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Library

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31924 002 916 157

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The original of this book is in
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There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www. archive.org/details/cu31924002916157

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC LANDS, QUEENSLAND.

An Australian Study
of

American Forestry

By
E. H. F. SWAIN,

Queensland Forest Service.

++ Ht $+ +o ++

Issued under the authority of

The HON. J. M. HUNTER, M.L.A.,,
Secretary for Public Lands.

‘(Copyright 1918 by the Queensland Government.)

Price, 5s.

Brisbane :

Anthony J. Cumming, Government Printer.

FOREWORD.

THis memoir of an investigative tour of Western United States of
America in 1916, dated 14th July, 1916, and now revised for publication,

is dedicated to the Queensland Forest Service.

To the suggestive criticism of Mr. N. W. Jolly, late Director of
Forests, the publication owes much of what value it may have as

a contribution to Australian forestry.

For the data sontatued: I am deeply indebted to the extreme
courtesy of H. 8. Graves, Esq., The Forester, United States of America ;
District Forester Sileox and the many officers of District No. 1 of the
United States of America Forest Service ; Dean Skeels and the Faculty
of the Forest School, University of Montana ; Dean Winkenwerder and
Professor Grondal of the Forest School, University of Washington ; Pro-
fessor Mason, Forest School, University of California ; and others,through
whose kind offices I was enabled to gather a vast amount of first-hand
information of a most explicit character, and of absorbing interest to me

as a forester.

I was fortunate enough to be able to supplement my valuable
experiences in United States of America Forest Service administration
and Forest School practice by personal contact with and close observa-
tion of large scale timber getting, manufacturing, and seasoning operations
in various parts of Western North America, of tree propagating work at
the fine Savenac Forest Nursery in Idaho, of forest planting projects on
Lolo National Forest, of general forestry matters on the Missoula, Bitter-
root, and Flathead National Forests, and of educational policies and

methods at the Universities of Montana and Washington.

In selecting from a chaotic mass of notes and data the material

used for the purposes of this memoir, and in elaborating the matter so

Iv.

chosen, my endeavour has been to present it in such explicit and

readable form as to make readily available the lessons it holds for the

pioneering Australian forester.

I have accompanied the exegetic chapters with a series of sug-
gestions, based on a combined Australian-American experience, for the

extension of forestry systems in this country.

I do not venture to believe that these suggestions represent the
“last word” in Australian forestry, or that all of them can be put into
operation in the immediate future. My hope is that they may prove
suggestive, and conduce to due preparation and planning. The fact that
basic conditions in America are practically parallel with those existing in

Australia renders American experience particularly interesting.
y g

The concluding recommendations contained herein were made
available to the N.S.W. Government in 1916 in connection with the
reorganisation of the Forest Service of that State.

E. H. F. 8.

15/4/18.

Ce
PART I,

CHAPTER. PAGE.
I, America and Efficiency Engineering és <s ie fs 3
II. Australian Forestry—U.S.A. a Living Precedent .. oe oe 4
III. Development of U.S.A. Forestry .. 5
IV. Federal or State Forestry—Which ? ae at oe 7
V. Law and Policy—Succinct Enactments .. ois oe ° 7
VI. Birth of the U.S.A. Forest Service .. an ll
VII. Organisation of the U.S.A. Forest Service .. o an os 12
VII. Personnel Policy—The New Discipline ee os 15

PART II.

I. Forestry Education—Australian Scheme .. ee 25
II. U.S.A. Timber Sales Policy .. ee a oe a oe 41

III, Modern Timber Getting and Manufacture—Scientific Power heen 46
IV. Forest Fires—Protection Plans as ai oe o° 54
Vv. The Forest Grazing Business .. oe ate oe oe oe 61
VI. “Special Uses” of Forest Reserves . oi ai Ses A 66

VII. Reforestation and Afforestation—Modern aes # and Planting

Methods . 7 68
VIII. Forest Classification—A ‘“ toned ee Policy 82
IX. Working Plans and Forest Management—American Developments 90
X. Forest Survey and Assessment—A Comprehensive Scheme 109
XI. Settlement of Forest Offences—The Modern Attitude 116
XII. Office Methods and Labour-saving .. iss ait ae -» 119
XIII. Publicity and Publication in Forestry o a 122
XIV. Forest Investigation—A Vital Need .. os a a «- «124
XV. Forest Improvements—Organisation First .. 128
XVI. Forest Pests .. oe ave oe 131
XVII. The Forest Water Resource .. ae a se we «» 132
XVIII. Forest Service Book-keeping.. on és o% is ~» 183
AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS .. . I. to XVII

CONTENTS.

An Australian Study
of

American Forestry.

Part |

Part [.---An Australian Study.

Cuapter I.
AMERICA AND EFFICIENCY ENGINEERING.

American forestry is the most recent forestry.

Necessary to its complete appreciation is a comprehension of the forces
which have produced it and the influences which have shaped it.

America is a hothouse of ruthless capitalism and fierce competition. Life
is largely dollar-driven effort. Development has been forced; at some cost
‘in human material!

Whatever the price, the plucked fruit is ready for serving in Australia,
while the thorns remain on the American tree; or in the flesh of the gatherers.

“100 per cent efficiency ” is the national philosophy. “The devil takes
the hindmost ” is the postscript—which is often the chief part of a letter.

If anything, that of Australia has been “The devil take efficiency and
we'll look after the hindmost.”

A fusion of the two philosophies of America and Australia might lead to
happy results—in other things besides forestry.

Bricklaying is as old as the hills. It has been handed down from
generation to generation as a heritage of the past. It was assumed that
nothing further remained to be learnt concerning it.

Under its magic glass, America discovered that the copied and inherited
bricklaying consisted of eighteen distinct movements. It assayed each one of
those movements, discarded thirteen as unnecessary and misdirected effort,
and on the remaining five it built up the new synthetic bricklaying.

Under the old methods, a bricklayer could lay 100 bricks an hour.

Some unions restricted the output to 375 per day—and 275 when working
‘for the Government.

The new bricklayer averaged 350 bricks per hour, or 2,800 per day!

At the Bethlehem Steel Works, the pig iron gang for many years had
been handling an average of about 124 tons per day per man.

A discarding of lost energy, and each man thereafter averaged 47 tons.

In a bicycle factory, the work of inspecting bicycle balls was being done
by 120 girls. :

The efficiency engineer appeared. He reduced the hours of labour from
63 per week to 47. He gave each girl four recreation periods daily. He

raised the wages 80 per cent. to 100 per cent. He insisted on an accuracy
‘two-thirds greater.

Finally, he cut out the “lost motions,” and thereafter 35 of the girls did
the entire work of the 120!

In Australia and New Zealand, the cost of afforestation works out on an
average at about £7 per acre.

America does the same thing for 25s., with lls. per day the minimum
wage |

4 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Of such is the essence of America, whose spirit is efficiency, and whose
genius is organisation.
Her vices may be not a few. But these are her virtues.

All these things have been done by Efficiency Engineering, which was
introduced to the world by: Frederick Winslow Taylor at the Midvale Steel
Works thirty years ago, since when there has been not a single strike at
those works.

It has doubled and trebled production; it has solved the problem of
uniting high wages with low costs to the consumer: it has substituted co-opera-
tion for coercion; it is shaping the industrial destinies of America; it is
shaping the development of American forestry.

And thus it is that we ride in American automobiles, listen to American
gramophones, use American sewing machines, ply American typewriters—and
study American forestry !!

Carter IT.

AUSTRALIAN FORESTRY—U.S.A. A LIVING PRECEDENT.

The law of development is evolution. The lines of national development
are conditioned by the national temperament. The national Jaw and policy
are the expression of the national mind. Militarism may be the accepted
gospel in Germany, but not in the Antipodes. German, or French, or Indian
forest policy may be good for Germany, France, or India, but not for
Australia.

Nor is it possible to transplant and acclimatise a full-grown tree, although
a seed or a seedling may succeed.

Germany, France, India, and other countries, where an intensive form of
forestry has been practised, have established their forestry systems upon a
local foundation. Only the principles of forestry are common to all. The
building materials and the architecture, the foundation—and the builders—
differ in each,

The most elaborate silviculture is that of Germany. It is also the oldest
—the development of four hundred years of favourable conditions, a teeming
population, cheap labour, large manufactures, and minute utilisation, a
dominated and docile public, and finally high prices for forest products conse-
quent upon a high protection.

None of those conditions exists in Australia—at present. Racially,
socially, and politically, none of the countries which are practising intensive
forestry resembles Australia. And the disparity in the stage of development is
a final handicap.

Thus, while we must remain grateful for their unfolding of the general
principles of forest science, and for unveiling to us its possibilities in a remote
forestry future, we cannot turn to them as a very present help in our time
of present trouble.

It is inevitable that Australia must develop a forestry system of its own.
It has a forest flora peculiar to itself and silvical conditions quite unlike those
existing in any other country. But, above all, it is a young and wilfully
democratic country. It is wholly Anglo-Saxon in sentiment and outlook,
untrammelled by any hampering traditions. It is still-in its pioneering days,
carelessly culling the inexhaustible natural resources of the land. It has
scarcely awakened yet to the seriousness of national life and the need for the
conservation of resources and energies.

In forestry, its immediate tasks are—the planning of an organisation,
and the development of a system.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 5

Precedent is the backbone of existence. Where in all the world is there
another country which presents a parallel example, horrible or otherwise—an
Anglo-Saxon democracy in the transitional phase between pioneering and waste,
and Conservation and Efficiency ?

Peculiarly enough, it is the United States of America from which already
Australia has borrowed a constitution. There is no other example.

This discovery—and others—sent me to America to investigate American
forestry.

Cuapter ITI.

DEVELOPMENT OF U.S.A. FORESTRY.

In the essentials, America is the elder sister of Australia.

Both are self-governing Anglo-Saxon democracies, with similar laws and
institutions and similar prejudices and sentiments. The differences are of
detail and of age.

In forestry, America has only fifteen years’ start of us.

At the beginning, America had nearly 1,000,000,000 acres of woodland.

Australia, slightly larger in area, had less than 100,000,000 acres—
one-tenth the forest of United States of America.

To-day, four-fifths of the American timber lands are privately owned ;
the same proportion in Australia is publicly owned.

There are 164,000,000 acres of national forest in the United States of
America, each forest averaging 1,000,000 acres in extent.

There will be in Australia, when classification is complete, something like
16,000,000 acres of public forest, each averaging, perhaps, 10,000 acres—
ten times the number of American forests, yet only one-tenth the area.

If America’s forest position has been precarious, how much more so
Australia’s?

Youth and profligacy! Pioneering days are wasteful days. The first stage
in developing a forest policy is deforestation.

In 1849, an American patent office report referred to the “waste of
valuable timber ” and denounced “ the folly and short-sightedness of the age.”

In 1865, came the prophecy in a lengthy article by Rev. Frederick Stair,
on American Forestry (Fernow’s History of Forestry) :

“The nation has slept because the gnawing of want has not
awakened her. She has had plenty and to spare, but within thirty
years she will be conscious that not only individual want is present,
but that it comes to each from permanent national famine of wood.”

Thereafter came the opening up of the West, and the tapping of the great
forests of the Inland Timber Region; and famine was staved off. At which
stage the Australian parallel fails—for want of an inland timber region.

But the fear and expectation were not abated, and in 1872 arbor days
became the fashion. A year later, the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science became concerned, and secured, in 1876, the establishment
of a forest agency in the Department of Agriculture.

From that forest agency developed the present Forest Service.

Nothing further evolved until 1882, when, following upon the visit of
Baron von Steuben, a Prussian forest official, a forestry congress was held in
Cincinnatti, and the American Forestry- Association was born.

6 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY

After which, for some years, the forestry movement became the “ playball
of political wire-pullers ” and fell into disrepute.

“Arbor day sentimentalism discredited and clouded the issue
before the business world; antagonism of the lumber world was
aroused by the false idea of what the reform contemplated, and in
the absence of technically-trained foresters to instruct the public and
amateur reformers, &c., and to convince legislators of the absolute
need for discontinuing the established habits, progress was naturally
slow, and experienced many setbacks.”

Nevertheless, the forestry movement was ‘progressing, and in 1891
Congress let pass a “rider” to an Act, which authorised the President to set
aside forest reservations from the public domain. Some 17,000,000 acres were
speedily proclaimed.

Meanwhile, no provision had been made for administration, and a subse-
quent act to repair the omission failed to become Jaw, “for lack of time to
secure a conference report.”

Some years later, in 1896; the Forestry Association prevailed upon the
Secretary of the Interior to request the National Academy of Sciences to
investigate and report upon the inauguration of a national forest policy.

A committee of investigation picnicked in the woods for a period, and a
report followed. On Washington’s birthday, in 1897, President Cleveland
adopted the report, and heroically proclaimed the 20,000,000 of additional
reservation recommended, “ without the usual preliminary ascertainment of
local interests.”

An outcry followed, and being recalled in extra session to pass the Annual
Civil Appropriation Bill, Congress tacked another “rider” to the Bill,
suspending the reservations so proclaimed, “ until they could be more definitely
delimited, private claims adjusted, and agricultural lands excluded.” Adminis-
tration provisions for the remaining reservations were hung on to this rider.

By this time, the forestry agency, established in. 1876, had become the
Division of Forestry, and in 1898 fell into the capable hands of Gifford Pinchot,
who had acquired some knowledge of European forestry, and who, being
ambitious, aggressive, and, at the same time, wealthy and influential, was
able to secure such appropriations for its work as to bring the division into
much greater prominence.

In 1901, this division controlled the scientific development of forestry,
while the survey of the forest reserves was vested in the Geological Survey,
and their administration in the General Land Office!

The history of forestry in Australia has been strangely like that of the
United States of America, and in 1901 the forestry position in the States was,
in many respects, comparable to that now existing with us, following upon,
and possibly preceding, a very similar development.

The year 1901 marked the beginning of a new era for American forestry.
In that year Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States of
America; and within twelve months the forest reservations had increased to
65,000,000 acres, and the Division of Forestry had grown into the Bureau of
Forestry. :

Within another three years, the same bureau had become the United
States of America Forest Service, with full and undivided control over
162,000,000 acres of national forest, and the federal forest policy was firmly
established.

—T

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Cuarts IV.

FEDERAL OR STATE FORESTRY—WHICH ?

American forestry is Federal: Australian forestry is State controlled.

It is argued that forestry is a national, not a provincial function, and that
State control tends to the subordination of the national interest to purely
local considerations. Conservation of the timber supply and maintenance of
stream flow are matters of nation-wide importance. Many of the problems to
be faced are interstate in character. Forest fires are not limited by State
boundaries. The water supply of one State may be affected seriously by forest
destruction in an adjoining one.

The most damning argument against. State control is the land history of
the States themselves.

Considerable lands were granted all the public land States, and, from
beginning to end, their handling of them has been marked by carelessness,
inefficiency, waste and “graft.” In connection with their disposition scandals
of great and small proportions have been so frequent as to be commonplace.

“Vast areas were donated by the States for roads that were
never built; water fronts were given away without any considera-
tion; tide and swamp lands were granted on promises that never
materialised, and vast areas of the choicest timber lands sold for a
song.”

The American Union is ‘a coalition of forty-nine small States; the
Australian Commonwealth is a federation of seven countries.

In America, the State powers are limited; in Australia, the limitations
are those of the federation.

In America the Government is wholly national. State rights are insigni-
ficant.

Federal forestry is a natural development of the situation in America,
as State forestry is a natural corollary to the present Australian form of
Government.

