July 19, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



115 



best days of Gordou Cummiug, is indirect evi- 

 dence of the rapid extension of the Uganda 

 railway and of the remarkable facilities which 

 it affords for travelling in a short space of time 

 to and from London and the heart of Africa. 



THE NEW BUREAU OF FORESTRY.^ 



On the first of July the Division of Forestry 

 and three other scientific divisions of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture were advanced to 

 bureaus. This was provided for by the last 

 session 6f Congress, which appropriated for the 

 expenses of the Bureau of Forestry during its 

 first year $185,440. The appropriation for the 

 Division of Forestry during the year just ended 

 was $88,520. For the year 1898-99 it was 

 $28,520. 



These figures show how rapidly the forest 

 work of the Government has expanded of late, 

 and also how well it has commended itself to 

 Congress. There was a time when the practi- 

 cal value of the scientific investigations carried 

 on by the Government was not fully understood, 

 and farmers were inclined to think that the 

 money spent on experiment stations and 

 chemical laboratories was of little benefit to 

 them. Now the case is very difl'erent. The 

 improvements in agriculture due to the work of 

 the Department have increased the value of 

 the farm products of the country by many 

 millions of dollars annually. As this kind of 

 work has proved its practical utility. Congress 

 has shown itself generous toward it. The 

 readiness with which Congress has increased 

 the appropriations for the Division of Forestry 

 is the best evidence that forestry has proved 

 its importance from a business standpoint. 



The change from a division to a bureau, and 

 the larger appropriation, will make possible 

 both an improved office organization and more 

 extended field work. The bureau will be pro- 

 vided with a much larger ofiice force and will 

 be organized in three divisions. But field 

 work, not office work, is what the bureau exists 

 for. This work has been going on during the 

 last year from Maine to California and from 

 Georgia to Washington. It includes the study 

 of forest conditions and forest problems all over 

 the country, the giving of advice to owners of 



* Press bulletin. 



forest lands, and the supervising of conservative 

 lumbering operations which illustrate forest 

 management on business principles. This work 

 can now be greatly extended. Private owners 

 of some three million acres have applied for 

 this advice, which in every case requires per- 

 sonal examination, and about 177,000 acres 

 have been put under management. This land 

 is in many tracts, large and small, and is owned 

 by individuals, clubs and corporations. Several 

 State governments have also asked the aid of 

 the bureau. But the greatest demand is that of 

 the Department of the Interior of the National 

 Government, which has asked for working 

 plans for all the forest reserves, with the 

 enormous total area of about 47,000,000 acres. 



The Bureau of Forestiy is made up of the 

 Division of Forest Management, the Division 

 of Forest Investigation, and the Division of 

 Records. Each of these continues, with en- 

 larged facilities, work which was in progress 

 under the old Division of Forestry. 



The Division of Forest Management is in 

 charge of Mr. Overton W. Price, the former 

 superintendent of working plans. When the 

 owner (private or public) of woodland wishes 

 to consider the possibilities of his property if 

 handled as a constant source of timber supply, 

 the tract must be exainined by an expert to as- 

 certain the condition of the standing timber,- 

 the prospects of reproduction, the facilities for 

 marketing, the best method of harvesting the 

 present crop so as to secure the largest present 

 and future yield, and the likelihood of success 

 under management. A preliminary report is 

 then made. If the owner decides on manage- 

 ment, a working plan follows. This involves a 

 careful study of the rate of growth of the differ- 

 ent kinds of marketable timber, the computa- 

 tion of the proper interval between cuttings and 

 of the amount of timber to be harvested, and, 

 if desired, the recommendation of the necessary 

 regulations to enable the work to go on under 

 contract. All this falls to the Division of For- 

 est Mans^gement. 



The Division of Forest Investigation, under 

 the charge of Mr. Geo. B. Sudworth, makes 

 studies of trees — of their rates of growth, dis- 

 tribution, reproduction and habits — and in- 

 vestigates all the forest problems connected 



