WORK OF THE FOREST SERVICE 301 



This cooperation with private owners is a field of work which 

 should broaden greatly in the future. The Forest Service must get 

 into closer touch with the private timber ownei's if it is to accom- 

 plish the most possible; and the Service is making a vigorous effort 

 to secure closer cooperation. Perhaps the Forest Service may some- 

 time be given supervisory authority over private timber lands, coupled 

 with the duty of assisting in fire protection, reforestation, and man- 

 agement ; at any rate, the study of forest management in European 

 countries indicates that some extension of the powers and duties of 

 the Forest Service may be necessary if the forest interests of the 

 country are to be adequately guarded. The different states will grad- 

 ually extend the scope of their work in forestry, but the burden of 

 this work must fall mainly on the Federal government.^ 



One of the principal means of assisting private owners is by the 

 preparation and distribution of publications on forestry. These 

 include "planting leaflets," which briefly describe the principal species 

 adapted to the various parts of the United States, and methods of 

 planting them; commercial tree bulletins, which deal with the char- 

 acteristics of the more important commercial species ; and a series 

 of "regional studies," which discuss questions of forest management, 

 planting, and utilization, with reference to the needs of private 

 owners within regions where the conditions of forest growth and 

 markets for wood products are comparatively uniform. Other pub- 

 lications dealing specifically with markets and uses of wood are issued 

 from time to time. 



Indicative of the sympathetic attitude of the Forest Service toward 

 private interests, is the recent investigation of the lumber industry. 

 This investigation by the Forest Service, unlike that made by the 

 Bureau of Corporations a few years earlier (1907-1914), was con- 

 ducted with a view to helping the lumber interests remedy the un- 

 fortunate conditions which had prevailed in the lumber industry for 

 nearly a decade. The Bureau of Corporations had carried on its 

 investigation with the apparent purpose of proving the existence of 

 monopolistic conditions in the industry, no matter what the actual 

 facts disclosed ; while the Forest Service, in the first part of its report, 



1 See the annual reports of the Forester: Forest Circ. 21, 22, 27, 37, 79, 100, 138, 

 203: Forest Bui 32, 39, 56, 68. 