The mountainous configuration of the forest Jands of America and the
inflammable nature of the forests are strong factors in influencing federal
forestry development in America, in view of the interstate influences they exert
on water flow and forest fires.

CHAPTER V.

LAW AND POLICY.

Forestry is essentially a science of safeguarding the future consistently
with the present. It is “paternalism.”

And it is “undemocratic” in that it is opposed to the doctrine of non-
interference with private rights ; which may explain its flourishing development
in Germany.

Yet, even in the American Democracy, the trend of the Federal Govern-
ment of late years has been paternalistic—even socialistic.

Two courts have ruled recently that owners of timberlands may be

8 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

subjected to restriction without compensation, as regards the size of trees they
may fell on their property, if the welfare of the State demands such interfer-
ence,

Which is the old Roman doctrine of “ Utere tuo ne alterum noceas,” so
often used by forestry propagandists.

This tendency towards paternalism and forestry may be ascribed in great
measure to the educational and publicity work of the early Bureau of Forestry,
and the American Forestry Association.

It has influenced the development of the forest laws of the United States
of America.

In view of the fact that several of the Australian States project important
forestry legislation, it may be interesting and profitable to review the succinct
laws of the United States of America on the subject.

Like Topsy, they seem to have “ growed.”

The important Act creating National Forests, was just a “rider” tacked
on to an “Act to repeal timber culture laws and for other purposes.” (Act of
March 3, 1891.)

It reads—

“Section 24.—The President of the United States may, from
‘time to time, set apart and reserve in any State or territory, having
public land bearing forests, any part of the public lands wholly or
in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial
value or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, by
public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations
and the limits thereof.”

The administration of the National Forest so proclaimed was provided
for six yéars later by another “rider” hung on to a hurried Sundry
Civil Appropriaticns Act, passed in an extra session on June 4, 1897.

The tacked-on clauses enacted that—

“(1.) No public forest reservation shall be established, except to
improve and protect the forest within the reservation, or for
the purpose of securing favourable conditions of water flow,
and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and
necessities of citizens of the United States; but it is not the
purpose or intent of these provisions, or of the Act providing
for such reservations, to authorise the inclusion therein of
lands more valuable for the mineral therein or for agricultural
purposes than for forest purposes.

(2.) The Secretary of the Interior shall make provisions for the
protection against destruction by fire and depredations upon
the public forests and forest reservations which may have
been set aside under the said Act of March 3, 1891, and which
may be continued: and he may make such rules and regu-
lations, and establish such service as will insure the objects
of such reservations, namely, to regulate their occupancy and
use, and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction, and
any violation of the provisions of this Act or such rules and
regulations shall be punished as is provided for in the Act of
June 4, 1888 (repealed by the Criminal Code of 1909, which
provide a maximum penalty of £200 or one year’s imprison-
ment for forest offences).

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 9

(3.) For the purpose of preserving the living and growing timber
and promoting the younger growth on forest reservations,
the Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations
as he shall prescribe, may cause to be designated and
appraised so much of the dead, matured, or large growth of
trees found upon such forest reservations as may be compatible
with the utilisation of the forests thereon and may sell the
same for not less than the appraised value in such quantities
to each purchaser as he shall prescribe, to be used in the
State or Territory in which such timber reservation may be
situated.” (Export permitted by Act of March 4, 1915.)

There were several incidental clauses providing for due advertisement of
timber sales, safeguarding the right of ingress and egress of settlers and
miners, and enacting that the waters might be used for mining, domestic,
milling, or irrigation purposes, subject in the last three cases to the water
laws of the respective States governing their use and appropriation, while the
laws of the United States of America controlled the mining.

An Act of February 6, 1905, gave power of arrest for violation of forest
laws. The Forest Homestead Act of June 11, 1906 (as amended August 10,
1912)—

“ directed and required the Secretary of Agriculture to select, classify,
and segregate as soon as practicable all lands chiefly valuable for
agriculture, and which, in his opinion, may be occupied for agri-
cultural purposes without injury to the forest reserves, and which
are not needed for public purposes ;”

and authorised him to

“list and describe the same by metes and bounds, or otherwise, and
file the lists and descriptions with the Secretary of the Interior, with
the request that the said lands be opened to entry in tracts not
exceeding 160 acres in area.”

An Act of May 23, 1908, provided that 25 per cent. of all money received
from each forest reserve during any fiscal year shall be paid to the State for
benefit of public schools and public roads.

The Weeks Laws of March 1, 1911, authorised co-operative agreements
of States with the United States for the protection of the watersheds of
navigable ‘streams against fire and conserving of the forests and the water
supply. It provided an annual appropriation not exceeding £420,000 for
the examination, survey, and acquirement of lands located on the head-
waters of navigable streams; appointed a National Forest Reservation
Commission (parliamentary) to handle the matter, and authorised the Secretary
of Agriculture to purchase lands approved by the commission and administer
them as National Forests.

Such are the forest laws of America. They gave the Secretary of the
Interior (afterwards Agriculture) virtual carte blanche to establish his own
forest policy and laws in authorising him to “ make provision for the protection
against destruction by fire and depredations upon the public forests,” and “ to
make such rules and regulations and establish such service as will insure the
objects of such reservations,” namely, to regulate their occupancy and use and
te preserve the forests thereon from destruction.”

So wide were the powers conferred that their validity was put to the test
in the case of United States versus Grimand et al, 220 U.S. 506—in which
the regulations framed to coritrol grazing on the National forests. were
contested.

10 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The High Court ruled that—

“Under the Acts establishing forest reservations, their use for
grazing or other lawful purposes is subject to rules and regulations
established by the Secretary of Agriculture, and it being impracticable
for Congress to provide general regulations, that body acted within
its constitutional power in conferring power on the secretary to
establish such rules; the power so conferred, being administrative
and not legislative, is not an unconstitutional delegation.”

Forestry is a technical business, and foresty administrations should possess
powers wide enough to permit of the management of the forests in accordance
with the technical considerations attached to every particular case.

The forest laws of most of the Australian States are hedged by restrictions
unknown to the American enactments. What was deemed “impracticable ”
by the United States of America Congress was attempted by our State Parlia-
ments, which have closely governed and limited the regulations frameable
thereunder, and made them subject to Parliamentary approval.

To the Australian forester, the powers possessed by the United States of
America forestry administration are enviable—and it is believed that the
extraordinary development of the United States forest system is almost
entirely due to Congress realising that it was not technically qualified to draw
up rules of forest management !

That the confidence of Congress in the forest administration was not
misplaced is indicated in the letter of the Secretary of Agriculture to the
Forester, dated February 1, 1905, in which the general forest policy under the
organic Acts of 1891 and 1897 was laid down for his guidance in framing
the regulations and instructions for the use of the national forests. It is
worth quoting—

“Tn the administration of the forest reserves, it must be clearly
borne in mind that all land is to be devoted to its most productive
use for the permanent good of the whole people and not for the
temporary benefit of individuals or companies. All the resources of
forest reserves are for use, and this use must be brought about in a
thoroughly prompt and businesslike manner, under such restrictions
only as will insure the permanence: of these resources. The vital
importance of forest reserves to the great industries of the Western
States will be largely increased in the near future by the continued
steady advance in settlement and development. The permanence
of the resources of the reserves is, therefore, indispensable to continued
prosperity, and the policy of this department for their protection
and use will invariably be guided by this fact, always bearing in
mind that the conservative use of these resources in no way conflicts
with their permanent value.

“You will see to it that the water, wood, and forage of the
reserves are conserved and wisely used for the benefit of the home
builder, first of all, upon whom depends the best permanent use of
lands and resources alike. The continued prosperity of the agri-
cultural, lumbering, mining, and livestock interests is directly
dependent upon a permanent and accessible supply of water, wood,
and forage, as well as upon the present and future use of these
resources under business-like regulations enforced with promptness,
effectiveness, and common sense. In the management of each reserve,
local questions will be decided upon local grounds, the dominant
industry will be considered first, but with as little restriction to
minor industries as may be possible; sudden changes in industrial

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 11

conditions will be avoided by gradual adjustment after due notice,
and where competing interests must be reconciled, the question will
always be decided from the standpoint of the greatest good to the
greatest number in the long run.”

Surely words of wisdom |

Cuaptmr VI.

BIRTH OF THE U.S.A. FOREST SERVICE.

Democracy also has its disadvantages. One of them is that national
development is subject to a many-sided and fickle public will.

In a democracy, therefore, a necessary step towards reform is the educa-
tion and cudgelling of the public to the necessity of reform.

Whence the development. of publicity as an essential part of the machinery
of democratic government.

Up to 1905, the work of the old Bureau of Forestry had been propagandist.

During the first twenty years of its existence, it produced 20,000 pages
of printed matter.

Later, it became more advisory ; working plans—so-called—were prepared
for public owners; its publications became more technical.

Up to 1905 the surveying of the National Forests had been controlled by
the Department of Geological Survey.

It had completed some 70,000,000 acres, out of 162,000,006 acres—at a
cost of £300,000, or about one penny per acre.

Up to 1905, the administration of the National Forests had been vested
in the General Land Office. A force of superintendents and rangers existed,
wholly supervisional and essentially “practical,” condemning technique, and
without any real conception of forest management and the task before it.

The assemblage of these scattered sections of the forest control created a
living force, which, as the newly constituted United States of America Forest
Service, started out immediately on a career of extraordinary development,

On the flood of the tide of educational enthusiasm following the estab-
lishment of forest schools at Cornell in 1898, Yale in 1899, and Michigan in
1903, arrived the new American forester, crammed full of technique and
energy.

The first phase was that of the purely European ideas. The new depart-
ment attempted strenuously to copy German technique, before it had acquired
any fundamental knowledge of American conditions or how to adapt forestry
practice to those conditions. European forms had to be followed. All else was
regarded as forest quackery. Working plans bulked largely in the scheme,
and the initiation of intensive silviculture was begun forthwith.

This was revolution rather than evolution. And it failed—because of that
fact, and because in Europe business training was a minor quantity in forestry.
The administration bumped against the practical problems of the moment,
the biggest one of democratic government, It fell foul of the conflicting
interests of the lumberman, the grazier, and the settler. It was styled
academic, inane, ignorant, incapable, incompetent, and unjust. Significantly
enough, neither graft nor dishonesty was amongst the charges levelled at it.

B

12 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Its first problem, however, was not silviculture, but administration.
It had to protect its vast forests from fire and trespass, so that its timber
and grazing resources could be utilised economically and systematically. These
facts overshadowed the plagiarist policy, and with an enormous domain to be
handled and only the nucleus of a forest force at its disposal, it was inevitable
that the new Forest Service should find itself immediately overwhelmed with
problems of administration. The forests of the United States of America were
peculiarly subject to destruction by fire, owing to their inflammability and the
steep configuration of the land they occupied. Fire protection was the
dominating need, calling for the organisation of the forest and its force for
defence. Trails, ranger cabins, telephone lines were required. A timber sales
policy had to be developed. Grazing lands within the forests had to be
administered. The foundations had to be laid before technique could be added.

Followed a period of very rapid change, due to an earnest striving after
development. The administration was strong, aggressive, and venturesome.
Tt over-reached itself on occasion, but its mistakes chastened rather than
discouraged it. And they focussed attention on the problems, compelling
solution. Development, after all, is the correction of the errors of venture-
someness. Final solution comes only after initial failures.

Very largely, the influence of the expanding science of management made
itself felt in the development of the new service. Intensive investigation and
experiment were features of its growth; the fitting of the individual and his
work, and the fixation of individual responsibility, standardisation of the best
methods, planning, due recording of accepted procedure in the wonderful
National Forest Manual—all these things made for an extraordinary expansion.

It is ten years since the United States of America Forest Service was
launched into existence. To-day it ranks as one of the greatest Forestry
Departments of the world. It controls some 164 tremendous forests, averaging
1,000,000 acres each. It has a force of 3,875 persons, of whom 3,275 are
employed upon the National Forests as supervisors, deputy supervisors,
rangers, and guards, and 600 are engaged in administrative, scientific, and
clerical work at the Washington and district headquarters. In 1915 it
negotiated 90,000 transactions, sold 850,000,000 feet of timber (log measure-
ment) for £255,000 ; and grazed 9,000,000 head of stock for £236,000.

Its total receipts were £517,000. Its expenditure was £1,545,000.

Its motto is the national motto, “100 per cent. efficiency.” And it lives
up to it.

Cuapter VII.

U.S.A. FOREST SERVICE ORGANISATION.

The work of the United States Forest Service is described as consisting
of “the. administration and protection of the National Forests, the develop-
ment of their resources, and research into technical problems connected with
forestry, and the discovery and diffusion of knowledge concerning the best
use of forests and forest products.”

Its organisation is of more than ordinary interest to us, because of the
similarity of basic conditions, and of tendencies of development. The
Australian organisation is as yet merely one of sketchy supervision with

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 13

limited functions, the nucleus of a forest force. It is more than probable that
similar tendencies will lead to a development along the lines followed by the
American service.

The American forest administration is confined exclusively to the
164,000,000 acres of National Forests, which are grouped within seven different
forestry districts, each controlled by a district forester responsible directly to
the forester at Washington on points of general policy, but otherwise vested
entirely with authority to plan and manage his district in his own way.

Each of the million acre forests within a district is in charge of a forest
supervisor, who is the general manager of his forest, planning the work and
seeing that it is carried out, subject to the general direction of the district
forester. He is responsible for the supervision, protection, and improvement
of the forest.

His place in the scheme of organisation comes closest to that of forest
guard in the New South Wales plan, but his responsibilities and functions are
wider in accordance with the more expanded forest policy.

He is allotted a personnel for carrying on the work of the forest, which
is determined by the district forester from annual estimates submitted by him.

He has full authority over all forest officers detailed to his forest, and
““may make such assignments and delegate such authority as he may consider
necessary, provided such assignments or delegations of authority are not
specifically prohibited.”

The forest supervisor is often a graduate in forestry. The position is
filled by promotion from the classified positions of the Forest Service.

The district ranger occupies the position in the organisation analogous
to that of forest overseer in New South Wales, or resident forester in Queens-
land. It is a position which will have to be provided for in any extension of
forestry practice in Australia, more especially in the western grazing forests.
Probably, returned soldiers of suitable bent could be utilised.

The district ranger in the United States of America Service controls one
of the eight or nine divisions of the forest—averaging 100,000 acres each,
subject to the direction of the supervisor.

He has entire charge of the routine work involved in the supervision of
grazing, timber sale, free use, special use, and other contracts and permits,
.the direction of the protection and improvement plans, and the examination
and reporting on applications for any use of the forest, including settlement and
other claims. He exercises, within his district, the delegated authority of the
supervisor for the administration of the forest. His headquarters are either
at the nearest business centre or permanent headquarters are provided on the
forest.

He is given charge of the temporary labourers (called forest guards),
working on the forest.

This constitutes the general administrative and supervisional forest force.
Where the work is heavy or involved, the organisation is filled out by the
appointment of temporary assistants, or specialists are detailed from the
district office.

14 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

A typical organisation is that of the Lolo National Forest (Montana) :—

Supervisor.
Deputy Supervisor.

8 District Rangers.

33 Forest Guards.

4 Timber Scalers.
Casual Labourers.

1 Forest Clerk.

“The work involved in making forest surveys necessary to the
preparation of definite plans of managemient for timber, grazing,
settlement, special uses, administration and protection, is performed
by officers such as forest examiners, logging engineers, lumbermen,
grazing examiners, members of the district office, or by the super-
visor or deputy supervisor.”

