326 DEPARTMENTAL REPOETS. 



until recently. The expansion of this force, which has been a matter 

 of great difficulty in the past, will be comparatively easy in the future, 

 since the Bureau may now look for a steady supply of trained men 

 from the forest schools. 



The steady growth of public interest in the preservation and wise 

 use of forests during the past year is a subject for congratulation. 

 Not only has the interest in forest management spread among impor- 

 tant lumber companies and other holders of forest lands, but the 

 interest in forest preservation has taken firmer hold than ever before 

 of those portions of the country whose prosperity depends upon their 

 water supply . The intimate relation of forests and waters is being 

 realized in the West with a practical force that is altogether new, and 

 it may fairly be expected that from this time on one of the most 

 powerful aids toward forest preservation will be the cooperation of 

 the irrigation farmer. 



There has been a marked development of the forest movement in 

 the South during the past year. The growing appreciation of the 

 advantages of practical forestry is here, no less than in the North, 

 largely the direct result of practical assistance from this Division to 

 private owners in handling their forest lands. 



Interest in tree planting has revived in the central West to a very 

 marked degree, as a result of the efforts of this Division, and the 

 promise of still wider and happier results is exceptionally bright. 



EFFICIENCY AND GROWTH. 



It is believed that the practical efficiency of the Division has never 

 been at a higher point than during the past fiscal year, and it may 

 fairly be hoped that with larger resources and more numerous trained 

 men, and with a further development of the esprit de corps which was 

 already a marked characteristic of the Division, the Bureau of Forestry 

 will reach that still higher plane whose attainment is a necessary con- 

 dition to the fulfillment of thae possibilities which lie in the immediate 

 future of Government forest work. 



The larger work of the Division so far outgrew its old rooms, 

 together with all the additional space it had been able to secure from 

 kindred organizations in the Department of Agriculture, that it was 

 forced to find larger quarters. On May 1 it took possession of the 

 seventh floor of the Atlantic Building, 930 F street, NW. Tentative 

 arrangements have been made for necessary expansion to other floors 

 of the Atlantic Building, since the present quarters are already 

 becoming too small. 



It is a gratifying fact that for the calendar year 1900 the average 

 sick leave taken by employees of the Division of Forestry was but 7.4 

 per cent and of annual leave but 65.9 per cent of the legal allowance. 



SECTION OF WORKING PLANS. 

 PRIVATE LANDS. 



The applications from private owners for assistance in handling 

 their forest lands number 38 for the past year. Twenty-one are for 

 timber tracts and 17 for wood lots, the total area covered being 

 288,555 acres. The total area of private lands to July 1, 1901, for the 

 management of which assistance has been requested since the publi- 

 cation of Circular No. 21, in October, 1898, is 2,804,648 acres. This 

 circular outlines the terms on which farmers, lumbermen, and others 



