38 STATE OF MICHIGAN. 



A recent count on sample plats made it appear that about 600,00i> 

 plants were in a thrifty growing condition in these beds today, August 15. 



All expenses of reforestation including planting and all seed and seed 

 bed work to the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 1904, are |1,027.79, a 

 sum far more than covered by the value of the crop of seedlings in the 

 seed beds alone. 



The survey work performed during the first year consisted in a co- 

 operative effort, in which the United States Department of Agriculture 

 in its Forestry Bureau, furnished part of the men and instruments and 

 the Commission three men and all camp, etc., expenses. This work 

 carried on in August and Seyjtember, 1903, covered 14 sections in T. 21, 

 R. 3 W. of District No. 2. This work was done according to a plan 

 prepared by the Warden, and approved both by the Commission and the 

 Bureau of Forestry. The section lines and corners were located and the 

 monuments reestablished. The inside work Avas done by parties of three 

 men each, with large Gurley compasses on Jacob staff, and all features,^ 

 roads, streams as well as topography were noted and sketched. Each 

 forty acres was crossed, two stations were made in each forty, and every 

 ten acre tract thus received a special consideration, mapping and de- 

 scription. This description included the following points: 



1. Lay of land (topography) whether level, slope, rolling, ''pot hole,"' 

 hilly, etc. 



2. Soil : sandy, loamy sand, muck, loam, gravel, clay, etc., and also 

 whether poor, fair or good agriculturally. 



3. Moisture: dry, ordinary, moist, wet, swampy. (All swamps are 

 m.apped.) 



4. Soil cover, i. e., the grass and bush cover, its composition and 

 density. 



5. Forest cover: 



a. Kinds of timber. Jack Pine, Oak, etc., and proportions of these. 



b. Merchantable material, or stuff over 12 inches in diameter, breast 

 high. Here also the amount, quality and thrift of growth. 



c. Pole stuff or material 6 to 12 inches in diameter, breast high. Here 

 the estimated number, general height, diameters, and condition of growth 

 (thrift). This is usually estimated by one-fourth acre snmple circles, 

 but was also examined into by regular caliper measurements of strips 

 four rods wide where all stuff was actually measured. 



d. Young stuff of all kinds. This was described by the amount of 

 cover it produced, i. e., whether scattered or in an actual stand, whether 

 uniformly distributed, and also of what species it is composed. 



e. Former conditiou of the forest cover, as indicated by the stumps 

 and stubs, i. e., whether there was a forest and about what size and 

 amount of timber was removed or destroyed on the area. 



0. Suggestions as to what prospects there are for a restocking and 

 what, if any, should be the measures adopted to help nature in her effort 

 to reclothe the land. 



This work covered the following points and expenses to the Commis- 

 sion : Location of section corners, re-establishing of corners and part of 

 the section lines. This work was done by resident land and timber sur- 

 veyors, and cost in labor : f 96.00. 



2. Regular forest survey or ^vork inside of sections. This was done 

 by student assistants, and the expense borne by the Department of Agri- 



