The Tribune Almanac and Political Register

The following table shows the estimated gain made during 1909 as a result of the irrigation projects partly completed.

Acreage in partly completed reclamation projects, acreage irrigated in 1909, estimated gross value of crops in 1909, and estimated increase in land values due to reclamation, revised to December 31, 1909:

Area cropped. †Including Buford-Trenton.

THE FOREST SERVICE.

The Forest Service is one of the bureaus of the Department of Agriculture. has charge of the administration and protection of the national forests, and also promotes the practice of forestry generally through investigations and the diffusion of information. The work of the government in forestry was initiated by the appointment of Dr. Franklin B. Hough in 1876 as special agent in the Department of Agriculture. In 1881 a division of forestry was created in that department. In 1901 this division became the Bureau of Forestry; and in 1905, when the care of the national forests was given to the bureau, its name became the Forest Service.

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Previously the care of the national forests had been in the hands of the Department of the Interior. A law authorizing the President to set apart forest serves was passed in 1891; but no provision for their administration and use made until 1897. Previous to 1905 the Bureau of Forestry merely gave expert advice, on request, to the Department of the Interior concerning the application of forestry to the forest reserves. The change of name from "forest reserves" to "national forests" was made in 1906, in order to correct the impression that the forests were, as "reserves," withdrawn from use. Since the Forest Service took charge of them the fundamental aim has been to open them to the widest use consistent with their proper protection.

The reserves were set aside as follows: By President Harrison, 13,416,710 acres; by President Cleveland, 25.686,320 acres; by President McKinley, 7,050.089 Forest Reserves.

acres; by President Roosevelt. 148,346.924 acres. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, President Taft added to the national forests 453,517 acres, and eliminated from them 2.037,645 acres, making their area at the close of the year 192,931,197 acres. The eliminations threw out land which was found to be better suited for agricultural and other purposes than for forestry. An act of Congress, passed in 1907, prohibits any additions by the President to the national forest area in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

The following tables show the national forest expenditures and receipts for the fiscal year 1910, compared with those for the fiscal year 1909:

Expenditures for Administration and Protection and Permanent Improvements During Fiscal Year 1910, Compared with 1909.

Comparison of receipts from the several sources for the fiscal years 1909 and 1910.

Under the law, 25 per cent of the gross receipts are paid to the states in which the national forests are located, to be expended for roads and schools. The amount to be paid to the states in this way from the receipts in 1910 is $500, 194 84.

The grazing receipts for 1910 were paid by the holders of 20,692 permits to graze 1,497,570 cattle, horses and hogs, and of 4,995 permits to graze 7,648,952 sheep and goats. The receipts from timber sales were paid by 5,398 Grazing. purchasers, who cut the equivalent of 379,616,000 board feet of timber. The receipts from special uses were paid by the holders of 4,538 permits. In other words, these receipts represent profitable use of the forests by some 50,000 individuals or concerns. To the use for which payment was made must be added the heavy free use of the forests by the public. Figures for free use of timber are as follows: Free Use of Timber in National Forests.

In issuing permits for reservoirs, conduits, power houses and transmission lines for commercial power development, the Forest Service has steadfastly insisted on contions designed to prevent speculative or perpetual holdings and to secure the full development of available power and the payment of reasonable charges for the use of

land.

The total stand of timber in the national forests, exclusive of Alaska, is estimated at over 500,000,000 board feet.

The following table shows the total cut of timber from the national forests in the scal year 1910: Timber Cut from National Forests.

The average price on the stump for the timber sold in 1910 was $2 44 per thousand board feet.

The following table shows the amounts and kinds of stock grazed in the national forests in 1910, by states:

Pay Permits for Grazing in National Forests.

The value of the public property administered by the Forest Service is estimated at over two billion dollars.

