26 DEPABTMENTAL REPORTS. 



the use of field cameras, setting a higher standard of selection, and 

 designating the subjects especially in need of further illustration. 

 There were sold 882 prints, 163 slides, 5 transparencies, and 7 bromides. 

 Gifts were received of 190 prints and 1 lantern slide, 253 prints were 

 purchased, and 297 were exchanged. . Gifts were made of 2,709 prints 

 (as against 1,677 last j'ear) to 32 educational institutions, applicants 

 for illustrations for 118 books and articles, and 18 other applicants. 

 The offices of field men, chiefly on the National Forests, received 949 

 mounted duplicates. Useful duplicate collections are being made 

 ready for the offices of supervisors. 



The collection of lantern slides now contains 3,956 slides, 376 being 

 added this year. The demand for lecture illustrations led to loans 

 of 4,065 individual slides — 1,710 more than last year. 



WOKK FOB THE ENSUING YEAE. 



The investigation of logged-over areas will be continued and ex- 

 tended to the yellow pine region. Studies of white and yellow birch 

 and ash will be undertaken. New silvical leaflets will be prepared 

 upon the most important western conifers and a series of leaflets de- 

 scribing the silvical conditions on the National Forests will be begun. 

 The silvical notes on species will be added to, with special attention 

 to methods of silvicultural treatment in practice on the National 

 Forests. 



MANAGEMENT. 

 TIMBER SALES. 



The past year showed marked progress in the handling of timber 

 sales on the National Forests, through the added experience of 

 Forest officers and increase in the number of trained men available 

 for the work. Mistakes were less frequent than for the previous year, 

 although the best standard attainable with the means at hand is still 

 too low. Particular attention was given to the location and con- 

 trol of cutting areas and to the marking of timber, in order to 

 leave those parts of the Forests which were lumbered in the best 

 possible condition. Only those trees have been marked for cutting 

 which a Forest officer has determined could be removed without 

 endangering the permanence and productive capacity of the future 

 forest. All healthy young trees of desirable species have been care- 

 fully preserved in the logging, and where they were not sufficient as 

 a basis for a second crop, older trees of the same species have been 

 left standing to seed up the ground. Wherever practicable, mature 

 " trees of kinds which yield inferior timber have been harvested to 

 improve the quality of the stand. During the past year this gradual 

 elimination of undesirable trees from the Forest was carried much 

 further than before, since markets were found for large quantities of 

 material which had hitherto been considered unsalable or of little 

 value. For example, the use of white fir, heretofore considered un- 

 merchantable throughout the West, has increased until in many local- 

 ities it is practically equal in value to species which have long had 

 standing in the lumber trade. 



Similarly, a market was found in Utah for aspen, which has here- 

 tofore been regarded as unsalable. On the Pacific coast western hem- 

 lock sold for prices which indicate that its value as a commercial 

 species has been well established by Forest Service tests. 



