it seems desirable to have 'them* utilised aficL J cut regu- 

 larly. Accordingly softie , of -this -grass <has.bon .given 

 free of charge to nd^hb^mg s&ttltjr^ ; jhj G^hW.cases 

 where competition exists a" small* charge *s made/ and 

 in one case it was cut on shares. During the year two 

 permits were issued free of charge and one for a nomi- 

 nal fee ; and in two cases hay was sold which had been 

 cut on shares. 



Timber has been applied for from time to time by 

 people of the district, who still look to the forest (or 

 rather, the remnant still left) for the major part of 

 their support. The material under consideration con- 

 sists largely of the dead cedar of the swamps and the 

 dry old pine "stubs" scattered about the upland. 

 Both pine and cedar were killed by fire and are now in 

 all conditions and stages of decay. This material is 

 exploited in this district in a small way by small 

 crews, often only three or four men together, and the 

 work is largely by hand, in a manner suggesting Euro- 

 pean methods. There is no slashing of broad avenues 

 to admit the large teams and sleighs; four foot paths 

 suffice for the little "travois" and everything is car- 

 ried by hand to these little paths. In this way old 

 sticks of cedar, dead and blown down, twenty and 

 more years ago, are carefully picked out of the thickets 

 of young timber and the woods are left in better shape 

 and far more safe from fire. The cedar is worked up 

 into 8 foot lengths, the pine into regular logs. 



So far eighteen applications have been made, six 

 were refused, one abandoned and eleven were granted. 

 These eighteen applications, eleven fall to the fiscal 

 year 1904-05, indicating that the people are just be- 

 ginning to avail themselves of these methods. The 

 timber is sold in two ways as per regulations ap- 

 proved by the Commission and contained in the Forest 

 Reserve Manual. Smaller cases involving values of 

 $50.00 and less are granted by the warden, larger 

 cases are approved by the Commission. Full juris- 

 diction and control is reserved and in cases of violation 

 of the rules of the Reserves, the forest officer is au- 

 thorized to stop further cutting. 



All timber is scaled or counted and stamped by the 

 ranger and is paid for before removal. During the last 

 fiscal year $731.81 were received from this source 

 from District No. 2, this amount more than covering 

 the regular expenses of this part of the Reserves. 

 This fact is very important and suggestive, for it 

 clearly teaches that if the State had begun fifteen 01 

 twenty years ago when so much more material was 

 still on these lands, and handled its tax title lands in 

 this manner, that the income could easily have paid 

 for a thorough fire protection and thus saved the 

 burning of hundreds of thousands of acres of wood- 

 lands. 



Permanent Improvements 



The headquarters at Cold Springs was cleaned up 

 and the tract (over 60 acres) fenced. A frame shed 

 50x26 was built for the care of wagons, tools and seeds; 

 and also to serve for seed cleaning; and as "men's 

 quarters" for the accommodation of planting crews. 

 A much needed barn has just been completed. In 

 District No. 2 some money was expended in the im- 

 provement of the rangers' headquarters and also in 

 the construction of a piece of road extending south 

 along the range line between T 21-3 and 21-4, from the 

 middle of Section 6 southward to connect the rangers' 

 quarters with the upland to the south and thereby 

 facilitate patrol work. 



The equipment of the Reserves has not been in- 

 creased materially during the year. 