This corps of specialists ordinarily is concentrated at the district office.
The specialists may be attached temporarily to a- forest on special work,
under the direction of the supervisor, or they may act as co-operative inspectors
for the district forester.

The work of the district office is organised under the offices of operation,
lands, silviculture, and grazing, each of which is administered by an assistant
district forester, specialising in the work.

The office of operations has general supervision of the finance, personnel,
equipment, and supplies of the service, and of all fire protection, forest survey,
and permanent improvement work on the National Forests.

The office of lands “examines and classifies lands within the National
Forests, to determine their value for forest purposes, conducts the work in
connection with claims on the National Forests prior to proceedings before
United States “registers” and receivers, and assists the chief engineer of the
service in connection with the use of National Forest lands for hydro-electric
purposes.

The office of silviculture supervises the sale and cutting of timber on the
National Forests, and co-operates with States in protecting forest lands under
the Weeks Law (watersheds). Reafforestation and afforestation, working plans,
forest investigations, market and utilisation problems, forest products, indus
trial investigations, and co-operation, are its other lines of work.

The office of grazing supervises the grazing of live stock, and the allot-
ment of grazing privileges. It is charged also with the work of improving
depleted grazing areas, and of co-operating with the Federal and State
authorities in the enforcement of stock quarantine regulations.

Accounting is in the peculiar position of being practically outside the
district office organisation. It is controlled directly from Washington by the
chief of the office of accounts, who has a district fiscal agent stationed at each
district forestry office, solely to deal with accounts. The forest officer does not
collect forest revenue. The debtor is required to pay directly to a United
States depository to the credit of the fiscal agent. ,

Somewhat similar is the Queensland system, where the district land agent
acts in an accounting capacity. =
Law matters are situated much the same.

There is a district assistant t
the solicitor appointed for each district office.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 15

The work of the seven forestry districts of the United States of America
is correlated and controlled by the forester at Washington, who is the chief
of the Forest Service, under the Secretary for Agriculture.

He is assisted by an associate forester and five assistant foresters
controlling the branches of operations, lands, silviculturd, grazing, and
research.

The branch of research has supervision over the investigative work of the’
service, including silvicultural studies, studies of State forest conditions,
investigations of the lumber and woodusing industries and lumber prices, and
the investigative work carried on at the Forest Product Laboratory and the
forest. experiment stations.

The forester exercises as such the delegated authority of the Secretary
of Agriculture, “to issue such instructions to the officers and employees of
the Forest Service, and to establish such procedure for the guidance of the
users of the National Forests as may be necessary to carry the regulations
into effect.”

The forester enjoys much the same powers of management as those of a
commission in Australia. The political head does not participate.

Cuaprer VIII.

PERSONNEL POLICY.

Industry is normal—idleness abnormal.
“Activity means growth and development—inactivity means decay and

death.”

In the “Physiology of Faith and Fear,” Dr. Sadler demonstrates the
destructive effects upon the human body of fear, worry, uncertainty, discourage-
ment, grief, and hate. Mental peace, courage, and happiness are constructive.

Inharmony is the sand which shreds the bearings of the industrial machine.

The atmosphere which invests an organisation is the peculiar aura of its
management. It is a palpable influence acting for destruction or construction
ag it is good or bad.

Frightfulness and militarism are going out of fashion. The new discipline
—the new spirit of management—appeals to higher motives than fear.

It is an instinct in man to devote himself to a cause—even to that of
forestry.

Says Emerson: “Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.
The way of life is by abandonment.”

“Any gang of ditch-diggers will pitch in and make the dirt fly, in order
to outdistance another gang. Love of the game is strong in every normal
human being.” (Dr. Blackford.)

“Among the fundamental principles of the universe is the law of _growth,
When there is no opportunity for advancement or promotion, a man may
work under the spur_of necessity, but his work has in it nothing of that joyous
abandon which arises from constructive thought and feeling and results in
efficiency.” (Id.)

16 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

“When a man hates his work, when he is dissatisfied and discontented
in it, when his work arouses in him destructive thoughts and feelings rather
than constructive, there is something wrong, something abnormal. He is
trying to do work for which he is not fitted, or he is in the wrong environment,
or under wrong management, or he is physically or mentally ill.” (Id.)

_ Ninety per cent. of people have entered their present employment blindly
and by chance, irrespective of their fitness or opportunities. Seventy-five
per cent. of people are in the wrong avocations. These are the estimates of
experts.

“The ideal for every employee, therefore, is that he should be employed
in that position which he is best fitted to fill, doing work which by natural
aptitude, training and experience he is best qualified to do, and working under
conditions of natural environment—tools, rates of pay, hours of labour, and
periods of rest, superintendence and management, future prospects and educa-
tion—that will develop and make useful to himself and his employer his best
and finest latent abilities and capacities.” (Id.)

Such are the teachings of the Emerson School of Scientific Management,
which emphasises the idea of fitting the job to the man rather than that of the
Taylor school of fitting the man to the job.

Both schools have influenced the development of the United States of
America Forest Service. The influence of the Taylor school is seen in the
management of the Savenac Nursery; that of the Emerson school in the
adoption by District No. 1 of the Blackford Employment Plan.

The Blackford Employment Plan is the practical application of the prin-
ciples above enunciated. It is a scientific vocational analysis of the employee
and the fitting of him with his proper job and environment.

The outline thus given will serve to explain the attached copies of forms
used by District No. 1 of the United States Forest Service in selecting men
for positions in its employment.

Tt is merely another instance of its ideal of “ thoroughness.”

The Forest Service Manual sets down that besides having suitable know-
ledge and experience, “ officers are required to be honest, industrious, sober,

and courteous. Efficiency is the primary quality upon which the advancement
of each individual depends.”

D1-P3
(For use in all cases
except temporary labour).

APPLICATION—-PERSONAL RECORD—TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT,
District No. 1.

Permanent positions in the Forest Service are secured only through Civil Service
examination. For detailed information concerning examinations and requirements
address U.S. Civil Service Commission, Washington, D.C. ;
character of work and definition of duties can be secured from
Montana.

Information concerning
Forest Service, Missoula,

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 17

1.—GENERAL IDENTIFICATION AND History.

Name ttre sees Telephone Nowe ence wie
Address, local: . .

Nationality : Extraction :

Date of birth :—Month Day. Year Age

Under 21 years, give name and address of father :

Single or married tosses How many dependent on you for support ?...............
Names of relatives, if any, employed in Forest Service

Who shall be notified in case of accident ? Name
Address :

2.—PHYSICAL CONDITION,

Have you any of the following disabilities ? (Answer “ yes’ or “no” to each
inquiry. In case the answer is “ yes,” describe fully, using separate sheet if necessary,
heading it “‘In re: 2.—Physical Condition ”’) :

Sore eyes or any defects of vision ?

Do you wear glasses 2 osc For what reason ?

Any defect.of hearing ?
Any defect of speech ?
Any injury, deformity, or defect of hand, arm, foot, or leg ?

Tuberculosis in any. form ?
Asthma or shortness of breath ?

Any chest, lung, throat, mouth, or nasal disease ?

Rheumatism ?

Paralysis ? f

Rupture ?
Any bladder or kidney di ?
Any disease or infirmity not referred to herein ?

Are you subject to:

Headache (severe), protracted, or frequent 2... cee

Convulsions or fits ? re pth Reena Aee Accra

Nervous exhaustion ?

Palpitation or any disease of the heart ?

Stomach trouble ?

Any symptoms of disease or disability not referred to herein ?

Describe fully here all disabilities, defects, or infirmities which you now have or
may have had in the past :

18 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

3.—PuysicaL DSCRIPTION.

Submit the following information, carefully filling in all the blanks :

Exact weight, in ordinary clothing, without overcoat or hat... enn Ib.
Exact height, without boots or shoes.......... eareiph OOD sas scateicisarsas inches.

Colour tae ik Seto Skin...

(Give exact colour) \ Skin... oe aa Hair...

(Beard
All applicants will be required to submit four photographs of self, showing :
(1) Face in exact profile ;
(2) Face, front view ;
(3) Body, full length, preferably with as few clothes on as possible ; and
(4) Hands, held open with fingers parted, showing back of one hand and
palm of other.

Amateur photographs, postal card size or larger, will be acceptable, provided
a plain background (such as a sheet, solid coloured screen, or curtain) is used.

4,.—SELF-CHARACTERISATION.

Characterise yourself briefly by checking off opposite the following classification
of positives and negatives :—

Positives. Negatives.
Carell spescstesiteassssnascntcc acca Good Memory .rercccon Careless...eccccsecnenone Forgetful.n
COUrteOOUS enn Obedient Disobedient .
Pernctrtel -eeccreensnsersenssnone Orderly .. Disorderly.
Accurate Cheerful .... Inaccurate .. Gloomy
Industrious Patient Lazy Impatient ste ores

Sober Quick Intemperate .......... SLOW ssissinccnsenscneestiessrinn

Give more in detail any particular or special information you desire on any of
these qualities, using separate sheet, which you should head “In re: 4.—Self-
characterisation.”

5.—Previous EMPLOYMENT AND REFERENCES.

Give following information, covering past 5 years :—

Give Exact Dates
Names of Positions of Employment State Salary
Employers. Addresses, Held. by Mouths and and Reasons

Years. for Leaving.

Were you ever employed in National Forest work ?
Under whom ? What Forest ?
How long ?

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY 19

5.—(a) EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING.
What practical experience have you had in:

Logging Camps...

Surveying

Timber Estimating

Reconnaissance work

{Timber, Grazing, or other).
Ranger or Guard work

State your educational training as follows :—
Name of School :
Number of years’ work completed :

Subjects studied :

Mensuration oceans Silviculture :
Management ¢ one eecssccanunenenne Surveying:
Botany : Miscellaneous :

Forest Officers Note :—This is a special sheet for applications for Guard positions.
Insert in the blanks set out according to the kind of position it is desired to fill.

6.—PREFERENCES AND DESIRES,

What kind of position do you prefer 2 nececncccsnsnensmenenenenenenenemineneneneienenmneiinntaiinnne terete

Locality preferred ?

When can your services begin ?

Length of time employment is desired ?

What salary expected ?

Full signature of applicant :
Date:

It adds: “To judge a man’s efficiency, it is necessary that. the officer in
charge shall have an intimate knowledge of his character, mentality, and
ambitions. This can be obtained only by actual contact, and advantage
should be taken of every opportunity to get into personal touch with a man
and to watch his work in the field. . : . . Officers should not hesitate to extend
praise for good work, in fact, it can almost always be given without danger.
At the same time, errors or lack of industry should be pointed out as soon as
discovered.”

Again: “The members of the regular force on the forests are not
specialists, but must be proficient in all lines of work. Experience is required
to develop this proficiency, hence supervisors should give their officers oppor-
tunity to obtain wide training and experience, and should make assignments
with this end in view.”

20 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Thus, it is part of the plan to take rangers into supervisors’ offices, super-
visors into district offices, district foresters into head offices, for a month or so
at a time “on detail ”—with a view to enlarging their experience, broadening
their outlook, and, consequently, increasing their value to the service.

Meetings of the rangers of a forest are held annually, to keep them in
touch with the entire work of the forest, to give forest officers the benefit of
one another’s experience, and to promote esprit de corps. Supervisors and
district foresters’ meetings are held similarly.

Finally, as part of their duty, rangers are given instructional assignments
during the winter months, consisting of courses of study and reading to develop
their efficiency.

It is laid down that “the grade of efficiency demanded by Forest Service
work cannot be obtained by the mechanical enforcement of rigid rules such
as govern military organisations.” A different type of service is required, based
upon close observation of the character, ability and experience, and judgment
of each individual.

“Tnstructions, and not orders, should be issued by superiors to subordin-
ates. A dictatorial manner or a lack of courtesy merely arouses resentment
and tends to kill the self-respect, self-reliance, and initiative which a good
forester must have.”

Human nature is the same in Australia as in America, and the tendency
in both countries is to depart from the militaristic type of discipline.

“On the other hand, subordinates should carry out their instructions
with intelligence, energy, and loyalty, in ezder that peremptory orders may
not become necessary.”

fat
“Each man should exercise unfailing tact and comradeship, and the most
persistent and conscientious efforts to assist and co-operate with his fellow
officers.” |
z
3

“When making personnel assignments, the supervisor should carefully
consider the fitness of the man for the particular project. This precaution
not only obtains better results, but is more just to the man. No one should
be assigned to work which he cannot satisfactorily perform. Fully-qualified
men can be obtained, however, only rarely, and in order to ensure the greatest
possible degree of success, the officer in charge should see that inexperienced
men are furnished with the most explicit instructions. These instructions
should cover, not only the methods of doing the work, but should include

suggestions as to proper equipment and any other information which may
prove of value,”

Inability to perform properly the duties of his position involves
“ demotion.”

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 21

Disciplinary measures consist of—
(a) Reprimand.
(6) Disciplinary transfer.
(c) Disciplinary furlough.
(d) Suspension.
(e) Demotion.
(f) Compulsory resignation; and
(g) Removal.

“Tn taking action, however, it should always be kept in mind that the
object is the improvement of the service, and not the infliction of punishment
or a means of satisfaction for any error, injury, or inefficiency on the part of
a subordinate. Generally, severe measures have no greater influence than
light ones, and the policy should be to administer only such disciplinary
measures as will protect and maintain the standards of the service.

“Tt should be remembered also that disciplinary measures will never
equal in effectiveness close inspection to prevent misconduct or inefficiency,
and that a warning or reprimand aduemaisteted promptly will, in most cases,
render severe measures unnecessary.”

Forest officers, even forest clerks, are required to keep a diary, recording
every day’s service. This diary is subject to periodical inspection.

“When it is considered desirable by either the district forester or the
supervisor, the forest force may be required to accompany the monthly service
report (attached) with a brief summary of the diary for the month.”

“ce

But the diary is “a record, and not the measure of efficiency, and no
criticism of forest officers’ actions will be based upon it unless substantiated
by investigation.”

On 1st May of each year the supervisor is required to submit an efficiency
report on each member of his force; this report includes his annual promotion
recommendations.

On Ist April of each year the supervisor submits a report to the district
forester, containing—

(a) A statement of the business of the forest,
(0) An outline of its organisation,

(c) An estimate of the allotments and appropriations required during
the ensuing financial year.

Generally, the district forester then makes a tour of the forests, enquiring
into the matter of appropriation, and finally submitting complete estimates
for the district to the forester.

One of the outstanding features of the administration is that, having
carefully selected its officer, it trusts him. If his estimates are approved, the

22 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

officer has virtual carte blanche. The service sanctions his policy by granting
him the funds. From district forester down, the same principles apply.
Officers are unhampered in their work by red tape or divided responsibility.
Responsibility is fixed and centred in the individual. Success or failure is
the supreme test.

An ideal atmosphere for effective work has been created. There is a
marked esprit de corps. The forest badge is worn with a certain pride. Every
officer is an enthusiast, he has devoted himself to the cause of forestry, and
is striving for maximum efficiency.

The whole Forest Service moves like a machine in an atmosphere of
harmony. Every officer is allotted his own particular task, and there is mutual
trust and co-operation and esteem.

It is not surprising that development has been so remarkable.

An Australian Study
of

American Forestry.

Part II

Part IL---An Australian Study.

Cuapter. I.

FORESTRY EDUCATION.

_ Close in the wake of the developing forestry movement of the United States -
of America followed a flood of enthusiasm for forestry education.

In 1898 the first professional forest schools were opened at Cornell
University and at Baltimore, almost simultaneously, under the auspices of
two German foresters, viz., Dr. Fernow and Dr. Schenck. In 1899 a third
was attached to Yale University, and in 1903 the University of Michigan
adopted the fourth; after which, forest schools sprang up all over the United
States of America like mushrooms in the night.

