i6 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



January 



assistance in the management of their 

 timber holdings, and work has been or 

 is now in progress on the lands of the 

 Northern Lumber Company, the Kirby 

 Lumber Company, the Houston Oil 

 Company, and others. On July r, 1903, 

 the area of private forest lands under the 

 supervision of the Bureau amounted to 

 679,194 acres. 



Next in importance to the interest of 

 the lumbermen is that of the great rail- 

 roads, a number of which have applied 

 to the Bureau for assistance in determin- 

 ing the advisability of the purchase and 

 conservative management of forest lands 

 for the production of railroad ties. The 

 Bureau has also been in cooperation with 

 several of the leading roads in an inves- 

 tigation of methods of wood preserva- 

 tion, the results of which will be ex- 

 ceedingly valuable in connection with 

 the durability of railroad ties. 



Increasing attention was paid by the 

 Bureau during the year to work upon 

 government lands. This included the 

 study of various forest problems within 

 the national forest reserves and the ex- 

 amination of areas to determine their 

 suitability for new reserves. The pas- 

 sage of the National Irrigation Act had 

 a most important bearing on the ques- 

 tion of extension of forest reserves, 

 since government experts are agreed 

 that irrigation on a large scale is im- 

 possible without the preservation of the 

 forests surrounding reservoirs at the 

 headwaters of the streams. 



One of the most hopeful signs of the 

 year has been the desire of various states 

 to cooperate with the Bureau of Forestry 

 in a study of their forest resources. 

 Work along this line has been going on 

 in several states, notably in California 

 and New Hampshire, whose legislatures 

 made specific appropriations for the pur- 

 pose, and in Maine, where the Forest 

 Commission contributed to the expenses 

 of the investigation. 



An investigation of very great impor- 

 tance is that of timber tests. The advice 

 of prominent engineers, manufacturers, 

 and lumbermen was sought before the 

 tests were inaugurated, in order that 

 their results might be of the greatest 

 practical value. The object of these 

 tests is to determine the strength and 



durability of the merchantable timbers 

 of the United States. 



In view of the enormous damage 

 which has been done by forest fires in 

 the United States during the year, the 

 investigation of this problem by the 

 Bureau is of special interest and value. 



While the Bureau has utilized to the 

 fullest extent and in the best possible 

 way its resources in men and money, its 

 possibilities for usefulness are out of all 

 proportion to the funds at its disposal. 

 The activities of the 

 Work of General Land Office in 



General Land connection with the f or- 

 Of fice. est reserves have greatly 



increased. One-third of 

 the Commissioner's annual report is 

 taken up with forest matters. During 

 the year 2,875,000 acres of land were 

 added to the forest reserve area, increas- 

 ing the total of that area to approxi- 

 mately 63,000,000 acres. Four new 

 reserves were established during the 

 year since our last meeting, and one in 

 Porto Rico has recently been proclaimed. 

 The area of previously existing reserves 

 was increased by 1,443,440 acres, and 

 was reduced by 62,080 acres in modify- 

 ing the boundaries of the reserves. As 

 no small part of the opposition to the 

 reserves at the outset came from the in- 

 clusion of certain agricultural lands 

 within their exterior boundaries, we 

 feel that this work of modifying scien- 

 tifically the boundaries of the forest re- 

 serves should be pushed as rapidly as 

 the work permits. 



The field force is now completely or- 

 ganized, resulting in great benefit to the 

 service. This is especially appreciable 

 in the decreasing number of destructive 

 fires occurring within the reserves, 

 which is directly due to the work of the 

 forest force in both educating the peo- 

 ple on the subject and extinguishing 

 incipient fires. The figures given in 

 the report regarding the suppression of 

 fires conclusively show that the value of 

 the services rendered by the force in 

 preventing conflagrations is simply in- 

 estimable. This feature of the work 

 alone constitutes a sufficient demonstra- 

 tion of the utility of the service. 



The work of preserving the reserves 

 from depredations continues also in a 



