FOREST SEUVICE. 209 



and maps showing the distribution of commercial species, general 

 land and forest conditions, the movements of lumber, and the progress 

 of conservative lumbering. The drawings and diagrams illustrate, 

 among other subjects, the methods and results of testing and preserv- 

 ing timber and methods and appliances employed in forest extension 

 and forest management. The Section made the necessary diagrams 

 and drawmgs for the exhibit of the Forest Service at the Lewis and 

 Clark Exposition. 



WORK FOR THE ENSUING YEAR. 



The Section of Forest Computation will continue to put into 

 final form all forest measurements obtained by the Forest Service. 

 Although the number of measurements taken each year is not increas- 

 ing, this section has large work before it in rendering available for 

 every possible form of use the great volume of forest measurements 

 already on hand. The Section of Forest Maps faces not only the 

 steadily growing demands upon it from investigative and cooperative 

 lines of work, but also the task of building up, so far as this falls 

 within its province, the work in forest mapping essential to the 

 effective management of the forest reserves. 



EXPENDITURES. 



The total expenditures during the year under the head of forest 

 measurements were $30,158.99, or 7 per cent of the total appropria- 

 tion of the Forest Service. 



FOREST MANAGEMENT. 



PUBLIC LANDS. 



Immediately upon the transfer of the National forest reserves to 

 the care of the Bureau of Forestry (now the Forest Service) , on Feb- 

 ruary 1, 1905, steps were taken to put them under forest management. 

 To permit the use of the standing timber and at the same time to 

 maintain the full productive power of the forest for the future, 

 working plans were needed wherever cutting was to take place. 

 Twenty-six trained foresters were therefore detailed to take charge 

 of this and other technical work on the ground. Five of these for- 

 esters were assigned to duty as forest inspectors and twenty-one as 

 technical assistants to forest supervisors, five of whom were on duty 

 by July 1, 1905. The practice of forestry, which makes it possible 

 to harvest the standing timber for the supply of present needs without 

 destroying or diminishing the future usefulness of the forest, has now 

 definitely begun on the National reserves. 



Commercial tree studies of western yellow pine and sugar pine in 

 California, western yellow pine in Colorado, Montana, and South 

 Dakota, and lodgepole pine in "Wyoming were carried on during the 

 past year. This work is intended to furnish definite information as 

 the basis for careful management of forest reserves on which these 

 trees are the important species and for establishing better rules for 

 lumbering the reserves. 