At the present time there are something like twenty-five educational
institutions which give a four-year graduate or undergraduate course leading
to a degree in forestry; ten which give a one to three year undergraduate
course; and no less than thirty which give a “ranger,” short, or general
course.

This was really frenzied over-production, tending to overorowd the
profession before it had established itself.

Nor was there a clear conception of the particular needs which were: to
be supplied. American forestry was in the nebulous formative stage, and no
definite lines of development had emerged. The schools hurriedly undertook
to train men for work which had not yet been planned!

It is no wonder that-the spirit of American forestry was lost in an
absorption in European forms. The schools attempted to turn out technically-
trained professional foresters, capable of developing far-reaching policies in
intensive management of National, State, and private forests, and competent
to apply them in actual practice. Confusion and indefinition made itself
apparent. Great universities impartially and indiscriminately admitted to
their graduate forestry courses undergraduates in art, science, agriculture,
engineering, and even literature and law!

Plenty of mediocre men were produced, but many of these schools failed
to produce real foresters or even men of high technical training. In the great
forest regions of the West arose a tendency to sneer at technical forestry and
its graduates, who were generally put at the common work of the forest
ranger, frequently never rising above it to practise their profession.

It is true that the demand for technical men was limited, and that native
force of character and ability counted for more than the highest educational
attainment in these developmental days. It is true that “seniority” was a
powerful qualification, as in Australia. But it is also true that these new
forestry schools did not really supply the type of man required by the
Fioneering forestry movement.

In 1909 came the first attempt to standardise forestry education in the
United States of America. Through the initiative of Gifford Pinchot, the first
forester of the United States of America Forest Service, a conference of forest
schools was held at Washington, D.C.,; to consider “the scope, grade, and
curriculum that would afford the best training for foresters of the various
grades, and a committee was appointed to prepare a plan for the standardisa-
tion of forestry education in the United States of America.

26 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Apart from general instruction in forestry, supplementary tc the study
of agriculture, &c., or as part of a general education, the committee recognised
two distinct grades of forestry training, viz. :—

(1.) Advanced professional training.

(2.) Secondary education for forest rangers.

In the first case, it was laid down that the educational requirements
should be “at least equal to those of the other learned professions, such as
civil and mechanical engineering, law, medicine, &c.”

The need for a thorough foundation in subjects of general educational
character was clearly realised, and a collegiate training in history, economics,
English and foreign languages, as well as in botany, geology, and other
auxiliary scientific subjects, was advocated. “It was agreed that the course
should comprise at least four years of undergraduate work, and in the case of
post-graduate schools there should be at least one year of post-graduate work
in technical forestry, making a five-year course altogether.”

In the second case, secondary education in forestry was said to be chiefly
concerned with rules of thumb and their local application, not requiring as a
foundation so high an order of general educational attainments. It aimed at
teaching the trade, rather than the science, and giving a practical training
rather than an education; and its object to “turn out skilled workmen
capable of doing all of the less technical operations required in managing
forest lands and of directing unskilled labour, as foremen.” It endeavoured
to fit men for the positions of rangers, guards, fire wardens, patrolmen,
lookout-men, lumbermen, timber cruisers, logging contractors, and managers
of woodland estates.

The committee affirmed—

“Tt must be squarely recognised that the purpose of ranger
schools is not to train professional foresters, and that their graduates
are to occupy relatively subordinate positions at low salaries!”

The entrance requirements were to be a high school training or its
equivalent, good health, character, and physical fitness. The age was to be
18-25 years.

“The course of training was to be one year of forty weeks. The subjects
were to be—

(1.) Fundamental—Fire protection, forest engineering, surveying,
estimating and scaling timber, forest botany, elementary
silviculture, lumbering, and preparation of forest maps.

(2.) Secondary—More advanced silviculture, more advanced lumber-
ing, forest insects and diseases, camping and woods trans-
portation, first aid.

(3.) Special—Elementary business law, State forest law and policy,
Federal forest law and policy, elements of bookkeeping, time-
keeping, and official accounting, local forest zoology, the
protection and cultivation of fish, the protection and breeding
of economic wild birds and animals, grazing and other
secondary uses of the forest, topographic surveying and
mapping, forest mensuration, elements of forest Managem nt,
utilisation of special forest products, principles of agriculture.”

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 27

I think that here, once more, there has been blurred conception and false
perspective. Once more European forms overshadowed American ideals.

It is true that a hard and fast line between trade and professional
forestry-education exists in most of the older countries where forestry has
been practised intensively for many years.

It originated, undoubtedly, in the initial endeavour to increase, the effi-
ciency of men of ranger-grade already employed, who had had no opportunity
for preliminary training. To develop it to the extent of training students
solely to perform the work of perpetual subordination, however, is to damn
them entirely. To a certain extent, the practice of intensive forestry has
influenced the adoption of a distinction ; but I view it rather as the product
of the European tradition of professions for the aristocracy and trades for the
peasantry.

It is incomprehensible that the system should find favour in a democracy
such as America professes to be, unless one regards it as due to the fascination
of the fetish of European precedent, and the immediate influence of German
foresters in the United States of America: Rather should the basic idea be to
afford every forestry apprentice an equal opportunity by training to achieve
promotion from humble beginnings to the highest positions available to his
effort and merit.

During recent years, the trend of feeling has been away from this
hard and fast division of forestry into profession and trade; mainly owing
to the fact that “full technical training ” as defined by the Conference of Forest
Schools does not sufficiently emphasise business training and forest economics,
and a familiarity with existing conditions.

Forestry to be regarded neither as a profession nor a trade, but as a
vocation, and forest schools should “bear the same relation to forests and
forestry and lumbering and wood-using industries that a school of mines bears
to mines and metallurgy and mine industries, or a school of agriculture bears
to farms and the agricultural sciences, and the cultivation, harvesting, and
marketing of food stuffs. Such schools will be in part industrial and give
vocational training, rather than high professional training.”

These schools would have a much wider field of usefulness than either a
professional or a ranger school. They would provide the type of men most
needed in the present pioneering stages of American and Australian forestry.
To use a much-abused phrase, they would furnish the “ practical” man rather
than the “ theorist.”

“ What such a school should be” is developed by Dorr Skeels in a paper
on “Forest Ranger Education,” délivered before the Society of American
Foresters in February, 1916. He affirms the axiom that it must be deter-
mined first by “ what a forest ranger should be.”

That, of course, depends somewhat upon the country and the century,
and the forest situation in particular.

His conception of a forest ranger in the National Forest Service is a man
whose “training should be so thorough and broad as to equip him for any
of the work for which the eastern schools train rangers, as well as to equip
him for any of the work of a more difficult and responsible nature which lies
entirely without the province of the eastern school, because the work of a
Government forest ranger is a public service of national importance . . . .”

Cc

28 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

“The forest ranger is now an important official of the service. He has
charge of a district, the extent and importance of which would be a responsi-
bility and a source of pride to the ober forester of a German State.”

“ He is not a drawer of water and hewer of wood, but rather an important
official, intrusted with the business of organising and operating forest district.
He is intrusted with the care of valuable resources. He directs the work of
subordinates and employs and pays wages to labour. The welfare and content
of individuals and families, and even of entire communities, or villages or
towns, depend upon his judgment, ability, and integrity. He must transact
business and meet on a level with men of ability and education and culture.
He has to do with the management of land and must be able to make surveys
and construct maps and to read them and use them. He has to do particularly
with timber, and must-understand wood and its uses and values. He must
know how to determine the methods and costs of production. While attending
‘to the harvest of the present crop, he must look to the continuity of a future
supply. His work is by no means merely that of administration, and is, in no
little part, silvicultural. Unless for every dollar paid to the ranger and his
subordinates there be paid to overheads a nearly equal amount for supervision
and direction, he must understand the basic principles of tree culture and the
care and protection of woodlands, and the guidance of their growth and
maturity.”

“We are by the point when we may complacently dally with the idea that
the ranger need be only superficially trained in the practical phases of his
work, or that a technical training in the sciences of forestry will leave him™
unfit to practise the arts of forestry.”

“Tn my opinion, hardly less important to the Forest Service than the
quality of the work secured is the proper training of subordinates to assure a
sufficient supply of satisfactory men as material for promotion.

“The work of the forest ranger is nécessarily largely of an executive
nature, and if his training has been sufficient, the very nature of his work is
to prepare him for administrative positions of more importance.”

Thus is developing the idea that the forest ranger is to be trained in the
“theory and principle,” as well as the “art and method ” of all the primary
branches of forestry. Surely this also will be the Australian attitude, both
because of its democratic tendencies and because Australian forestry is also
in the pioneering stages, and “ what a forest officer should be” is much the
-same in both countries.

The West is to be the place for these great new undergraduate schools of
forestry, among some of the vastest forests in the world. Already there are at
least two such schools in existence, one attached to the University of Montana
at Missoula, of which Mr. Skeels is Dean, and another, its closest rival, that
of the University of Washington, at Seattle.

Both of these schools I visited. In the first I gained an intimate view of
its organisation and methods—the substantial development of the ideas set
forth by Mr. Skeels in his paper above referred to.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 29

Both schools give a four-year undergraduate course in forestry leading
to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Forestry—B.S.F.—with a fifth year of
specialisation leading to the degree of M.S.F. in—

(a) Technical forestry ;

(>) Logging engineering ; and, in the case of the Washington School,
also ‘in

(ec) Forest products; and
(d) The lumbering business.

Both enjoy equally the advantages of—

(1.) Situation in the heart of tremendous timber regions, where
huge timber-getting operations are in progress.

(2.) Proximity to large National Forests.

(3.) Attachment to a university, and enjoyment of the teaching,
social, and gymnastic advantages consequent thereto.

(4.) Proximity to a large city.
(5.) Generous staffing and equipment, and strong faculties.

(6.) Present or prospective ownership of large school forests for
management.

(7.) Services of Forest Service experts for instructional purposes.

The Washington School is older and much the better equipped. Its strong
points are its Timber Testing Laboratory and wood preservation and utilisa-
tion equipment, and its proximity to the great manufacturing, milling, and
wood-treating industries of Seattle.

The strong points of the Montana School are its Forest. Service courses,
and its proximity to the headquarters of District No. 1 of the United States
of America Forest Service men, and the district office experts co-operate with
it in instruction. ;

The curricula of the two schools are compared in the attached tables.
It will be noted that, consequent upon its specialisation in wood technology,
&e., the trend of the Washington School is towards the production of candi-
dates for the lumbering industry. On the other hand, that of the Montana
School is towards the production of candidates for the Forest Service.

For which reason it engaged most of my attention.

In addition to providing for those who plan to enter the forest services, .
Loth schools have developed “ short courses” of instruction for those already
employed, who have not had the advantages of a preliminary training, and. are
desirous of increasing their efficiency.

These courses are of three months’ duration, and may be pursued either
for one or two years. They are held in the winter, when there is little field
work which can be done on the forests. The work is intensely practical and
cuggestive. 7

Not only are the forest ranger’s needs considered, but also the lumber-
man’s. Suitable courses of study are provided for each type, and opportunities
for specialisation are afforded by elective courses from the regular curriculum.

_ These short courses supply a very practical need and are very largely
availed of. Their importance is increasing with every: year of work.

The curricula of the Montana and Washington schools are compared in
the attached summaries.

30

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

CURRICULA COMPARISONS.

FIRST YEAR,

Montana,

l. General Forestry :

Mensuration—volume and growth
estimating.

2, Geology :
composition of rocks and soils.

3. Genera? Botany: Review of vegetable 3.

kingdom ; alg to ferns; dicoty-
ledons ; classification.

4. English : Composition ; preparation: of 4,

teports.

5. Trigonometry: To right and oblique 5.

angled trianges.

6. Algebra : Elements of Analytical Geo- 6.

“metry and Calculus.

7. Surveying: Compass—chain—transit

—tape; computations; triangu-
lation; traverse board; plane
table.

8. Drawing : Elementary Mapmaking and
lettering ; compiling maps ; blue-
printing to photography.

9. Shop work: Wood and forge—camp
carpentry and blacksmithing.

10. Physical Culture.

ll. Spring Camp: Surveying and fores-
try.

12. Woodcraft :

An introduction ; 1,

Dynamic and structural ; 2.

10.
Il.

Washington,
General Forestry: Nomenclature and
classification of trees; introduc-
tion to forestry.

Geology.

General Botany : Morphology and his-
tology ‘an entrance requisite).

English.

Mathematics : Numerical and graphi®
methods; plane triangles; cc-
ordinate geometry; derivatives
and integrals.

(Algebra is an entrance requisite.)

Drill.

Food lists ; camp cook
ery ; woods clothing ; camp equip-
ment ; first aid.

SECOND YEAR,

Montana.
Forest Management—Forest Engineering..

Surveying : Topog.and Mapping ; Stadia,
levelling, slide rule, planimeter,
geodesy ; Forest Service methods ;
contour maps; R. R, surveying ;
grades and profiles ; highways and
bridges.

English or German.

Lumbering: Forest utilisation and ex-
ploitation ; properties and
qualities of wood, etc.; wood

uses; timber testing and treat-
ment ; by-products.

Forest Mensuration : Log sealing. tumber-
. grading and tallying. Cruising:
Estimating standing timber, &c. ;
volume, growth-date for wo1king
plans.

Physics : Mechanics, molecular physics ;
heat, electricity, sound, and light.

Botany: Histology, morphology,
physiology and dendrology.

and

Surveying :

Forest Mensuration :

Physics :

Washington,
Forestry.

Engineering, lettering, and
map-drawing; chain, compass,
transit, and level.

A modern language.

i Log rules; com
puting volumes; form factors ;
volume tables; growth; samplr
plot yield tables.

Sealing and ernising.

An entrance requisite.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 31

Sesonn Yuar—continued.

Montana,
Forest Management—Forest Engineering.

Biology: Element- Analytical Geometru.
ary Zoology and Advanced Trigonom-

Entomology. etry.
Shop Work—Forge
and Machine.
* Descriptive Geo-
metry.
* Shades Shadows,

and Perspectives.

Spring Camy.: Forest measurements and
lumbering.

Washington,
Forestru.

Chemistry : General.
*Mechanical Engineering—Shop Drill.

THIRD YEAR,

Montana.
Forest Management—Forest Engineering.

Forest Mapping : Compiling topographic
maps ; forest maps.

Forest Reconnaissance: U.S. Forest fer-
vice methods.

Iumbering: The industry; grading ;
marketing and selling ; prices and
freights ; milling methods and mill
study, costs, &c.

Fire Protection: Publicity ; prevention
laws; detection; organisation of
patrol suppression ; fire-fighting
methods.

Highways and Bridges : Their design and
construction ; trail building, &c.

Improvement and Construction: Roads
and trails ; bridges ; cost data.

*Silviculture : Forest Silviculture.
ecology and types ;
nursery practice ;
planting.

Forest Policy: Ad-
ministration ; nat.

Graphic Statics.

forest laws ; Integral and Differ-
classification ; tax- ential Calculus.
ation; organisa-
tion,

Botany: Classifica- Applied Mechanics,

tion of forest trees
of U.S.A. woods.

* Biology. *Forest Management.

* Physics. * Hydraulics.

*Geology—Physical. *Geology—Mining.

*Chemistry. *Chemistry.

*Hinglish or German. *Water Supply and
Irrigation.

* Mathematics.

Washington,
Forestry.

Forest Topography: Plane table, transit
and triangulation; Elementary
Railroad Surveying.

