APPENDIX KK. FORESTRY BUREAU, Manila, P. I., August 15, 1900. SECRETARY UNITED STATES MILITARY GOVERNOR IN THE PHILIPPINES, Manila, P. I. SIR: I have the honor to submit, in reply to your letter of July 25, 1900, the following Annual Report of the Forestry Bureau for the year ending June 30, 1900. The Forestry Bureau was organized by the undersigned pursuant to the following order: GENERAL ORDERS, No. 50. OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY GOVERNOR IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, Capt. George P. Ahern, Ninth U. S. Infantry, is hereby appointed in charge of the Forestry Bureau (Inspeccion General de Montes) heretofore administered as a Bureau of the Direccion General de Administracion Civil. By command of Major-General Otis: PERSONNEL. M. BARBER, Assistant Adjutant-General. Shortly after taking charge notices were sent to the former forestry officials to make application for service in the Bureau if they so desired, realizing the fact that foresters acquainted with the country, forest botany, people, language, and former regulations, would be more useful in beginning this work than any officials obtained from other countries. A number of these former officials presented themselves with their credentials, which consisted of diplomas from the Agricultural College of Manila and a detailed history of their service in the forestry corps. I received authority to employ 4 foresters, 2 rangers, a stenographer, and a translator; the foresters at $100 Mexican and the rangers at $50 Mexican per month. The post-office addresses of 14 foresters and 30 rangers were taken for future reference, and these men will be called upon as the service requires. Under Spanish administration a force of 66 expert foresters and 64 rangers, with 40 other subordinates as clerks, draftsmen, etc., formed the personnel of the forestry service. The service was organized in 1863, the higher officials being selected from the corps of engineers of Spain, and no Filipino was permitted to hold any of the higher positions in the service. In addition to the care of the forests, the Bureau was in charge of the surveys of all public lands. The forestry laws and regulations in force in August, 1898, are found to be excellent and practicable and in line with the most advanced forestry legislation of Europe, where the science of forestry has reached such a high state of perfection. These laws and regulations were not fully enforced and scientific forestry was not practiced, as the records now on hand show, and from information gathered from the former forestry officials. Licensees cut any and everything; trees to be felled were not selected; any tree, no matter how small, could be felled; valuable rubber, guttapercha, and ylang ylang trees were taken, and the most valuable woods used as firewood. As a matter of fact, the officials began their work after the tree left the forest and not before. Fortunately, the amount felled has not been great. In one of the colleges in Manila some of the advanced students have taken up botany, chemistry, mineralogy, zoology, and topographical surveying. More trained foresters will be needed in a year or two, and unless we begin at once to train these young men there will be a lack of properly equipped officials for this service. A few additional studies could be taken up, even during the last year of the college course; and this followed by a year devoted to the study of forest botany, forest protection and surveys, appraisal and administration of forests, and forest history and statistics would give the service a few young men who after six months' practical work in the field would be started well on a most attractive career-a career eminently scientific and practical. In time a forestry school can be started and maintained from the forest revenues, but such a school is not possible this year, and the need of officials will be immediate. REGULATIONS. The Spanish forestry regulations were translated and a new set compiled, based practically on the old, but arranged in a more compact form, a few changes being made. Blank forms similar to the old are used, with a few additional ones, nearly all printed in Spanish with English notes. The regulations are to go into effect July 1, 1900, and are published in the form of a General Order, No. 92, from the office of the United States military governor in the Philippines, dated Manila, P. I., June 27, 1900. RECORDS. The Spanish forestry archives for the Philippine Islands were received from the Bureau of Archives, and have been arranged and classified. These records were found to be incomplete and unsatisfactory, consisting principally of applications for licenses, reports on same, statements of wood cut under said licenses, and a long list of reports on the fraudulent utilization of forest products. My first inquiry was for the plans of exploitation of the State forests and maps of the same. For years the Spanish laws and regulations ordered just how the exploitation of forests was to be accomplished, and I felt certain that such would be found, but was doomed to disappointment, as no maps of State forests had been made, no plans of exploitation completed, and very little other data available by which to form some idea of the extent of the State's forests and the amount of timber standing on the same. There are some data showing the amount and kinds cut, and from these we may judge of the existence of certain tree species in the provinces specified. STATE FORESTS. From various sources of information I am led to believe that the public forest lands comprise from one-fourth to possibly one-half of the area of the Philippine Islands, viz, from twenty to forty million acres. There are fully 5,000,000 acres of virgin forest owned by the State in the islands of Mindoro and Paragua. The island of Mindanao, with an area of more than 2,000,000 acres, is almost entirely covered with timber and but a small percentage of cultivated land. In the province of Cagayan, on the island of Luzon, there are more than 20,000,000 acres of forest. In the places just mentioned the cuttings