At the head of the Forest Service are the Forester, Henry S. Graves, and the Associate Forester, A. F. Potter. The work is organized under the following branches: Operation and lands, James B. Adams in charge; The Forest silviculture, W. T. Cox in charge; grazing, A. F. Potter in Administration. charge; products, William L. Hall in charge.

The 149 national forests are distributed in six districts, with a district forester in charge of each, and headquarters as follows: District 1 (Montana, Northeastern Washington, Northern Idaho, Northwestern South Dakota, Northern Michigan, Northern Minnesota and Southwestern North Dakota), Missoula, Mont., W. B. Greeley, District Forester; District 2 (Colorado, Wyoming, the remainder of South Dakota, Nebraska and Western Kansas), Denver, Colo., Smith Riley, District Forester; District 3 (most of Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, New Mexico and Oklahoma), Albuquerque, New Mexico, A. C. Ringland, District Forester; District 4 (Utah, Southern Idaho, Western Wyoming, Eastern and Central Nevada, and a small portion of Northwestern Arizona), Ogden, Utah, E. A. Sherman, District Forester; District 5 (California and Southwestern Nevada), San Francisco, Cal., F. E. Olmsted, District Forester, and District 6 (Washington, Oregon and Alaska), Portland, Ore., C. S. Chapman, District Forester.

On July 1, 1910, the force employed by the Forest Service numbered 3,093. Of these 2,491 were employed upon the national forests, and 602 were engaged in administrative, scientific and clerical work at the Washington and district headquarters. Of the employees on the national forests the force engaged principally in protective work numbered 1,859 men, as follows: Forest rangers, 243; assistant forest rangers, 1,050; forest guards, 558; game wardens, 2; hunters and trappers, 6. The protective force was therefore about one man for every 104,000 acres, or 163 square miles. (Prussia has one man for every 1,700 acres, and Baden one for every 750.)

The branch of silviculture directs the management of the national forests as regards both the systems of cutting mature timber and the work of forest planting, supervises their protection, cooperates with states in developing Silviculture. forest policies adapted to their requirements, cooperates with private forest owners who desire to practise forestry on their lands. and carries on silvicultural investigations of the important species of the United States. Its most important work is in connection with the management of the national forests, where the chief problem, after fire protection, is to replace the mature timber as it is sold and cut by young growth of valuable species.

In planting within the national forests, the primary object is to produce commerdial timber, although in a number of cases planting has been done chiefly with the view of reforesting denuded watersheds, in order to control and regulate the flow of streams directly supplying cities and towns. During the year ending June 30, 1910, 7,400 acres in national forests were sown or planted to trees, chiefly Douglas fir, Western yellow pine, Austrian pine and Engelmann spruce. There are forty-five government nurseries which supply the national forests. These have a present stock of about 20,000,000 plants, and are capable of supplying 18,000,000 a year. In the East, forest planting has been done mainly in cooperation with states and private

owners.

At the request of the states, the Forest Service makes examinations of their forest conditions, makes silvicultural studies of practical importance, suggests remedial legislation for giving the states a wise forest policy, etc. The cost of such work is shared by the states and the service. The service co-operates with private owners by sending its experts to examine timber tracts and report on the proper methods for managing and protecting them. The cost of such an examination is borne by the owner. During 1910 examinations were made of timber tracts aggregating 323,000 acres. The branch of grazing supervises the grazing of livestock upon the national forests, the principal lines of work being: The allotment of grazing privileges,

Grazing.

the issuance of grazing permits, the division of the ranges between different classes of stock or their owners and the regulation of the stock grazed under permit upon the ranges, and the development of the

forage producing capacity of the national forests by the restoration of depleted areas through systematic control of the stock grazed upon them, or by artificial means; through the eradication of noxious range-destroying rodents and through the institution of new methods of range control. By co-operation with federal and state authoritles in the enforcement of quarantine regulations the national forests have been practically freed from infectious or contagious diseases fatal to livestock, and by an active campaign against predaceous animals destructive to livestock the annual loss from this source within the national forests has been reduced by several hundred thousand dollars.

