50 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



February 



Working for 

 Porto Rico's 

 Forests. 



ton, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and 

 Colorado. The Senators on the Irri- 

 gation Committee who are expected to 

 make this trip are: Warren, Hans- 

 brough. Ankeny, Fulton, Bailey, Pat- 

 terson, Gorman, and Newlands. The 

 members of the House Committee are : 

 Mondell, Reeder, Tyrrell, Dwight, 

 Marshall, Cooper, Williamson, Under- 

 wood, Hitchcock, and Van Duser. 



Efforts are being made 

 by the citizens of Port- 

 to Rico to secure leg- 

 islation looking to the preservation of 

 the forests of that territory. The es- 

 tablishment of the Luquillo Forest 

 Reserve in Porto Rico has brought to 

 public attention the vast benefits that 

 come from proper forest conservation 

 and protection, and has impelled some 

 of Porto Rico's most prominent citi- 

 zens to lend their aid to the forest 

 movement, and endeavor to secure 

 legislation during the present session 

 of the Porto Rico Legislature. Porto 

 Rico possesses the only distinctly 

 tropical forest that is a part of the 

 United States in this hemisphere, and 

 legislation looking to an administra- 

 tion of its forest wealth on the princi- 

 ples of practical forestry should have 

 the support of all public-minded citi- 

 zens. 



Forest Reserves 

 in 1904. 



In 1904 seven new 

 forest reserves were 

 created Baker City, 

 in Oregon; Cave Hills and Slim Buttes, 

 in South Dakota ; Grantsville and Salt 

 Lake, in Utah, and Warner Mountains 

 and Modoc, in California. Additions 

 were made to the Fish Lake (Utah), 

 tin- South Platte (Colorado), and the 

 Big Horn (Wyoming) reserves. These 

 reserves cover in the aggregate 893,- 

 i _V' acres. A total area of 310,241 

 acres were added to existing reserves, 

 but 923,782 acres, which examination 

 had shown to be better suited for ag- 

 riculture than for foresty were re- 

 stored to the public domain, so that 

 the net increase in the area of the 

 reserves was but 149,035 acres. 



New Experi- The old system of 

 ments in Tur- boxing Southern pine 

 trees for the produc- 

 tion of turpentine and rosin has very 

 greatly reduced the pine timber wealth 

 of the Southern States. Three years 

 ago the Bureau of Forestry deter- 

 mined that something should be done 

 to eliminate so destructive a method 

 of procuring naval stores. Its three 

 years' experiments towards this end, 

 just completed, have demonstrated 

 that a new system of turpentining, 

 which requires the use of earthen cups 

 and metal gutters, not only greatly 

 conserves the life of the timber tapped, 

 but gives an increased yield of rosin, 

 and therefore a greater profit than is 

 possible by boxing. The box method 

 and the new cup and gutter system 

 of turpentining are fully described 

 and illustrated in Bulletin No. 40, 

 issued by the Bureau of Forestry. 



While the new system is not yet in 

 use by all turpentine operators, its 

 application is extending as rapidly as 

 the necessary equipment can be se- 

 cured. At present there is but one 

 company supplying the kind of cups 

 and gutter iron required. It is hoped, 

 since the demand for this material is 

 very great, that in the near future the 

 supply will be sufficiently increased to 

 enable turpentine operators to procure 

 the needed equipment. 



While, in the work just completed, 

 the Bureau of Forestry has performed 

 an important service to the turpentine 

 industry, it feels, nevertheless, that a 

 still more conservative method of tur- 

 pentining can be found, particularly 

 one which, consistent with a maximum 

 yield of turpentine, shall inflict the 

 smallest possible injury upon the trees. 

 With this in view the Bureau has be- 

 gun an entirely new line of field ex- 

 periments, in order to determine to 

 what extent the wound now made in 

 tapping the trees can be lessened. 



Through the generosity and cordial 

 cooperation of the Hillman Suthern 

 Land Company, of Jacksonville, Fla., 

 a stand of about 40,000 pine trees in 

 Clay county, Florida, together with 



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