170 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



together, and the general consumption of- lumber is growing steadily 

 with the increasing population and prosperity of the United States. 



It is evident that never before has forest destruction been so rapid 

 as at present, that we have never been so near to the exhaustion of our 

 lumber supply, and that vigorous measures have never been so urgently 

 required as now. Judged in the light of its beginnings and opportu- 

 nities, the progress of the Bureau of Forestry is perhaps not unsatis- 

 factory. Judged in the light of the task which must be accomplished, 

 if the United States is to escape the hardships of a prolonged lumber 

 famine, its work has scarcely begun. 



The problem of internal organization of the Bureau presented by 

 the accumulation of data collected in the field was met by a thorough 

 overhauling of the material now on hand and by new methods for 

 bringing facts together and making them available in the most practi- 

 cal way. These facts, furnished by field parties working in every 

 part of the country, consist of field notes, reports, surve3'^s, and 

 hundreds of thousands of counts and measurements, besides per- 

 sonal first-hand acquaintance with forest conditions in every part of 

 the United States. How large a task the collection and working up 

 of the.«e facts was during the past year the statement of the work done 

 by the section of Forest Measurements partly shows. The Buireau is 

 now better equipped than ever before to handle and apply to practical 

 forest problems the scientific knowledge which it has, to direct its 

 future studies along fruitful lines, and to bring the results of its 

 researches into published form. 



A new classification of technical grades now applied in the Bureau 

 is as follows: 



Forester; associate forester (chief of the ranking office and assistant 

 to the Forester); assistant forester (chiefs of offices and men occupjnng 

 positions of similar responsibility) ; forest inspector (chiefs of the rank- 

 ing sections of offices and men in charge of independent lines of work 

 of similar importance); assistant forest inspector (chiefs of sections of 

 offices, except of the ranking section, and men occupying positions of 

 similar responsibility); forest assistant (men who enter the Bureau 

 through the examination for forest assistant and have not yet been 

 given charge of independent lines of work); forest agent (men without 

 civil-service standing in charge of subordinate lines of work); forest 

 student (men whose service is temporary and educational in chai-acter 

 and whose training in forestr}^ is incomplete). 



Besides the work immediately centered, under the present scheme of 

 organization, in the Office of the Forester, and which includes Eeserve 

 Boundaries, Cooperative State Forest Studies, Forest Law, and Edi- 

 torial Work, the organization of the Bureau includes the subjects of 

 F'orest Measurements, Forest Management, Dendrology, Forest Exten- 

 sion, Forest Products, and Records. 



BESERVE BOTmDABIES, 



During the field season of 1903 examinations for new forest reserves 

 were made in nine States and Territories of the West. Twenty -two 

 men were engaged in this work. In addition, an extensive examina- 

 tion was made in Alaska. The general public recognition of the high 

 character of the work has been and is most gratifying. 



The purpose of the reserve boundary work of the Bureau is two 