The branch of products carries on studies, tests and demonstrations to further the more complete utilization of the products of the forest. A forest products laboratory is operated at the University of Wisconsin, where experiProducts. ments are made to determine the properties of American woods, to ascertain cheap and effective treatments to prevent decay, to test the adaptability of untried woods for specific uses, such as paper pulp, to develop uses for the material wasted in sawmill operations and to discover processes of obtaining valuable chemical by-products for the waste which can not otherwise be utilized. fice of wood utilization is maintained at Chicago to promote the economic use of wood among the timber-consuming industries. In the Western States all products work centres in the district offices at Denver, San Francisco and Portland.

An of

An important part of the dendrological studies, carried on by the service, is the making of an accurate forest map of the distribution of tree species in the United States, to show the extent, composition and economic posDendrological sibilities of the forest resources. Others of these studies concern Studies. the cedar forests of Texas, and important but little known trees indigenous to the United States, the growth of which may profitably extend to new localities for economic purposes. Prominent among the latter are the desert pines of California. An investigation is being made of the present and probable future supply of Western tan bark oak, as well as of other trees the barks of which are used to adulterate tan bark, and the tannin contents of the barks are being determined by the Bureau of Chemistry. Included also is a study of basket willows. Experimental holts are established on the Arlington Experimental Farm, near Washington, D. C. Attention is given especially to the conditions under which high grade basket rods may be produced.

The forests now cover 550,000,000 acres, or about one-fourth of the United States. Forests publicly owned contain one-fifth of all timber standing. Forests

privately owned contain at least four-fifths of the standing timber. The Nation's The timber privately owned is not only four times that publicly Forest Area. owned, but it is generally more valuable. Forestry is now practised on 70 per cent of the forests publicly owned and on less than 1 per cent of the forests privately owned, or on only 18 per cent of the total area of forests.

The original forests of the United States contained timber in quantity and variety far beyond that upon any other area of similar size in the world. They covered 850,000,000 acres, with a stand of not less than 5,200,000,000,000 board feet of merchantable timber, according to present standards of use. There were five great forest regions the northern, the southern, the central, the Rocky Mountain and the Pacific. The present rate of cutting is three times the annual growth of the forests of the United States. The great pineries of the Lake States are nearing exhaustion, and great inroads have been made upon the supply of valuable timber throughout all parts of the country. The heavy demands for timber have been rapidly pushing the great centres of lumber industry toward the South and West. In consequence, the State of Washington has led for several years in lumber production, now followed in order by Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia and Texas. In 1909 the production of yellow pine lumber amounted to 16,125.000,000 feet; the Douglas fir of the Northwest held second place, with over 4,750,000,000; while oak came third, with 4,500,000,000 feet and white pine fourth with less than 4,000,000,000 feet.

There are taken from our forests yearly, including waste in logging and in manufacture, 20,000,000,000 cubic feet of wood. There are used in a single year 90,000,000 cords of firewood, 44,000,000,000 board feet of lumConsumption of ber, 123,000,000 hewed ties, 1,500,000,000 staves, over 133,Forest Products.

000,000 sets of heading, nearly 500,000,000 barrel hoops, 3,200,000 cords of native pulp wood, 165,000,000 cubic feet of round mine timbers, and 1,250,000 cords of wood for distillation. In 1909. 4,002,000 cords of wood were used in the manufacture of paper, of which 794,000 cords were imported from Canada. The demand for pulp wood is making a severe drain on the spruce forests, which furnish the principal supply, though a number of other woods, such as poplar, hemlock, pine and balsam, are now being used in considerable quantities. The Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture is conducting investigations to determine what other woods, such as scrub pine, white fir, tupelo and the like, can be successfully used.

