REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. LXV 



for 4,500 trees. All these field measurements require painstaking elab- 

 oration in the office. 



In cooperation with the State of New York, which appropriated 

 $3,500 for that purpose, the field work necessary to a working plan 

 for townships 5, 6, and 41, Hamilton County, in the Adirondack Forest 

 Preserve, has been completed. The results of similar cooperation on 

 township 40 have already been printed in the form of a complete work- 

 ing plan. 



FOREST INVESTIGATION. 



Studies of commercial trees, the practical advantages of which are 

 becoming more and more evident, were continued during the year 

 and extended to many species hitherto not investigated. Extensive 

 studies of the redwood, red fir, and hemlock of the Pacific coast have 

 been completed and are ready for publication. Other trees under 

 investigation are the Western yellow pine, the loblolly and short-leaf 

 pines, the more important Southern hard woods, the Adirondack bal- 

 sam, and the second-growth hard woods of New England. The loca- 

 tion, size, and ownership of the Big Tree groves in the California 

 sierras have been thoroughly studied for the first time, and much fresh 

 information has been obtained of the character of the tree. 



The region containing the proposed Appalachian Forest Reserve was 

 examined in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey. 

 The forest on 9,600,000 acres was mapped, the lands were classified, 

 and a careful study was made of the forests. The result of this exami- 

 nation will be embodied in a report dealing with the suitability of 

 this region for the purpose of a national forest reserve, the cost of 

 such a reserve to the Government, and the good which would result 

 from its careful and conservative management. 



The creation of the proposed reserve is, in my judgment, urgent, in 

 order to protect the headwaters of important streams, to maintain an 

 already greatly impaired supply of timber, and to provide a national 

 recreation ground which, with the single exception of the Adirondacks, 

 will be readily accessible to a larger number of people than any other 

 forest region in the United States. I believe that these considerations 

 render the purchase by the Federal Government of the proposed 

 reserve in the Southern Appalachians desirable in every way. The 

 policy involved is not new. The proposed purchase will not involve 

 the creation of a precedent, for that has already been done. In 1896 

 the Government purchased from the Blackfeet Indians of Montana an 

 area of approximately 615,500 acres for the sum of $1,500,000, and 

 on February 22, 1897, it became a part of the Flathead Forest Reserve. 



A study of the Sierra Forest Reserve has been undertaken, also in 

 cooperation with the United States Geological Survey, and will shortly 

 be completed. 



agr 1901 v 



