FORESTRY BUREAU. 



167 



woods and forests adjoining the sources of the navigable rivers and their 

 affluents, and increasing their extent by planting trees along the courses 

 of the said rivers where the land is timberless, so that the said rivers 

 may be kept in a navigable condition by promoting a continuous supply 

 from their sources and affluents. The commission are to make annual 

 reports to Congress of the result of their examinations. 



This bill, or one of similar character, is the proper beginning of any 

 systematic and efficient work on the part of the Government for the 

 preservation and management of our forests, and it is to be hoped that 

 nothing will delay its speedily taking the form of law. We need a 

 careful survey of our forests in order to determine to what extent their 

 continued preservation is essential to the general welfare, and to what 

 extent they need to be supplemented by plantations of trees where there 

 are none. 



THE FORESTRY CONGRESS. 



In the month of May last the American Forestry Congress, by invi- 

 tation, held a special meeting at the Department. At this meeting, in 

 connection with its appropriate business, several papers were read 

 which treated upon the value and management of the public timber- 

 lands, the influence of forests upon the headwaters of streams, and the 

 distribution of trees in North America. These papers have since been 

 published by the Department as being helpful to the forestry work in 

 which it is engaged through this Bureau, and have been widely dis- 

 tributed through the country. There is reason to think that they will 

 be of important service in conveying information and enlightening pub- 

 lic opinion upon the subjects treated by them. 



EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FORESTRY EXHIBITION. 



The International Forestry Exhibition has been held at Edinburgh, 

 Scotland, during the present summer, in which this country was invited 

 to participate. As we have no scientific schools of forestry, such as 

 abound in most foreign countries, and particularly in Europe, nor any 

 considerable collections of forest products, we were not in a condition, if 

 so disposed, to make any important contributions to the exhibition. It 

 was hardly possible for the Department to be represented in its forestry 

 work. The following report of the exhibition, however, is presented by 

 Professor Eiley, the Entomologist, who visited the exhibition under in- 

 structions from the Commissioner of Agriculture: 



For the inception of this exhibition credit is due to the Scottish Arboricultural So- 

 ciety, and one of its principal objects was to direct public attention to the necessity 

 wbich,exi3ts in Great Britain for the establishment of a school of forestry after the 

 model of those existing in France, Germany, and most other European countries. 

 The apathy of the British Government in respect to such a school is the more remark- 

 able considering that Great Britain possesses, to a larger extent than any other coun- 

 try, forests in every quarter of the globe. 



The classes into which the exhibits were divided were nine in number, viz : Practi- 

 cal forestry, forestry products, scientific forestry, ornamental forestry, paintings, 

 drawings, and photographs of forest subjects, forest literature, essays and reports, 

 economic forestry, and the loan collection. 



About fifty foreign Governments and over five hundred private exhibitors applied 

 for space, so that an infinite variety of articles connected directly or indirectly with 

 woods and forests were laid out for the inspection of visitors. 



The fifty foreign Governments, it should be explained, included the local govern- 

 ments of British colonies, not a few of which were represented. In proceeding to 

 give a few descriptive notes of the collection we begin with the 