A larger drain upon our forest resources is made by the demand for railroad ties, of which 123,754,000, equivalent to 3,750,000,000 board feet, were used in 1909. White oak, hitherto the chief source of supply, is not plentiful enough to meet this demand indefinitely, and in many parts of the country the supply of chestnut, cedar and cypress is dwindling; hov. ever, seasoning and treating methods are being found, largely through the work of the Forest Service, by which cheaper and more plentiful woods, such as lodgepole pine in the Northwest and loblolly pine in the South, are made fit for use as ties. Timber to the amount of 2,500,000,000 feet was used in 1907 for mine timbers. A great saving has been effected in the naval stores industry, also

largely through the work of the Forest Service. by the introduction of the so-called "cup" systems of turpentining in place of the old destructive system of "boxing." The new systems insure a larger product of better quality, and prolong the life of the long leaf pine forests upon which the industry depends.

New York has purchased and set aside 1,600,000 acres in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains as forest preserves, under the control of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission of the State. These lands and private lands in Forest Policy the preserve counties are protected from fire by an adequate sysof the States. tem of wardens. Unfortunately the Constitution of the State prohibits the cutting of timber from state lands. In 1909 the Commission distributed at cost to private owners 1,005,325 forest tree seedlings; and the waste and open land on the preserve is being gradually planted to trees under the supervision of trained foresters.

Pennsylvania has purchased more than 920,000 acres of land for state forest reserves, and the Forestry Commission has the right to purchase additional forest lands at a price not to exceed $5 an acre. The reserves are situated chiefly on the mountains of the central part of the state, and located with special reference to protecting the water supply of cities and towns. The state forest reserves are not only protected from fire, but are managed according to forestry principles, the mature timber being cut and sold. A school for training forest rangers for the reserves is maintained at Mont Alto. There is a well organized forest fire protective system in the state. The state distributes forest trees for planting, and gives advice in the management of forest lands to private owners.

Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan have well organized State Forest Departments. They have large state forest reserves, exceeding 200,000 acres for each state, which are protected from fire and on which the open land is being planted and the mature timber cut and sold. Each of these states protects the forest land of private owners as well as that of the state forest reserves from fire, and distributes tree seedlings for planting to land owners at cost. Ohio, New Hampshire and Vermont also distribute planting material to private owners and give them advice in regard to methods of forest management. The following states have forestry departments which seek to protect from fire by means of an organized warden system all or the greater portion of the forest lands in the state: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Oregon and California; while Washington and Idaho provide for such protection through legal associations of land owners. Maine supports a very efficient forest fire service covering the unorganized townships in the northern part of the state; in the remaining townships the selectmen are ex-officio wardens. Most of these states also have small state forests, that of New Jersey being 14,000 acres. Other states which have forest officers charged with forest interests are Rhode Island, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina and West Virginia. South Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana have recently passed, or have under consideration, advanced forestry legislation. The recently adopted law of Louisiana is especially noteworthy in that it provides for a forest fire protective organization by means of a tax of three-fourths of a cent on every 1,000 board feet of lumber sawn in the state.

THE BUREAU OF MINES.

Congress by the law approved May 16, 1910, established a Bureau of Mines in the Department of the Interior, for the purpose of making scientific inquiries and investigations for the benefit of the mining industry, especially such as might aid in making mining in the United States less wasteful of life and resources. These inquiries and investigations are intended to help the states in the enactment of better and more uniform mining laws and regulations, to be of service to state mining inspectors. operators and miners, supplying them with data concerning explosives, gas, dust. mine fires and other factors entering into the problem of mine safety, and to encourage a more efficient treatment and economical use of metallic mineral products. For the full text of the law see page 133 of this volume.

The passage of the law of 1910 was due largely to a public sentiment aroused by the increasing loss of life in mining accidents. The record of fatal accidents had been growing worse for twenty years. The following tables show the number of persons killed by accidents in the coal mixes of North America between 1899 and 1908 and the number of employes by years, with the ratio of fatal accidents to every thousand employed:

Persons Killed by Accidents in Coal Mines of North America, 1899-1908.