Reconnaissance.

Political Science : Elements of economics.

A

Tree Diseases.

Silviculture : Forest ecology and types ;
nursery practice ; planting.

*Mech, Engineering.

Forest Entomology and Biology.
Physics. o

* Political Science.

*Chemistry.

Railroad Surveying.

*Elective,

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

FOURTH YEAR.

Montana.
Forest Management—Forest Engineering.

Forest Management: Forest problems ;
regulation of forest uses; timber
sale contracts ; classifications ; or-
ganisation ; personnel; revenue ;
European systems.

Administration: Organisation of National
Forest work ; timber sales ;. graz-
ing; claims; office system ac-
counts ; costs-keeping, &c.

Improvement and Construction: Head-
quarters telephone lines; reser-
voirs and dams,

Forest Appraisals : Costs of exploitation
and manufacture; valuation of
stumpage.

Silviculture : European silvical systems ;
working plans ; regulation of yield.

Forest Pathology : Diseases of timber.

Forest Ecology ; Effect of climate and
soils on distribution.

Forest Engineering : Hydraulics, stream
gauging, water-power plants,

Logging Engineering: Logging methods ;
application of motive powers.

Motive Powers: Electric, steam, and gas
engines.

* Silvics—Review.

*Forest Geography.

*System : Botany.

* Physics.

*Wood Technology.

*Logging Engineering.

*Forest Policy.

Washington.
Forestru.

Forest Management : Valuation ; finance ;
administration ; management ;
working plans.

Elementary Law Forest Economics,

Advanced Silviculture.

(Given in fifth year.)

General Lumbering.
Cruising and Scaling.
Zoology : Animals.
English.

Forest History and Policy.
Steam Engineering.
Electrical Engineering.
Mechanical Engineering.
Porest Engineering Course.

FIFTH YEAR,

Montana,
Forest Management—Forest Engineering.

(Montana treats generally as part of
Lumbering, second year.)
(Important—Not given by Montana.)

(Part of Lumbering—Montana, second year.)
(Montana, second and third years.)

(Montana, fourth year.)

» Elective.

Washington,
Forestry.
+Seminar.
tTimber Physics : Wood strengths, &c,

tSetentific Management : Fundamental
Principles,
}Utiitsation - Secondary forest products.

{Forest Mensuration - Timber estimating
and mapping. :

{Forestry : Advanced dendrology.
{Advanced Forest Management.
Logging Engineering.

Forest Engineering Course.

+ Forest Management Course.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY, 33

It is axiomatic that what a forest school should be depends, in the first
instance, upon what its graduates should be: its constitution depends upon
its objects.

The essential purpose of projected Australian forest schools is to produce
officers for Forest Service work not as it is now nor as it will be in a far
distant future, but as it should be for the extension of efficiency in the handling
of immediate problems. Its especial task is to train men to carry out the
practical work of forest rangers and overseers; but with such a professional
foundation that they may expand that function to a broader and higher phase,
aud with due experience qualify for promotion to the superior grades of the
forest service, where they will be called upon to handle weightier matters and
solve the more complex problems of forest administration.

-The immediate problems of Australian forestry are those mainly of
erganisation, investigation, and standardisation.

The making of topographical surveys and forest classifications and valua-
tions, the preparation of forest maps, the planning of forest protection and
improvements, logging engineering, the appraisal of stumpage values and
consequent logging and milling studies, the development of timber sale
policies, forest mensuration and finance, forest laws and regulations, adminis-
trative methods and systems, the study of silviculture, of problems ‘of natural
and artificial regeneration and of forest tending, the development of silvi-
cultural systems, the working out of marking rules and conditions of exploita-
tion, the study of trees and their growth, of little-used woods and products
and their extended utilisation, timber grading and seasoning, inauguration of
medern logging and milling procedures, regulation of forest grazing, publicity
and education of public opinion, labour-saving and efficiency engineering, the
planning and standardisation of methods and the development of systems, the
conduct of general research into all. matters of forestry expansion and the
publication of the results; and finally, the preparation of text books on
Australian forestry—these are some of the questions demanding the attention
of the Australian Forestry Schools and their trainees.

In organising the forest school in the Philippines, the “ necessity for
research work was felt from the beginning, and every effort was made to accom-
plish as much as the limited funds and personnel would permit. The work
was placed in charge of a division of investigation attached to the forest school,
te which was attached a forest of 15,000 acres offering many local opportuni-
lies for local research work, and affording a demonstration ground for the
students. Here are located a forest nursery and tree plantations maintained
largely by student labour. The members of the division of investigation
constitute the teaching staff of the school.” (Major G. P.. Ahern before the
Society of American Foresters—December, 1915.)

Of an original forest area of 800,000,000 acres, the United States of
America Forest Service now holds only 164,000,000 acres. The balance,
comprising the greater part of the forest estate, is in the hands of large timber
corporations who secured them for a song in the earlier days. The springing-up
of forest schools throughout the country was in large measure a direct response
to the needs of these timber companies who required foresters to manage
their lumber-lands. The Forest Service came later.

As a consequence, the forest schools are all either private concerns or
off-shoots of universities, and, although there is a Forest Service section of
research, there is no purely Forest Service scheme of staff training.

34 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Forestry in Australia is essentially a Governmental concern. We are in
the early stages of pioneering, and our first functions, therefore, are to solve
the silvicultural problems besetting us, and to build up forestry stafis capable
of establishing effective silvicultural systems. Each State Forest Service must
have its department of research, its experiment stations, and demonstration
forests, its nurseries, its administrative headquarters. It must have a staff
competent to carry on investigations and administer the forests.

But education and research go hand in hand, and considerable advantages
flow from the combination. Economy is the first of these, but, further, the
concentration of these functions at the centre of training would permit also
of the appointment of a much stronger faculty, and the provision of much
larger equipment than otherwise would be possible. Moreover, the students
would have the opportunity of intimacy with Forest Service tasks, and could
be employed in furthering actual Forest Service work.

The function of an Australian Forestry School, therefore, should be not
alone instructive, but also investigative and experimentative. In some
measure at least, it should be a clearing house for new ideas and systems
which it is expected to incorporate into forest practice. Its director should
-be a forest officer in close touch with current Forest Service administration.

The officers of the Forest Service should be available as special lecturers
or field instructors.

The School should be located on a State forest and at the headquarters
thereof, within easy walking distance of a town, and in the centre of logging
and milling operations. If possible, it should be associated with a forest
nursery and experiment station and a demonstration forest and arboretum.

Its equipment should include a herbarium and museum, forest library,
research laboratory, log deck and timber collection, a small forest nursery
and arboretum, drafting and lecture rooms equipped with gas and water,
workshop and gymnasium and recreation grounds, the most modern surveying
aud timber cruising instruments, microscopes and cameras, logging and milling
apparatus, modern furniture (constructed of the lesser-uséd native woods),
filing cabinets, map files, typewriters and desks, mimeographs (Edison No. 7 6),
office materials, drafting materials, bushcraft materials, Forest Service books,
forms, maps, &c.

In the platforms of both Federal political parties for years past has
appeared a plank relating to the establishment of a Federal Bureau of
Forestry. Whether forestry in Australia ever becomes a Commonwealth
matter or not, it is probable that a forest school and institute of research
will be needed in each State.* That is the tendency of the day. The Com-
monwealth, however, holds forest lands in Papua and the Northern Territory,
which it must place under expert management in course of time. Until the
population of these Commonwealth areas becomes sufficiently large, it will
be impracticable to place a forest school within the Territory. In view of
the identical forest problems of Queensland, the most appropriate arrange.
a gna be to have the Commonwealth staff trained at the Queensland
school.

*

The training should consist of a three or four years’ undergraduate course
for cadets, and one or two (three months’) short courses for officers already in
the services.

_The term should be one year of forty weeks, with a month’s vacation at
Christmas, and two months’ field work in the winter or early spring, when
assessment and nursery work, &c., are in full swing.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 35

The students should be not less than seventeen: years of age, of good
health, character, and physique, and with educational attainments equivalent
to those required for entrance to the public service or for the junior university
examination. It is desirable that they should include elementary biology,
zoology and geology, mathematics, physics and chemistry in their training.
The prerequisites for admission to the Washington School are—English,
algebra, plane and solid geometry, physics, history, botany, a foreign language,
and an elective subject.

The conditions of entrance should be on an apprenticeship basis with
compensation.

Preference should be given to junior clerks and cadets already in the
services.

A syllabus is suggested in the attached draft. Largely, it is a matter
of development, and should be elastic enough to permit of alteration from
time to time. The details should be left to the determination of the Principal
of the School.

Forest surveying, reconnaissance and mapping, and the preparation of
working plan reports are the strong needs of the Forest Services, and should
be features of the course. As the timber sale policy extends, as the State
enters more intimately into relations with the timber industry, as it advances
further and further into the realm of practical and educative forestry, it will
be requisite to develop a scientific system of stumpage appraisals, to know
the timber business from beginning to end, to educate the industry to better
methods. Lumbering, stumpage appraisals, and logging engineering are
important subjects to be taught. Possibly special courses therein could be
provided for men interested in the timber industry. The new science of
management should be regarded as an essential part of the subject of forestry
administration, which should deal with all branches of Forest Service routine.
Silviculture, forestry, and botany are fundamental subjects, and their teaching
should be spread over the whole three or four years’ course. Bushcraft and
everything relating thereto should be dealt with in the first and second years.

AUSTRALIA,

FIRST YEAR.

Forest Botany—The vegetable kingdom :—
(a) The forest and the trees; nomenclature and classification of
timbers, and forage and useless trees—typical species.
(b) Ecology, forest types, forests as a whole, silvical characteristics,
forest regions.
Forestry—
(2) The Forest Service, the forester, the forest.

An introduction to forestry.

(6) Introduction to forestry economics—forests as a resource ; history
of conservation; forests and climate; soils, &c.; indirect
utilities.

Busheraft—Camping and transportation ; veterinary science; carpentry ; first
aid, &c.; food lists; camp cookery ; camp equipment.

Scientific Management—Principles and examples ; labour-saving ; application
to forestry. :

36 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Surveying—Elementary. Strip surveying—chain and compass; _ transit,
stadia, plane table; triangulation computations. :

Map ping—Elementary. Map-making; compiling maps; lettering; blue
printing to photography.

Trigonometry—tTo right and oblique triangles.

Shop Work—

Military Drili—

Winter or Spring Camp—

SECOND YEAR.

Lumbering—Wood technology and identification; wood-uses; timber-testing

and treatment.
Exploitation and utilisation.

Geology—Dynamic and structural; rocks and soils.

Forest Mensuration—Log rules and scaling ; computing volumes, instruments ;
standing timber; form factors; volume tables; field tables ;
sample plots; cruising.

Botany—Histology, morphology, and physiology of dicotyledons.

Bacteria to phanerogams.

Surveying—Topography—Abney and barometer ; levelling ; stadia, slide rule
and planimeter ; Forest Service methods ; railroad surveying ;
grades and profiles ; highways and bridges; survey of a forest
in second or third years.

Mapping—Topographical ; forest maps.

Forestry—Forest. history.

Biology—Elementary. Zoology and entomology.

Bushcraft—A continuation.

Stlviculture—Development of forests—their care and protection—fire, insects,
disease, wind, drought, &c., grazing.

Military Drili— ;

Camp—Forest survey and valuation.

Elective Chemistry—
THIRD YEAR.

Physics—Mechanics ; molecular physics ; heat, electricity ; sound and light.

Silviculture—Seeds and seedlings ; nursery practice; transplanting and plant-
ing. Natural regeneration in the forest. Silvicultural systems ;
cutting systems; improvement.

Forest Reconnaissance—Field practice in Forest Service methods ; valuation
surveys.

Forest Mapping—Compiling topographical maps ; forest maps.

Lumbering—The industry; grading and tallying ; marketing and selling—
milling methods and mill study—sleeper and girder getting,
&c.; freights—costs. :

Forestry Administration—Forest classification ; working plan reports ; head-
ings for reports ; report writing ; office methods—bookkeeping,
filing, &c., costkeeping.

Forest lingineering—Improvements and constructions; roads, trails ; bridges ;
buildings ; reservoirs, dams. ; :

Military Drilir—

Winter Freld Work—

Seminar— .

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 37

FOURTH YEAR.

Forestry Administration—Forest problems ; regulation of forest uses; timber
sale contracts, &c.; revenue; organisation and personnel ;
forest laws and policies. Evidence—cases; police court pro-
cedure ; routine work; probable lines of development.

Silviculture—Silvical systems; working plans; regulation: of yield; manage-
ment; finance. ;

Forest Appraisals—Costs of exploitation and manufacture; valuation of
stumpage,

Logging Engineering—Operative cost factors ; logging plans and machinery ;
applied mechanics; motive powers (electric; steam, and gas
engines).

Grazing—

Military Drill—

Seminar—

Investig ation—

Thests—

Geology and physics are other necessary subjects. A certain number of
electives should be added.

As far as possible, the method of teaching should be “ centrifugal” rather
than “centripetal,” opening with the broad phases of forestry and developing
the technical details subsequently—the natural method by which one learns
most things in life. The conventional one of “laying a foundation” of
technique is unnatural, and tiresome to the student.

The staff would consist, probably, of the following members :—

1. A Princtpal—

Controlling the local policy and administration, subject to the Director
_ of Forests.

He would be lecturer also in, say, forestry, silviculture, dendrology,
. forest reconnaissance, appraisals, administration, scientific
management, lumbering, and forest mensuration, grazing,

and bushcraft.

2, A Forest Engineer—
Lecturer in forest surveying, topography, and mapping; higher
mathematics, physics, logging and forest engineering.

Assistant lecturer in lumbering, forest reconnaissance, mensuration,
administration, and bushcraft.

Investigator and compiler in the above subjects.
Consulting engineer for the Forest Service.

8. A Science Master—
Preferably a technical forestry graduate.
Lecturer in botany, dendrology, biology, and geology.
Assistant lecturer in silviculture, forestry, and grazing.
Investigator and compiler ; in charge of herbarium and library.

38 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

4. A Forest Assessor—

Assistant lecturer in bushcraft, scaling and cruising, forest assessment
and surveying, lumbering and administration.

Supervisor for the school forest.

Investigator and compiler—in administrative problems, logging,
milling, appraisals, and general forest studies.

5. A Secretary—
General record and correspondence clerk, stenographer, mimeographer
and compiler, &c.
6. Special Lecturers—
Visiting scientists and experts.
Local and visiting forest officers.
Local high school teachers to teach languages and elective subjects.
Local doctor, to teach first aid.

7. General Labour—
A cook.

A nursery labourer—to act as assessor’s assistant, planter, gardener,
and handy man at the school.

Cook’s assistant and house help.

A rough sketch of the general outlay involved under this scheme indicates
a capital cost of £3,400, and an annual maintenance charge of much the same
amount, vide the following :—

Capital Cost—

Principal’s residence ... ae ais ans = ... about £800
School—2 lecture rooms, 2 offices, a herbarium and

museum, &c., and a large drafting room 3s 600
Six bunk-houses and bath-houses_ . tas oan WER. 0555 500
Kitchen and dining hall... oh ae oe ie 9 200
School equipment and furnishing ... we ae Se. ae 250
Tents, tools, and field equipment Fe 100
Additional "residence is ake, 5 500
Water supply and small sawing and seasoning plant ee ees 300
Clearing and laying out grounds ... = oe sate sy 150
Total e's ang ae 4 ta we £3,400
Maintenance Cost—
Interest on capital at 6 per cent. ... wis es a8 .. £204
Salaries :
Principal ... a ag 23 ae te ee 600
Forest engineer ... ins i see ee sy 400
Science master ... es we hea ee a 300
Forest assessor ... sss ie nee sis ie 300
Visiting lecturers = ‘is age re cs 200
Labour... si ae se 500
Students (12) allowances, ‘at 10s. per week ... Ge ves 312
Food, &c. ... : ‘ ee aoe re 500
General... 4 aes sas at 288 yi i 184

otal acu. al Se, Oe. Oe «| eS

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 39

In considering these figures, it must be remembered that the scheme
provides not only for the training of cadets, but also for short courses for
officers already employed; and, not least, the carrying out of investigative,
experimentative, and planning work in practical administration problems.

