830 DEPARTMENTAL REPOKTS. 



the Federal forest reserves is the preparation of working plans for 

 practical forestry in the New York State Forest Preserve, the result 

 of a request by the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission in the winter 

 of 1900. The purpose of this request was to enable the commission 

 to present to the legislature an authoritative statement of how the 

 preserve should be handled under practical forestry and upon it to 

 base definite recommendations. 



The working plan for township 40, Totten and Crossfield purchase, 

 Hamilton County, N. Y., was completed, and has recently appeared 

 as Bulletin No. 30 of the Division of Forestry. It is the result of 

 the most careful study on the ground which has ever served as the 

 basis for a forest working plan in this country. This study shows 

 that township 40 is fully adapted for practical forestry, and that it 

 contains a sufficient quantity of accessible mature timber to insure 

 profitable lumbering under conservative methods. The original for- 

 est which still covers the township includes large quantities of 

 mature and over-mature trees, the prompt marketing of which is 

 necessary both in order to avoid direct loss by decay and to improve 

 the conditions of growth for the young trees, which must make the 

 forest of the future. The working plan for township 40 outlines in 

 detail a safe, practicable, and profitable method of lumbering the 

 soft-wood timber, which will improve the condition of the forest, pro- 

 tect the sources of water supply, and leave untouched the value and 

 beauty of the township as a public preserve. This working plan 

 was made under a State appropriation of $2,000 for the expenses of 

 the agents of the Division of Forestry while in the field. During its 

 last session the New York legislature appropriated $3,500 more to 

 prepare working plans for townships 5, 6, and 41. This work was 

 begun in May of the present year and continued throughout the 

 summer. 



FOREST MEASUREMENTS. 



No small part of the work of the Section of Working Plans lies in 

 the computation of results obtained in the field by both this section 

 and the Section of Special Investigations in its studies of commercial 

 trees. During the year this work comprised the calculation and 

 casting into final tables of measurements of the total stand of young 

 and old trees on about 19,000 acres, and of the rate of growth of over 

 9,000 trees. 



EXPENDITURES. 



The total expenditures during the year by the Section of Working 

 Plans were $29,088.73, or 32.9 per cent of the total appropriation. 

 Of the $12,775 contributed by private owners as their share of the 

 expenses in the preparation of working plans begun during the year 

 1900-1901, $1,785.36 had been expended at the end of the fiscal year, 



SECTION OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



This section has a wide and increasing field. It includes many 

 important lines of investigation, among which are studies of com- 

 mercial trees, forest fires, grazing, log scales, forests and water supply, 

 the compilation of forest histories, and the investigation of forest 

 products. The section is confronted by a number of forest problems 

 whose solution is of direct and urgent importance to the best develop- 

 ment of our natural resources. 