up to the present date have been very small. In many other provinces in the island of Luzon, especially in the country close to Manila, much timber has been cut; and to fill large contracts the lumbermen are obliged to go quite a distance from this city in order to find a suitable tract. In a recent visit to the southern islands of this group I was impressed with the amount of timber standing on the smaller islands. Frequently the topography was such that it could be exploited with facility. I saw tracts of virgin forest where from 10,000 to 20,000 cubic feet of magnificent timber per acre was standing, trees more than 150 feet in height, and with trunks clear of branches for 80 feet, and more than 4 feet in diameter. There are many millions of cubic feet of timber in these forests that should be cut in order to properly thin out the dense growth. For instance where there are 3 or 4 trees growing on a space required by one, that one so freed would put on more good wood each year than the four together. Forestry is largely a question of light and shade; it is comparatively easy to learn the most desirable tree species for a certain locality, but the question of whether 300 or 3,000 trees should remain on one acre is where the real value of the scientific forester is shown. There are 396 tree species mentioned in the present forestry regulations, and we know of 50 more growing in these islands, and each week we learn of still other species. It is safe to state that the number of tree species found in these islands will be nearer 500 than 450, a great majority of these undoubtedly being hard woods. The edges of the great forests have been scarcely cut away and 50 valuable hard woods are given to the world, the full value of which species have not been demonstrated as yet. There are a great variety of valuable gum, rubber, and gutta-percha trees, but the trade has been ruined by the Chinese in their efforts at adulteration and other fraudulent practices. We have a list of 17 dyewoods, the revenue from which, if properly exploited, should pay the cost of the forestry service. A book has been written by Tavera on the medicinal qualities of the native plants, many trees being mentioned as possessing valuable medicinal qualities. The ylang ylang tree abounds here, its blossoms producing an oil which is the base of many renowned perfumes. Quite a revenue is gained by those owning these trees. The west slope of the island of Romblon is a mass of cocoanut palms from the water's edge to the mountain top, every tree bringing in a yearly revenue of from $1 to $2; and when it is realized that 400 and 500 such trees may be grown on an acre one is struck with the wisdom of that former commander of Romblon who insisted upon such exten sive planting of these trees. In all parts of the southern islands these trees seem to grow without any effort or care. Southern Paragua and Mindanao are celebrated for the great variety of gum, rubber, and gutta-percha trees grown there; but these forests have never been properly exploited and afford a very attractive field for the investigator. This office is at work compiling notes on about 50 of the most important tree species, giving popular and scientific descriptions of same, with colored illustrations of the fruit, flowers, and leaf of each species. This, if arranged in book form, would be of service to all interested in our forests, and will be of great value to the American and other lumbermen who are not familiar with the tropical tree species and who wish to operate in these islands. It will be the aim of this Bureau to collect all data of interest connected with our forests. Specimens of woods will be added to those now on hand and their uses and beauty shown as far as practicable. MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. There are no forest roads or river driveways in these islands that are worth mentioning. It will be impossible to exploit these forests until roads are constructed, rivers improved, and harbors provided. The methods at present are exceedingly slow and expensive. The tree is felled far from any road, is hauled out very slowly by one or more carabaos, many tracts being left untouched, due to the difficulty of the haul and the lack of roads. The natives are not skilled lumbermen, and, while paid but a small wage, are by no means cheap labor when we consider the cost of felling and hauling a cubic foot of timber to the shipping point. The most interesting statistics from foreign forestry reports are those published by Germany, showing the increase in the value of forest lands as the character of the roads improve. Good stone roads have made the German forest lands worth to-day on an average of $181 (gold) per acre, and these same lands with standing timber less in quantity and quality than we find at present on many large areas in these islands. There will be some difficulty in the construction of roads in such places as Cagayan, Mindoro, and Paragua, but these difficulties can be overcome. The money for this construction should be appropriated from the forest revenues. Competent engineers should supervise the work. Stone is plentiful and available, but labor is scarce and such as we have is poor and uncertain. This latter will be the one great difficulty; when that is solved, engineers and money will build roads that will make the Philippine forests yield a revenue that is undreamed of to-day by the residents of these islands. Lumbermen contemplating extensive operations, after solving the labor problem, must next consider the roads and driveways. The main roads should be built by the State with a view to the gradual betterment of the tributary forests. For several years the efforts of the forestry service should be directed to a judicious thinning of the dense jungles where an axe has never been heard, many varieties of undesirable tree species should be cut away and the dense growth thinned out. The State and lumbermen should work together; after the first roads are started the lumbermen can figure on the possibilities of the first forest so tapped. There are no pure forests of any |