The figures provide for the keep of the students, and an allowance of 10s.
per week.

An alternative scheme would be to eliminate the board and residence
provision, and arrange for such in the adjacent town.

The cost of the two months’ field work provided for in the curriculum
is not included in the annual charges, because it is believed that it will be
more than balanced by the value of the work accomplished.

It is possible that arrangements could be made to distribute the students
among the assessors, experimentalists, or general field staff as winter assistants
for special survey and assessment projects, with the incidental aim of affording
actual bush experience.

Ii board be provided, arrangements should be on the cafeteria, or self-
waiting principle. .

As regards the forest engineer, I recommend the despatch of an Australian
graduate in engineering to the United States of America for a special course
in forest engineering ; alternatively, the employment for a term of five years
of an American forest engineer.

An essential part of the scheme of forestry education is the short course
of instruction for officers already employed.

In fact, the first work undertaken by the school might be a “short
course,” so that the ambitious element to be found in every Forest Service
may be fitted to at once advance the immediate aims of the Forestry Depart-
ment, and devélop a higher phase of work.

The training might be given in the summer months, when field work is least
pressing and inviting. It should consist of three months’ instruction on the
lines adopted by the Montana and Washington schools, wide the attached
summary.

The course should feature forest survey and assessment, scientific manage-
ment as applied to forest administration, forest mensuration, and forest
appraisals.

A second year short course could be furnished later, if found advisable.

Short Courses—Curricula Comparisons.
Ranger.

First YEAR.
Montana. Washington.

Silviculture: Tree requirements; re-
generation; systems of cutting
nursery work and planting.

Scaling and Cruising : Scale rules; de- Forest Measurements : Log rules ; heights
fects ; cruising. and diameters; volume tables ;
scaling and cruising.

Surveying and Mapping : Instruments ; Forest Surveying : Engineering drawing ;
levelling ; map-making. topography, and map drawing;
chain, compass, level, clinometer

transit,

40 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Ranger.

First YEaR—continued.

Montana.

Geclogy : Dynamic and structural ; prin-
cipal rocks and soils.

Forest Administration : The natural forest
and the ranger.

Tree Diseases.
First Aid.

English.
Elementary Mathematics.

Advanced Trigonometry, &c.

Washington,
Geology : Common minerals; soil classifi-
cation ; ore samples and mining ;
lode and placer work. 2
Characteristics of Trees: Identification
and classification ; distribution and

use,

Forest Administration ; Policies and
methods. :

Forest Botany—*Morphology and identi-.
fication.

Forest Law : Interpretation, precedents,
trespass, evidence.
Diseases of Trees : Fungi and decay.
First Aid : (Local Doctor.) Bandages;
shocks, bruises, cuts, burns, and
poisoning.
English : Composition.

SECOND YEAR.

: Montan3.
Botany and Silviculture : Classification
of trees; the growth and distribu-
tion. Silviculture systems.

Advanced Topographical Surveying and
Contours, &c.

Lumbering : Wood—Utilisation ; logging
engineering.

Logging Engineering.

Physics.

Forest Appraisals,
Insect Control,
Hydraulics,

Seminar,

Fire Protections, |
Forcst Improvements,
Grazing.

Washington.
Silviculture : Ecology ;
forest regions and
types ;_ silviculture
systems of manage-
ment.

Forest Measurements :
Volume tables ;
valuation surveys ;
annual growth.

Forest Surveying Forest Survey~
Traversing, triang. ing.
anltopo. |

Forest Management :
Compound interest ;
valuation ; rotation ;
taxation.

Logging : Logging ma-
chinery and rail-
roads ; topo. maps
and surveys.

Wood Utilisation and
Preservation Pro-
perties and uses of
woods : problems in
wood preservation,

Forest Economics
Economic problems
in re lumber indus-
try.

Lumbering.

Forest measure-
ments.

Logging.

Wood
tion.

utilisa-

Forest
Econem:ss,

It is not possible to release the supervising staffs for three months, but
every candidate for the position of forest assessor should be required to take
the course before appointment. The forest assessment staff should be increased
very largely in view of the amount of forest organisation work to be done.

* Elective first and second ycars.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 41

In this way efficiency methods would be most quickly diffused throughout
the Forest Service and the consequent development would be rapid.

The alternatives are eventual replacement by younger and better-trained
men, which would not be fair to the older officers—the American policy—or
the postponement of new methods until the older officers had left the service—
which would not be fair to the public.

Cuapter II.

U.S.A. TIMBER SALES POLICY

“For the purpose of preserving the living and growing timber and
promoting the younger growth on forest reservations, the Secretary of Agri-
culture, under such rules and regulations as he shall prescribe, may cause
to be designated and appraised, so much of the dead, matured, or large
growth of trees as may be compatible with the utilisation of the forests
thereon; and may sell the same for not less than the appraised value. (Act
of June 4, 1897.)

This is the authority under which the timber on the United States of
America National Forests is disposed of. It is a sales, not a royalty system
such as we have at present in practically all the Australian States with the
exception of Queensland.

Of the timberlands of the United States of America, only one-fifth are
National Forest—the remainder are privately owned, generally by large lumber
companies ; they compete with the National Forests, and practically dominate
the market. The Forest Service has not a monopoly and is not compelled to
dispose of its timber willy nilly. For some years after the dedications were
made, in fact, timber was held in reserve and no sales whatever were negotiated.

In this respect the situation differs from that of Australia, where the
Government forests control the market by possession of a virtual monopoly,
and by reason of that fact and the shortness of the supply are forced by the
public demand to market their timber resources whether they feel prepared
to do sc cr not.

The United States of America timber sales policy is controlled by a special
office of silviculture of the Forest Service. Originally based on European
technique, it has been compelled to come to American earth by the
exigencies of the situation and the period, and is now a very practical present-
day policy. Measured by the Australian standards of the moment, it is
elaborate, yet as compared with the intensive methods of the Continent, it
is a very “extensive” scheme.

The Act of 1897 provided that National Forest timber may be sold “
not less than the appraised value.”

Whence developed the science of appraising timber stumpage on the
National Forests.

A topographic strip survey and timber assessment on similar but much
more detailed lines than those followed by us form the basis of operation.
.This provides four maps, which show—
(1.) Topography, culture, and improvements.
(2.) Timber types and age classes.
(3.) Timber estimates by 40-acre sections.
(4.) The projected improvement plan.

42 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Armed with these and estimates of the timber stand, the Forest Service
logging engineer visits the site of the proposed sale and proceeds to make an
investigation of its possibilities.

He considers the silvical requirements of the site, the rules for the
marking of the trees which may be felled, the question of brush and waste
disposal, and protection of the young growth, and the methods of cutting
prescribed by the Forest Service.

He then ‘determines the boundaries of the sale area, eliminating
unmerchantable timber and ground on which logging is impracticable, the
proportion of each species which can be cut under the methods of marking
established for the chance or forest type, and the estimated cut by species and
lumber grades.”

He works out the general scheme of exploitation which should be adopted,
the size and type of the mill, and the duration of the operation. He locates
the main artery of log transportation, whether driveable by stream, railroad,
sledge road, or flume, and projects the logging spurs, chutes, and skid roads.

He then divides the area into exploitation units and computes for each
the cost of felling and skidding from the stump to the landing.

He works out the costs of the whole enterprise and its upkeep, and
calculates the operating expenses from logging and transportation to manu-
facture.

Finally he considers the quality of the timber and ascertains the value
of the manufactured product in the available markets.

He calculates what may be a reasonable profit for the purchaser, depending
on the size and permanency of the operation and the degree of hazard attending
it. Twenty per cent. on the investment is adopted as a general standard.

Having made an intensive study of investments, costs, and profits, with all
., the data. before him he determines the stumpage rate on royalty to be charged,
that is the actual value of the timber as it stands on the stump on the sale
area. The logging chance is then submitted to public competition.

The cost of brush disposal, protection of the young growth, methods of
cutting and other requirements of the Forest Service, is duly allowed for in
arriving at the decision.

Such is the science of stumpage appraisals as developed by the United
States of America Forest Service in an endeavour to determine the market
value of the timber in its forests.

Queensland incorporated the principles of this system in her timber sale
policy from the outset.

The New South Wales practice of charging a fixed royalty is one purely
of expediency and must disappear wtih the establishment of business forestry.
It has served its purpose, but must be replaced in the very near future by a
well-considered plan of timber valuation leading to a selling rather than a
taxation policy.

The adoption of “super-royalties” in the north-west district of New
South Wales is a successful attempt to initiate a rudimentary selling plan.
Its development along similar lines to those of the United States of America
appraisal scheme is necessary.

As far as practicable, appraisals are made in anticipation of applications
and in connection with general reconnaissance work. It is the duty of officers
to ascertain the areas most in need of cutting, to have them ready for sale,
and direct applicants to them.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 43

An important aspect of the American method is that it is but a very
short step from planning and regulating a logging enterprise to actually
managing it. I think that within ten years the United States of America
Forest: Service will have taken that step, and that a possible development
should not be lost sight of in our own forestry plan.

For each forest minimum selling prices are prescribed, which represent
approximately “the point at which it is believed wise public policy to with-
hold timber from sale rather than to sell it at the market value then obtain-
able.” Such minimums, however, do not apply to dead, fire-damaged, insect-
infested, or badly diseased timber, which is sold as soon as possible and at
rates which will induce its removal before serious deterioration or spread
of the damage to other timber occurs. These minimums are fixed by the
district forester.

Similarly the purchase of overmature and inferior timber is encouraged,
end when necessary, the less mature areas are withheld until such timber has
been cut.

Every contract exceeding five years provides for the readjustment or
reappraisal of stumpage prices, generally every three years.

Timber must be advertised for sale. The purchase is completed by the
making of an agreement between the Forest Service and the operator, and
the entering of the latter into a bond of from 5 per cent. to 10 per cent. of the
value of the timber sold, for the due observance of the conditions of the
contract. The purchaser must submit satisfactory evidence of his financial
ability to conduct the operation and fulfil the terms of the agreement.

The welfare of the future stand is the main consideration in every timber
sale contract. The desires of the purchasers are carefully considered, but
the silvicultural needs of the forest are regarded as paramount. The aim is
to obtain the best forest conditions possible, and a utilisation as complete as
circumstances permit. No sale is made unless it is practicable to specify
methods of cutting and brush disposal which will retain a sufficient stand for
protection, and a future cut, or which will ensure the restocking of the cut-
over area with desirable species.

There is no such thing in American practice as a fixed minimum girth,
which is also a rule of expediency, and insufficiently flexible for effective
silvicultural management.

The general rule is to retain from 5 per cent. to 10 per cent. of the
merchantable timber in volume for reseeding in connection with clear cutting.
and from 25 per cent. to 40 per cent. for a future stand where partial cutting
is adopted.

No tree may be cut under any consideration unless it has been marked
for felling by a forest officer.

Marking is regarded as of the utmost importance, and takes precedence
over ordinary administrative routine. A marking board consisting of the
district forester or chief of silviculture, the forest supervisor, the forest
assessor, and the officer who is to be in charge of the sale mark representative
areas and establish the methods to be followed.

The system of marking and the proportion of timber to be cut is explained
to the purchaser by marking sample areas before the contract is executed.

D

44 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The requirements of the contract are also explained, and the officer who
prepares the agreement is held responsible for its clear understanding by the
applicant.

The marking is checked before the sawyers leave the logging unit, in
order to designate additional trees which have been overlooked.

It is the policy to secure the closest utilisation practicable, even if the
same financial returns might be obtained for less material.

“Merchantability ” is defined very precisely and every timber sale contract
contains exact specifications of the material of which utilisation is required.

Standard clauses are those requiring the cutting of all marked or dead
trees which contain one or more merchantable logs; or which are of a sufficient
height to constitute a-fire menace, or which are diseased.

Low stumps, and the lopping, piling or scattering, and burning of brush
and waste are other standard requirements.

The Timber Sale Contract is a lengthy and formidable document and
contains many conditions and restrictions. I was able to bring back with
_me several sample copies of such agreement, which in the essentials are

identical with those used in connection with the “super-royalty ” and special
license schemes of New South Wales.

Contracts may provide that in addition to the stumpage purchased, a
specified area will be reserved from sale until the termination of the contract
and then appraised and advertised for sale. As far as possible, the rate at
which timber is sold from any area is such as to ensure a reasonable operating
life for new mills constructed in connection with sales. But the mill power
is accommodated to the yield, not the yield to the mill.

One interesting proviso is contained in the following direction :—

“Where partial cutting is practised, the less destructive of the
known and practicable methods of logging will ordinarily be
required. Specifically steam logging will usually not be permitted
in partial cuttings where horse logging is practicable. The intro
duction of new logging methods will not be permitted except after
satisfactory showing that they are no more destructive than the
former methods.”

No timber may be cut under any sale contract until it has been paid for!

A deposit must accompany every bid for advertised timber, sufficient to
cover the value of the results of two months of active logging. An amount
must always be on deposit large enough to ensure against overcutting.
Purchasers are notified well in advance wherl an additional deposit is required.

Failure to make prompt payment upon request is cause for suspending
operations.

No timber cut under any contract may be removed from the cutting area
until it has been measured and branded.

The Forest Service employs scalers who do nothing else but scaling.
Measurement is according to the Scribner Decimal “C” rule, which by
measuring the small end diameter and the length gives approximately the
sawn output. Scaling by this method is quick and cheap. With the modern
band saw, the output often exceeds the scaled contents slightlv—an overrun;
but it is a method which might be adopted in Australian practice with
advantage.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 45

Every log must be numbered and the measurement entered against its
number in the scaling book. Logs are measured generally in the standard
16 feet lengths.

In order to produce uniform methods of log scaling, a check scaler is
employed to check the measurements of the other scalers who are required
to approximate to his standards. Curves are prepared to show divergencies
from the check scaling.

Complaints are settled by a check seale. Additions in the scale book
are checked in the supervisor’s office.

Weekly cutting reports are submitted to the supervisor. These are com-
pared with the timber sales record card for errors in entries brought forward
from the last report and for correction of the rates. The total value of the
cut to date is checked with the total deposits, to guard against cutting in excess
of payments.

A report of timber sold or cut is forwarded monthly to the district forester,
who submits a similar report to the forester, giving quantities and values for
each forest.

Timber sales are divided thus—

By amount—
Class A—Ranger’s sales—not exceeding £20 in value.
Class B—Supervisor’s sales—not exceeding £20 in value.
Class C—Supervisor’s sales—exceeding £20 in value.
Class D—District forester’s sales up to 30,000,000 feet.
Class E—Forester’s sales over 30,000,000 feet.

By advertisement—
Unadvertised—Not exceeding £20.
Advertised—Exceeding £20.

Ranger’s sales and supervisor’s Class “B” sales may be made by estimate
in lieu of appraisal.

A maximum annual or periodic cut is fixed by the Minister for every forest,
with a view to restricting the amount removed to the current production, i.e.,
a sustained yield basis; and also to conserve the supply of timber required for
local use.

