BUREAU OF FORESTRY. 171 



fold. It is carried on, first, to prevent the destruction of forest growth 

 on public land.s hitherto unreserved where these lands will be perma- 

 nently most useful to the communities interested in them if kept under 

 forest, and, secondly, to bring about the elimination from reserves of 

 land worth more for agriculture, mining, or other purposes. The 

 public domain has been passing so rapidly into private ownership that 

 it was at first necessary in many cases to act hastily in making forest 

 reserves if anything worth reserxing was to be secured. These 

 reserves will be the remnant of the vast empire that lay beyond the 

 Mississippi which can still be handed down as a national heritage after 

 all the rest of the public lands worth having have become private prop- 

 erty. But it is the avowed purpose of the Government to withdraw 

 no land from settlement for forest reserves which can be put to better 

 use in other ways, and examinations are therefore made bv the Bureau 

 to secure the correction of boundaries which include too much as M'ell 

 as to discover where additional areas should be included. 



One hundred and thirty-four maps in duplicate, or 26S maps in all, 

 and 67 reports have been prepared in connection with reserve bounda- 

 ries during the year. The total expenditure under this head was 

 160.28a. 91, including salaries, or 17 percent of the total appropriation 

 of the Bureau. 



cooperative state forest studies. 



California. 



The study of the forests of California begun last year in cooperation 

 with the State was continued, occupying 28 men for four months. 

 The field work comprised the mapping and description of the forest 

 on approximatel}' 20,500,000 acres. The types of land mapped were: 

 Timberland, woodland, brush, pasture, fann, burned (restocking and 

 not restocking), and cut-over land (restocking and not restocking). 

 The descriptions of the forest include an account of its composition 

 and condition and a rough estimate of standing timber, with particular 

 attention to the effects of fire, grazing, and lumbering. 



In making a stud}' of the growth and value of planted eucalypts 

 practically all the important groves in California were visited, and their 

 rate of growth was determined. The results will show for the blue, 

 red, manna, and sugar gums what growth and returns may be expected 

 under various conditions in southern California. 



A study was made in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino forest 

 reserves to determine the possibility of improving the cover of cha- 

 parral on important watersheds. A reconnoissance was made of the 

 entire area of the two reserves, but special attention was given to the 

 Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and San Bernardino watersheds, which 

 embrace the more important chaparral areas. The specific questions 

 considered were the conditions under which forest replaces chaparral, 

 the character and composition of chaparral on various slopes and eleva- 

 tions, the value of chaparral as compared with forest in water conserva- 

 tion, and methods of improving the chaparral cover of the watei'sheds 

 by protection and planting. 



The study is complete for the region named, and leads to several 

 importmt conclusions, among which are the facts that there is very 

 little tendency on the part of the forest to replace chaparral, but that 

 chaparral replaces forest almost constantly as a result of fire; that the 



