THE WORK OF THE BUREAU OF 



FORESTRY 



BY 

 OVERTON W. PRICE 



Associate Forester, United States Department of Agriculture 



T N THIS opportunity to say a word to you about the 

 work of the Bureau of Forestry, I want to go a 

 little further than merely to catalogue its present 

 achievement. Because it seems to me that your chief 

 interest lies not merely in what the Bureau has already 

 done. It lies rather in the power of the Bureau for 

 future accomplishment, which its organization and its 

 point of view make possible. For although in the light 

 of its results, the achievement of the Bureau is tangible 

 and far-reaching, it marks only a small beginning, in 

 the light of the work not yet done. And since the 

 great bulk of the forest work is ahead of us, I want 

 particularly to indicate how the policy of the Bureau 

 enables it to assist in the practical solution of the forest 

 problems still before the great industries represented 

 here. 



Six years ago the reorganization of the Bureau took 

 place. At that time, the foundation of an individual, 

 a state, and a national forest policy had in part been 

 laid, but its practical application had scarcely begun. 

 It was the attitude of the Division then, as it is the 

 attitude of the Bureau now, that the printing press and 

 the lecture room are not in themselves adequate to get 

 forestry generally into effect in this country; that the 

 urgent need is practical field work with which to meet 

 great forest problems on their own ground, and that 

 the results of this field work, the practical solution of 