The established limitations are reviewed annually by the district forester,
but remain binding until changed by order of the Minister.

It is the policy to increase the cut up to this maximum. Market surveys
of each district are made, showing local consumption and sources of supply :
and data on specific areas are furnished to possible purchasers,

Forest supervisors and examiners (assessors) are required to make frequent
personal supervision of sales. As far as possible this supervision is supple-
mented by systematic inspection by members of the district office.

A systematic record is made of the conditions of each sale area and the
action taken by officers.

A regular part of the administration is an intensive study of all cutover
areas. The results of cuttings are checked as to windthrow, efficiency of
protective measures, success of reproduction, and encroachment of brush, &c.

46 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The sale of forest products not specifically covered by regulation is
conducted by the forest supervisor.

The development of timber sale policies in Australia lies along the lines
adopted by the United States of America Forest Service, and already initiated
in Queensland.

Cutting on other areas than State forests should be encouraged, pending
establishment of a sales and silvicultural system on the State forests.

Cuaprter III.

MODERN TIMBER GETTING AND MANUFACTURE.
SCIENTIFIC POWER LOGGING.

Despite high freight charges, high duty, and somewhat higher wages,
America is able to produce timber so cheaply as to be in a position to compete
in Australia with the home product.

‘The average mill price for:all kinds of timber in America in 1912 was
6s. 4d. per 100 feet, while Oregon was only 4s. 10d.! In Australia, the average
price is between two and three times this amount.

My impression before visiting America was that floatable woods and
permanent streams were the secret of this cheapness of production.

I found that America was abandoning very largely the method of water
transport in favour of railway carriage.

I saw the Columbia River in a flooded state with the banks clogged with
stranded logs which it would never pay to extricate; only odd logs were
floating down stream. I was told that the actual loss in log scale from
sunken, stranded, and damaged timber varied from 10 per cent. to as high
as 40 per cent. of the logs despatched.

The secret of cheap timber lay actually in the adoption of scientific power
logging, now universally employed in America. The logging engineer is an
outstanding figure in the lumber industry, and logging engineering has become
a distinct profession.

America had originally about 850,000,000 acres of forest and approxi-
mately 5,200,000,000,000 feet of timber. The stand per acre was heavy.
Clean cutting was largely adopted. There were no girth restrictions. Lumber
companies possessed large timber holdings.

These conditions made possible a gigantic scale of timber exploitation,
and induced the development of power logging.

Such ideal conditions for power logging are infrequent in Australia;
nevertheless, timber-getting methods are capable of very great improvement,
and much can be done to cheapen timber production, and by consequence
to increase royalty values for the State.

The basis of the American logging system is the logging railroad.

_ Pole roads with animals as draft power were the first adopted owing to
their cheapness and low cost of maintenance. They were primitive devices
and are now obsolete.

Stringer roads having sawn wood or steel rails, and possessing larger
capacity succeeded the pole roads.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 47

_ The first steel road was built in 1876 in Michigan, since when steel logging
railways and power traction have found favour all over the country.

‘At is interesting to note that the Shay locomotive was designed for
logging purposes, by E. E. Shay, a Michigan timber exploiter.

Location of the road is of the first importance. A topographic map, such
as results from a close strip survey, is regarded as essential to the road scheme
which is the especial work of the logging engineer. It is felt that even a good
railroad engineer without logging experience is unsuitable, since he is gener-
ally unable to subordinate his ideals regarding standard railroad construction
to the demands of practical logging. Timber railways generally are cheaper
than trunk lines because of sharper curves and higher grades.

Plans for logging roads prepared by the Forest Service engineer in making
his appraisals are available to the operator, but he is at liberty to follow his
own schemes so long as they are not of detriment to the forest.

Transport of the timber from the stump consists of—

(1.) Assembling the logs at a depét (skidway) near the point of
felling.
(2.) Hauling the logs to the railway landing.

The two may be combined.
The logs may be snigged by animal power without vehicles to a depét
500 or 1,000 feet away, or, on prepared ways, up to a mile away.

For longer distances, sleds or wagons are used.

On the Pacific Coast of America long distance snigging has been replaced
largely by power skidding, of which the slack rope and cableway systems
are the chief types.

The slack-rope system requires a heavy pulling cable and a lighter
messenger cable for returning the main cable from the skidder to the point

from which the logs are dragged.

A landing is built at a suitable spot along the railroad and a donkey
engine installed at one end of it. When the area tributary to this location
is exploited, the engine is removed to the other end of the landing. The.
messenger cable is carried out to the end of a run, six or eight runs ahead of
the end in which the yarding is to begin; it is then taken to the end of the
first run that is to be logged and brought along that run to the engine, where
it is connected to the main cable. At the angles it is held in position by snatch
blocks. The placing of the messenger cable, several runs ahead, obviates a
frequent change of position and also keeps it out of the way of the logs as
they are being hauled in. :

The cableway system consists of a wire cable suspended between tall
supports 600 to 1,000 feet apart. On this cable travels a trolly operated by an
outhaul cable and a skidding line which is attached to the log. The logs are
dragged half elevated.

Exploitation rotates round the near support, and some eighteen or twenty
far supports are employed for each set up. An area of 25 or 40 acres is dealt
with from one set up.

This system is advancing in favour very rapidly. It has been employed
on the Pacific Coast with marked success for handling. small and medium
sized’timber. It is said that the cost of logs on the car is about one-third less
than for similar timber logged under the slack-wire system.

48 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

An advantage from a forestry point of view is that this cableway system
is the only system of power logging yet devised which is not extremely
destructive to seedling growth. It has the defect that it damages standing
timber.

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Loading cable

_ Oil fuel is used extensively in donkey engines in lieu of coal and wood.
It is claimed that the forest fire danger is diminished by the use of oil fuel,
and the efficiency of the engines is increased 15 per cent. to 25 per cent., thus
achieving a considerable reduction in logging expenses. ‘

The “snaking” system, such as is being used at Woolgoolga, New South
Wales, is a third method, not so largely employed in America.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

“ITIN MVS HANNOG FHL

50 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Aerial tramways are used on steep slopes where other forms of transport
are not practicable.

Timber slides and chutes are very often employed down slopes. On the
Pacific Coast, chutes are built at the terminus of a skid or pole road where
the logs are dumped into a stream.

Traction engines are used for transporting logs where the amount to be
hauled is not great enough to warrant the laying down of a railroad, where
the grades are unfavourable for the use of animal power, or where timber
of large size and weight is to be handled.

A novel engine is the Holt caterpillar gasoline tractor, which has a tread
chain traction device in place of back wheels. It is suitable for use on soft
sandy, roads, weighs eight tons, and can carry 18,000 feet of green lumber over
12 per cent. to 14 per cent. grades at 24 to 5 miles an hour. It uses 2-4
gallons of kerosene or gasoline per hour, and carries a fuel tank of 70 gallons
and sufficient water for four or five days’ running.

This traction seems to solve the problem of timber exploitation in the
Pilliga Forest, New South Wales, where the stand is too light for railroad
construction, the distance too great for bullock haulage, and the roads too
soft and the water too scarce for the ordinary traction engine.

An average lumber camp has a crew of about sixty men, and employs
about thirty horses.

Some of the modern camps are quite elaborate. One of them—the Cherry
Valley Camp—provides spring beds, hot and cold baths, laundries, and
electrically lit libraries and reading rooms for the crew.

The aim of this camp betterment scheme is to hold the workers interested
and content, and to maintain a permanent crew at a maximum standard of
efficiency, and so secure the biggest possible cut.

The modern American sawmill is one of the most remarkable examples of _
American engineering efficiency.

Location alongside permanent and plentiful water is essential, largely with
the object of water storage for the logs in the mill pond.

The railroad track where it is parallel to the edge of the mill pond is
laid at an angle which sets the outer rail 12 to 15 inches above the inner
rail. The trucks thus are tilted to one side, and when the car stakes are
removed, most of the logs roll out into the pond.

I visited the Bonner mill of 700 h.p. in Montana, situated 25 miles from
the logging area. Sawing was proceeding at the rate of 750,000 superficial
feet sawn output daily, and there was stored in the Blackfoot River beside
the mill a four months’ supply of logs! They were piled up in a water area
extending beyond sight and then almost obscured the surface.

Americans excel in method. Their enterprises are planned carefully.
They have a passion for detail and efficiency.

Nowhere is this exemplified better than in the running of a large sawmill.

From the mill to the log pond extends a chute carrying a great hauling
chain studded with “dogs.” Log drivers on the logs in the water push them
against the chute. They are seized automatically by the “dogs” and lifted
one after another, in a seemingly endless row, up the chute into the mill,
streams of hot water spraying them clean as they go. The logs are sawn with
the bork still on. At the top of the chute the log-scaler measures them with
the simple and effective Scribner Decimal “C” scale stick, digs out any stones,

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

“ATdd OS

pot

(SHINOW wn0a

52 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

&c., from the bark, and records the measurements, as they move. Another
man standing at a lever diverts the logs on to one or other of the slanting
platforms alongside the travelling benches, ‘Thence they roll to the bench,
which moves quickly up and down, carrying the log to be sawn past the huge
double-edged band saw which cuts it coming and going. At the middle of the
bench stands the ratchet man, who adjusts the log so that various width pieces
are sawn from it. On-either side of him are labourers whose duty is to
“stick” and clamp the logs into position as they fall on the bench from the
platform.

The sawyer stands near the travelling bench beside the band saw holding
the levers, one operating a giant steel “nigger” which prods the logs into
position as they are rolled from the platform to the bench, the other controlling
the travelling bench as it goes to and fro past the band saw at his will. ‘The
three men on the bench sway violently with its motion, which achieves a
lightning rate as the bench is returned empty for another log.

On the other side of the band saw stands a man who diverts the sawn
planks on to a rollway, along which they swiftly pass to a point where the
waste is diverted one way, and the good planks travel through an edger which
at touch of a lever sets the width as desired. The plank and its two edges
proceed upon the travelling rollway to a point where stands the only man who
touches the timber from the time the log leaves the water to that when it
emerges from the other end of the mill completely manufactured !

His duty is to seize the edges and divert them from the rollway to other
ways.

A little further on the edged timber is diverted on to a travelling way at
right angles, above which, in a slung chair, sits a man before many levers,
which he pulls as the planks pass beneath him, causing small circular saws to
rise at desired distances so as to cut the boards to various lengtlis.

After which, they travel along a wide and lengthy grading table before a
grader who marks them according to their quality, and from thence are taken
to stacks, which are moved bodily on other rollways into carts also fitted with
rollers, and taken to the seasoning yards and ultimately to the planing mill.

The waste, after it is diverted, is sawed automatically into lengths, and
passes into a chute past sorters who divert the better pieces to the lathe mill
or the firewood stack. Finally the absolutely useless pieces fall into a furnace
and are burnt.

All sawdust. and shavings are sucked into huge pipes through which- they
are taken to the boiler-room, where they are used as the fuel for running the
mill. The stoking is automatic. The sawdust is damped by a water spray
as it passes, to prevent dust.

Throughout is order, system, cleanliness, and utmost. utilisation.

In view of the intention of various Australian States to establish State
sawmills, I venture to commend to the notice of the Governments concerned
the very efficient methods of sawmilling adopted in the United States of
America. :

The “American Timberman ” of February, 1916, in commenting on the
Australian market for American lumber, remarks that “ probably 70 per cent.
of the machines in the Sydney joineries are American types and have been
bought because of their higher efficiency as compared with the machines of
other nations.” It adds, that “possibly the chief objection to American wood-
working machinery in Australia may be said to be the necessity of employing
more intelligent and adaptable labour.” (!)

I think, however, that the intense concentration required in handling
it as the American does is the prime objection of the Australian workman.

‘UMA NAT YDNIAUC UV

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

54 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

I do not advocate absolute copyism of American methods in this regard ;
but I do think, however, that much may be adopted without conflicting with
the working ideals of Australia, and with considerable advantage to the State.

A feature of the American lumber industry is the seasoning process,
through which a great deal of the timber passes. I visited some of the large
creosote plants in Seattle.

It has been the view of the Australian timber-getter that timber which
requires seasoning is a very poor thing indeed. This view arises from the
remarkable durability of some of our hardwoods, which néed no seasoning.

At the same time there are very many of our timbers at present condemned
as inferior or useless, which, if subjected to a legitimate seasoning process
would be far more useful than the treated timber of America, and would take
the place very largely of the softwoods we are compelled otherwise to import.

It is a matter for consideration whether seasoning plants should not be
‘established in connection with the projected State sawmills.

Ancther feature of the American timber industry is the grading of lumber.

The following grades are recognised—

A Select No. 1 Common.

B Select No. 2 Common.

C Select No. 3 Common.

D Select No. 4 Common.
No. 5 Common.
Culls.

The better grading of our own timber is a very desirable thing. It is a
function of a business forestry department to encourage such a measure.

Cuapter IV.
FOREST FIRES.
PROTECTION PLANS.

American forests are subject, by reason of their magnitude, configuration,
and inflammability, their relative inaccessibility, and the sparsity of the local
population, to fierce fire ravage.

One who has not seen the sheer wooded steeps of inflammable pine forests
of the United States of America can have but a vague idea of their extreme
liability to destruction by fire.

Approximately 10,000,000 acres of forest have been burnt over annually,
and 12,000,000,000 board feet of timber destroyed.

The average loss every vear has been nearly £5,000,000 worth of lumber,
and close on seventy human lives.

In view of these facts, it is not surprising to discover that fire protection
is the backbone of American forest policy, and the prime cause of its tremendous
development. Fire protection proved to be the first and foremost need: and
the organisation of the National Forests, the rapid construction of roads, trails,
and telephones, and the building of rangers’ cabins in hitherto inaccessible
mountains are the immediate outcome of pressing demands for fire control.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 5D

In 1910—a bad fire year—the cost of fighting fires on the Naticnal
Forests was £160,000. In 1915 the cost was £13,800.

A comprehensive and effective fire plan has been developed for the protec-
tion of the 164,000,006 acres of the National Forests, according to the follow-
ing standards, which have been more or less generally attained in practice:

(1.) The maximum area burnt over shall not exceed .001 of total
area.

(2.) 90 per cent. of all fires must be restricted within a 10-acre area.

(3.) Of the remaining 10 per cent., the average fire area shall not
exceed 100 acres.

Prevention is ever better than cure; the administrators felt that no
udministration could be successful which had not the public with it, and they-
aimed to develop in the general public the attitude towards a burning forest
that every man has towards a burning house.

The public was apathetic. It had to be awakened. Publicity was the
solution, and it was applied with vigour. A systematic campaign was under-
taken by the Forest Service in conjunction with forestry associations.
Straight-out advertising methods were adopted. Signs and posters, books and
notices, issuance of forest fire news for publication, education in the schools,
personal appeals, lectures and moving picture shows—these were some of the
publicity agencies employed.

The Forest Service placarded its domains with official warnings, placed at
gates, camps, and watering places where those who do not run might read at
leisure and fully digest. Its officers were required to devote a considerable
part of their time to making friends with the forest user and securing his
interest and co-operation.

A typical Forest Service notice is the following :—

PREVENT
FOREST FIRES.

Start camp fires only in safe places and extinguish them
completely before leaving.

Put out any fire discovered or report it to the nearest
Forest Officer. The Laws provide heavy penalties for wilful
or careless setting of Forest Fires.

A REWARD will be paid for information leading to
conviction of offenders,

By far the most effective work was done by forest associations in “ knock-
out” advertising.

