BUJSEATJ OF FORESTRY 133 



The total number of applications to June 30, 1902, is 262, the number 

 of plans prepared 224, the area examined, 197,439.2 acres, and the 

 area to be planted, 6,474.32 acres. Thirty-eight applications await 

 attention. 



The plans represent 29 States and Territories and 172 localities. In 

 addition, personal advice and instruction have been given in these 

 localities to many other planters. It has been the practice of the 

 representatives of the Bureau in this work to attend and address local 

 meetings when such are called in the interest of forestry by the citi- 

 zens of a community where work is being done. At Anthony, Kans. , 

 where such a meeting was held last summer, over 500,000 trees were 

 set out this spring in consequence, in addition to the planting under 

 plans regularh^ prepared in that locality. 



Planting under this year's jjlans has several i)urposes. Protective 

 shelter belts and farm wood lots have generally been the object in the 

 Middle AVest. Several commercial plantations are being dc\ eloped 

 in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska for fence posts and telegraph 

 poles, though none is of great extent. An average example is a plan- 

 tation at Stafford, Kans., which covers 30 acres and has for its object 

 the production of fence posts. The Middle West has comparatively 

 little nonagricultural land, and except for the production of fence 

 posts, telegraph poles, and railroad ties, forest jilanting will not as a 

 rule be practiced by individual planters on a larger scale than farm 

 wood lots and shelter belts. The Eastern States have a high percent- 

 age of land adapted only to forest purposes, a good pai't of which has 

 been stripped of timber beyond the hope of natural reproduction. 

 Such land often lies within reach of good himber markets. In many 

 places in New England land worth from $2 to $5 per acre can be 

 stocked with White Pine at fair annual profit on the investment, reck- 

 oning lumber at present prices and a period of growth of from forty 

 to sixty years, and this has encouraged many land owners to begin 

 planting on their idle lands. 



An increasing amount of forest planting is being done for the pur- 

 pose of protection, and this Bureau is giving practical aid in several 

 cases of this nature. For example, the most extensive planting in 

 New England is being done by the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage 

 Board of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for the pur^jose of pro- 

 tecting from silt the immense reservoir under construction at Clinton, 

 Mass. , to supply Boston and surrounding cities with water. Seed 

 beds, in preparation for this planting, were established two years ago. 

 Planting was begun this year under plans prepared by the Bureau 

 . and carried forward with a force of 48 men under the immediate 

 direction of a forester pri vately employed. One hundred and seventy- 

 five acres were planted. It will require three years more to complete 

 the planting at present planned, which will cover 1,500 acres. Seed- 

 lings are already on hand for the planting of this area, which is, 

 however, but half of that which the plantation will eventually occupy. 



In no case has the Bureau furnished seeds or trees or participated 

 in any degree in the expense of planting. Its outlay is limited to the 

 expenses of its agents in making the preliminary examinations and 

 planting plans. 



STUDIES OP PLANTED W^OODLANDS. 



Reliable advice and instruction in forest planting must be based 

 upon a thorough knowledge of the purposes for which planting is 



