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FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



April 



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SCALING RAFTED TIMBER NEAR MANILA. NOTE BAMBOO WITHES WHICH BIND THE LOGS. 



be considered. If the rules of silvicul- 

 ture are followed, it is comparatively 

 easy ; but often, when a tree is found 

 that should be felled, the licensee or his 

 representative steps in and demurs. It 

 is too large to be hauled out of the for- 

 est, too far from water, or a useless 

 species, they say. To illustrate : Al- 

 though there are in the writer's district 

 over 250 species of trees, only a few of 

 them are at present on the market. 

 Hence it is incumbent upon the forester 

 to prohibit the cutting of rare or valu- 

 able species and to retain their seed 

 trees rather than to mark for felling 

 everything which should from a silvi- 

 cultural point of view be removed. 



VALUATION SURVEYS. 



The lack of competent men has made 

 it necessary to stop the running of val- 

 uation surveys, and also to limit the 

 time which should be spent upon studies 

 of reproduction. Nevertheless, during 

 the past year much stress has been laid 

 upon valuation surveys and several par- 

 ties charged with this work dispatched 

 to different islands. As the nature of 



the work demands a continual moving 

 from place to place, it is seldom possible 

 to stay any length of time in one of the 

 small villages. Camping out in the 

 mountains requires a good equipment 

 of tents, blankets, and last, but not 

 least, provisions. When camp is near 

 the sea, good fish and oysters can be 

 obtained ; but in the mountains one has 

 to subsist entirely upon canned goods. 

 There is, it is true, game in abundance- 

 wild carabaos and pigs, also a variety 

 of birds ; but the members of the party 

 are usually too fatigued to go hunting 

 on Sunday, and the natives with their 

 primitive methods are not successful 

 sportsmen. During work in the moun- 

 tains of Baler, Tayabas, it was neces- 

 sary to move camp about every two 

 weeks to avoid loss of time in going to 

 and from the base of operations. Trails 

 did not exist, and the party was com- 

 pelled to return over the line of its 

 surveys or through the rocky beds of 

 rivers. In such cases progress was very 

 slow. 



The work itself was done in the usual 

 way. A straight line was run without 



