 

 Catalpa has been planted for many 

 years with varying success, and where 

 even now it is imperfectly understood. 

 The farmer of the prairie states who 

 desires to put a part of his lands into 

 Catalpa, either for profit in selling posts 

 and ties, or to suppl}^ his farm with 

 timber, will find in the bulletin valuable 

 information clearly and simply given. 

 The bulletin is in two parts. Wm. E. 

 Hall, Superintendent of Tree Planting, 

 discusses ' ' The Hardy Catalpa in Com- 

 mercial Plantations, ' ' while Dr. Herman 

 von Schrenk, of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, writes of "The Diseases of 

 the Hardy Catalpa." Mr. Hall gives 

 the results of careful studies of the 

 Hunger, Farlington, Hunnewell, and 

 Yaggy plantations, all in Kansas. The 



most important facts developed by him 

 are as follows : 



It is much cheaper for the planter to- 

 grow^ his trees from seed than to buy 

 them from a nursery, if a large number 

 are to be planted. In the Munger 

 plantation the cost of trees grown on 

 the farm was 50 cents per thousand,, 

 while those from a nursery, with freight, 

 cost about $4 per thousand. The cost 

 of establishing the Yaggy plantation 

 with home-grown trees, including cut- 

 ting back and two years' tillage, was- 

 $11.70 per acre ; the cost of establish- 

 ing the Farlington forest by contract,, 

 including the same amount of tillage, 

 but no cutting back, was $30 per acre. 



Some idea of the profits in growing- 

 Catalpa for the market may be gained 

 from the results achieved on the four 

 plantations described in this bulletin. 



On the Munger plantation the present 

 value is equal to a net annual acreage 

 return of $15.01 from the time of plant- 

 ing, thirteen years ago. The Farling- 

 ton Forest and the Hunnewell planta- 



