24 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANT MATERIAL. 



There is no doubt that to the settler on the treeless plain the supply of plant material could 

 be made an effective incentive to forest planting, but it would have to be done on a different scale 

 from that which has been practicable under the appropriations for the Division. Distribution of 

 plant material for agricultural use and for forest planting differs in principle as well as in object. 

 While seed distribution in the first case may be desirable for the purpose of introducing new kinds 

 and improving the character of agricultural crops, this can only exceptionally be the purpose in 

 the distribution of forest-plant material. The native trees are almost invariably the best to plant. 

 The object of the distribution would be to induce the planting of a crop which without such special 

 inducement would not be planted at all. Moreover, the handling of tree seeds is connected with 

 greater difficulties than of agricultural seeds, and planting of seedlings rather than of seed is the 

 proper procedure. 



Since forest planting means planting on large areas, if there is to be any result, and requires 

 a large number of plants to the acre— not less than 2,000— it is at once apparent that the Division 

 could not supply the plant material for many acres or to many applicants. After useless and dis- 

 couraging attempts to comply with the law, the effort was abandoned and the provision remained 

 a dead letter, except when there could be secured seeds or plants of certain kinds, the adapta- 

 bility of which to certain climatic conditions was desired to be tested. 



TREES FOR THE ARID REGIONS. 



In 1897, at the request of the Secretary of Agriculture to devise means of finding the trees 

 best adapted for planting in arid regions, including in this term probably all parts of the dry 

 country west of the 100th meridian, which is practically treeless, the writer submitted a plan, 

 which would at least insure a comprehensive and systematic basis for the accomplishment of the 

 final object. It contemplated the establishment of a series of arboreta in various parts of that 

 dry region, where the arborescent flora of the arid regions of the world might be assembled and 

 tested, after thorough study of the climates cf the regions where this plant material was to be 

 collected by competent men. A competent gentleman was secured to carry out this plan, the 

 methods and objects of which are more fully set forth in Bulletin 21 of the Division of Forestry. 

 This plan, devised for a specific line of introduction of exotics, recommended itself so well for gen- 

 eral application in the work of plant introduction that it has been developed as a special branch 

 of the Seed Division, where now, with special appropriations, the whole question of plant importa- 

 tion is placed on a systematic basis. 



PROPAGANDA WORK. 



A large amount of attention, time, and energy has been spent by the Division and its chief to 

 secure recognition of its field and to elucidate its meaning, its importance, and its methods before 

 legislators, before associations, before the public, and in the technical and daily press. 



Its exhibits at the various expositions at Few Orleans, at Cincinnati, at Paris, at Chicago, at 

 Atlanta, at Nashville, at Omaha, have perhaps had as much effect in bringing the subject home 

 to the people as its printed utterances. 



While the many addresses and lectures delivered before associations and other public meet- 

 ings, the many articles furnished to magazines and journals, the many arguments and statements 

 presented before legislative committees, may perhaps hardly be considered as work of an official 

 nature, nevertheless they did their share in advancing correct ideas among the people quite as 

 much as if they had been uttered officially. The reiteration of the same truths in different garb 

 is necessary if we desire to secure a reform, and every means must be seized upon if we desire to 

 educate a large public. The Division, therefore, identified itself with every movement which was 

 started in the same direction, in which its official functions directed it. It became the acknowl- 

 edged assistant of all such movements. 



In thus molding public opinion it became instrumental in committing legislatures and gov- 

 ernments to take an interest in forestry matters and to consider legislation in their behalf. 



While eventually many other influences became active in forwarding the forestry movement, 

 it will not be denied that the first and the most active factor in advancing forestry reform has 

 been the Division of Forestry. 