Just where a forest fire had been extinguished, at the intersection of cool
green foliage and a blackened waste, on a roadside, I saw the convincing
sign :—

DO YOU WANT THE FOREST LIKE THIS—
OR THAT?

THEN PUT OUT YOUR CAMP FIRE !

56 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Another warning showed a homesteader’s family fleeing before a furious
red and yellow conflagration.

The script was :—
DANGER!
Destruction of Homes and Resources
by Forest Fires
is a loss
To the Entire Community.
YOU SHARE IT.
$400,000,000
a day
is distributed in Pacific Coast States
by Forest Industry.
FIRE PREVENTION IS PROSPERITY INSURANCE.
BE CAREFUL WITH FIRE.

Still another, on a safety match box, was—

A tree will make a Million matches,
A Match will burn a Million trees.

WATCH THE MATCH !

The campaign achieved its objects. A strong public sentiment has been
created. The burning-house attitude has been adopted for the forest. Publicity
has justified itself.

Measures of fire prevention are of two classes, (1) to lessen the fire liability,
and (2) to reduce the fire hazard.

Under the first head is included the disposal of valuable timber exposed
to a very great fire hazard; under the second “the removal of slash or brush,
the encouragement of grazing to remove inflammable undergrowth and to
keep down grass, also the education of the public in the safe use or avoidance
of fire, the enforcement of preventive laws and regulations, and the general
surrounding of the use and occupancy of the forest with proper safeguards.”

Enforcement of necessary precautions against fire is one of the most
important. features of Timber Sales Contracts.

The cutting of dead trees which by their height constitute a fire menace
is a standard requirement.

The débris remaining after logging is a source of great danger to standing
timber, because sparks from locomotive and stationary logging engines often
ignite it during the dry seasons.

Where clean cutting is employed. the practice is to bur broadcast after
constructing fire lines round the exterior boundaries of the area.

Otherwise the standard requirement is lopping and stacking in teepee
shaped piles with small material at the bottom, and subsequently burning
under the direction of a forest officer.

A less costly method and one frequently employed is to start one or more
fires on selected spots at least 15 feet from any standing tree and to throw
on the nearest blaze the brush as it is cut. Studies made by the Forest Service
show that not over 2 per cent. of the total acreage of a given operation is
burned over when this plan is adopted.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 57

The fire season is during the four months of summer. During this period
the operation of steam locomotives and donkey engines is not permitted, unless
oil is used as fuel or the boiler is equipped with an efficient type of spark
arrester.

When climatic conditions are such as to make the danger from forest

fires excessive, the operator may be required to cease logging on five days’
notice.

The value of firebreaks, so widely used in- European forests, has not as
yet been accepted unreservedly for the United States of America. It is
recognised that they greatly reduce the hazard and the cost of prevention and
control, but it has not been determined what their character should be and
what their utility in proportion to their heavy cost.

The advantages of topographic firebreaks on ridges, along contour lines,
at the base of slopes and along streams are realised. These breaks, which
become part of a permanent system of roads and trails, have been laid out
extensively, primarily as roads and as means of access and attack for fire
patrols and fire-fighting crews, and for administrative purposes.

Isolating and divisional firebreaks for the purpose of subdividing the
forest into smaller units within which fires may be restricted have not. been
adopted.

During the last eight years, 50 per cent. of the fires in District No. 1
were traceable to the railroads. An average engine throws out. about 450 Ib.
of cinders or ash per hour, which falls 35 to 150 feet away. One hundred per
cent. of railroad fires start within 90 feet of the track.

On the Deerlodge Forest the railway companies are required to plough
a 6 feet fire line 50 feet from the line on both sides. The intervening space is
burnt over. The cost is £40 per mile.

A standard clause in sale contracts where logging railroads are used
provides that: The operator shall clear the right-of-way of all inflammable
material, including dead trees, for a distance of 100 feet on each side. No
refuse may be burnt during the summer months without consent. During
these months, the operator may be required to patrol all railroad tracks after
the passage of each locomotive.

The Criminal Code of March 4, 1909, provides a penalty not exceeding
£1,000 or two years’ imprisonment, or both penalty and imprisonment, for
setting fire, or leaving or suffering a fire to burn unattended near any timber.
The Forest Regulations prohibit building a camp fire in leaves, or rotten
wood, or against large or hollow logs or stumps, in a dangerous place, or,
during windy weather without confining it to holes or cleared spaces; or
leaving without completely extinguishing it.

All forest officers are empowered to arrest offenders.

Fires are not entirely prevented however. There are some which are
not preventible, and of thirty-two specific causes of forest fires tabulated by
the Forest Service, lightning ranks as a factor of very great importance, hence
the necessity of measures of detection and suppression of fires, and the prepara-
tion of a fire plan.

It is set forth: “To ensure the adoption of every practicable means for
protecting the forest property from fire, a systematic study of the conditions
on every forest is necessary. The complete fire plan resulting from this study
is simply a description of the fire. liability and hazard, and of every means
which have been or may be taken to meet any emergency which may arise.
The fire plan will be prepared for each forest by its supervisor, and in the light
of experience will be modified at the close of each fire season.”

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

ot
oo

“Preparedness” is the keynote.

No plan is considered complete until every possible system has been
availed of to reduce the liability and hazard and the cost and difficulty of
suppression, or until a system has been evolved which will, at minimum
expense, afford the maximum protection which the conditions demand.

Again is called into requisition, as the basis of the plan, the topographic
map resulting from the forest survey and assessment. On it are shown accur-
ately the types of cover and cultivation, lines of travel and transportation,
location of settlement, sources of supply for labour, equipment food and
forage ; and location of camping grounds, lookout stations, and natural fire
barriers such as water, landslides, barren areas, clifis, &c.

Arrangements are made with ranchers, liverymen, garages, logging camps,
and storekeepers for the supply of equipment and means of transportation,
provisions, hay and grain. Ration lists are prepared and agreements entered
into with local storekeepers to supply them on telegraphic or telephonic
requisition.

Where arrangements cannot be made for transportation, pack trains,
teams, wagons, and auto-trucks are purchased.

The whole countryside is canvassed for experienced men who are capable
of handling fire-fighting crews.

The addresses or telephone numbers of ranches, logging camps, mills,
and power plants from which labour may be obtained are secured.

Provision is made in every timber sale contract for the employment
by the Forest Service of the operator’s labourers for fire fighting. Arrange-
ments are entered into with local residents to report fires and to assist in
prevention and suppression, at a wage of ls. 8d. per hour, full time to be
allowed while reporting fire, and going to or from it. In the absence of a
forest officer, such fire-fighters keep their own time and may employ not more
than two men to assist them, at a remuneration of 1s. 6d. per hour per man.

Co-operative agreements are made with railroad companies, whereby the
free use of trains and speeders is permitted to forest officers for use in fire
control.

A system of roads and trails is being built on every forest to act as topo-
graphic firebreaks, and to provide ready access to fires.

A huge telephonic installation is maintained by the Forest Service through-
out its forests, primarily for fire protection purposes.

Tool caches, containing fire-fighting tools for squads of men, are placed
at likely spots throughout the forests.

Each ranger station represents a firefighting unit, with outfits for 25 to
50 men.

Large supply warehouses are maintained at the district offices, with equip-

ment for 500 men, including tents, blankets, bedding, cook-kits, and pack
sacks, &c.

For eight months of the year the ordinary administrative force undertake
the whole work of fire control.

In the four months of summer this skeleton force is expanded to consider-
able size by the employment of a temporary body of fire-fighters.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 59

Horse and foot patrol men are put on to patrol the fixed risk zone, under
the direction of the district ranger. Their duties are primarily to locate fires
due to human agency, in those locations where fires generally occur, and to be
on the ground to put them out. Incidentally these patrolmen are required
to conduct a general information and publicity campaign amongst the forest
users.

The patrol route of ten or twelve miles for footmen, and fifteen to twenty
miles for horsemen, is covered every day, including Sundays.

The equipment carried includes a shovel, axe, and hoe.

In addition to patrolmen, an extensive scheme of lookouts is arranged.
By the use of the Koch profile method, the areas visible or invisible from
prominent peaks are determined directly from the forest map. A very good
lookout will permit above 50 per cent. of country within a twelve mile circle
to be overlooked. That 50 per cent. should be the valuable stand.

Study determines the location of the lookout stations, from which, during
the summer months, a constant watch is kept. In addition to the look-out
men, a “smoke-chaser” is often attached to these stations. His duty is to
start out immediately when smoke is seen, locate, and if possible extinguish
the fire.

Lookout stations are connected by telephone to the district ranger’s
office. They are equipped with a traverse board bearing a map of the forest.
Over the map, with the look-out point as centre, is pasted a transparent
protractor. The board is kept constantly in orientation. The direction of a
fire is ascertained by sighting with an alidade placed upon the map.

The location of any outbreak is determined by the intersection of the
sights from two look-out points. A method is in process of development to
ascertain location by the intersection of horizontal and vertical sights from
one point.

Reports of fires are sent directly to the district ranger, who transmits
them to the supervisor.

The whole machinery of the organisation is set in motion. Instantan-
eously and simultaneously men and supplies are collected and transported to
the scene of the fire by automobiles, special trains, or on foot, accompanied
by pack trains.

The organisation of the crews, the establishment of camps, arrangements
for the preparation and distribution of food and drinking water, attack on the
fire, timekeeping and payment of the men, are all carried out on lines’ laid
down in the fire plan.

A typical plan is that of the Clearwater Forest, which has three lookout
men and four “smoke-chasers.” There are three tool caches, carrying in all
tools for seventy-five men. There are available twenty-three head of Govern-
ment pack horses, thirty head of surveyors’ horses, and six others obtainable
at aranch. The forest is twenty miles from a railway station or store.

On the outbreak of a fire, the district forestry office is wired for men, the
improvement crew is put on at once, a halfway camp is established, and the
pack train proceeds to the station to meet the men and bring them to the
camp.

Next day the crew reach the fire.

B

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

60

‘LQAOMOOT Gala *v's'o

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 61

The general method of attack after establishing the camp as close to the
scene of operations as possible, is to endeavour to encircle the fire, if small, by
clearing round it a line free of all inflammable material, with, on the far side
of it, a trench cut to the mineral soil.

Where the fire is too large or too dangerous to be encirled, the scheme
is to proceed round the flanks and pinch it in. The fire line is built as near
as practicable. If the heat is unbearable, backfiring is adopted.

I do not regard the Australian problem as difficult. Bush fires, as a rule,
do not attain the dimensions and intensity of the forest fires of America; the
forest is more resistant, crown fires are very infrequent, and the forests are of
less extent and much greater accessibility than in the United States of America.

One cannot hope, however, to put out a bush fire by pressing a button.

The solution of our fire suppression problem lies in the development of
a forest management plan, involving a topographic survey and the laying
out of a system of roads; the establishment of forest stations and the employ-
ment of forest overseers to supervise the general forest operations.

Upon that organisation can be based a simple fire plan providing for—

(1.) The attachment of conditions to timber sale agreement, licenses
and permits, specifying measures of brush disposal, camp fire
precautions, &c.

(2.) The attachment of conditions to licenses and permits, &c.,
arranging for the employment of all forest users for fire-
fighting, as has been done in the Pilliga Forest, New South
Wales.

(3.) The effectuating of arrangements with local residents for
reporting fires and assisting in their suppression.

(4.) The creation of the “burning house” sentiment among the
general public by publicity methods.

(5.) The carrying out of fire plan studies.

Telephonic communication with forest overseers is desirable. Establish-
ment. of lookout stations will be necessary ‘in only a féw instances.

The forest overseer would be charged with the execution of the fire plan
upon his forest.

I deprecate any reliance upon divisional or isolating firebreaks. The cost
of establishing a 100 per cent. system io deal with a 2 per cent. burn is,
.as I have said before, unwarranted, and much more effective work can be
done by direct fire detection and suppression measures.

The chief difficulties to be confronted are—

(1.) The stockman’s practice of burning off to secure a fresh shoot
of: grass.

(2.) The lack of an organisation for detecting the outbreak of fire,
and for suppressing it when discovered.

The simple measures proposed meet all these difficulties, and provide
ample and vurganised protection to the forest at the minimum cost.

Cuapter V.

THE FOREST GRAZING BUSINESS.

The management of the forest fodder resource is a very important branch
‘of forest administration and one to which we in Australia must devote
‘considerable attention.

62 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Heretofore, exploitation of the forest pasturage has been controlled
generally by the Department of Lands. As the State forests, however, are
vested in the Forest Services, grazing problems will become involved with
the general problems of forest administration.

In accordance with the policy of the Departments of Lands, the forest
pasturage in the past has been disposed of under a leasehold system upon terms
varying from one to forty years. Much of the New South Wales inland forest
reservation is encumbered by such Jeases, which are difficult hurdles to be
negotiated by the forester anxious to perfect the forest plan.

Recently, a grazing license system was introduced with considerable
success, in the North-western Forestry District of New South Wales. It is of
interest to note that that license system approximates very closely in principle
to the American practice.

The leasing of grazing rights on a National Forest is regarded by the
United States of America Forest Service as highly objectionable—

“Tt would greatly increase the difficulty of proper silvical
development, prevent a proper use of ranges under abnormal naturai
conditions, and tend to exclude the smallest owners. Adequate
protection of the forest would be rendered difficult if not impossible,
because a lease even though filled with careful restrictions would give
the lessee some right to dictate the use to which the area would be
put. During the tenure of the lease no part of the tract could be
closed to grazing, even though the necessity was urgent to prevent
the destruction of seedlings, to secure reproduction on cut over or
burned areas, or to protect important watersheds. The privilege
would be a fixed instead of a flexible one, and if during the period
forage was destroyed by fire, insects, or other cause, the stock would
have to be removed from the forest instead of being transferred
temporarily to another range. The leasing system would practically
result in a number of individual allotments equal to the number of
permittees and this would tend to shut out the small owner because
he could not afford to hold his stock upon the small area to which he
would be entitled. Fencing of the leased areas would necessitate
leases for a term of years, and term leases would not only hamper
forest management but also preclude recognition of new applicants
who might be entitled to range.”

—‘“ National Forest Manual.”

This excerpt adequately sets forth the objections to forest leasing in
Australia.

Under the wide powers of the Act of 4th June, 1897, the Secretarv of
Agriculture has authority to permit, regulate, or prohibit grazing in the
National Forests.

The “ National Forest Manual” further sets forth—

“Under his direction, the Forest Service will allow the use of
the forage crop as fully as the proper care and protection of the
forests and water supply will permit. The cattle and sheep which
are grazed in the National Forests bear an important relation to
the supply of beef and mutton in this country and every effort will
be made by forest officers ta promote the fullest possible use of
grazing resources.”

In 1915, no less than 1,727,000 head of cattle, horses, and hogs and
7,283,000 head of sheep and goats were grazed on the United States of
America National Forests.

Although the charges were only nominal—about one-fourth the actual
values—the revenue derived was £236,000.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 63

The grazing business is one of the features of the United States of America
Forest Service. It is controlled by a specialist assistant to the Forester at
Washington, and in every District Forestry Office is an assistant District
Forester who specialises in and devotes his whole attention to that one line of
work.

The leading objects of the grazing regulations are laid down as—
(1.) The protection and conservative use of all National Forest land
adapted for grazing.
(2.) The permanent good of the live stock industry through proper
care and improvement of the grazing lands.

(3.) The protection of the settler and home builder against unfair
competition in the use of the range.

The basis of the United States of America system is a permit issued on a
charge per capita basis and granted generally for one year, though, “ where all
controversies have been settled and proper numbers of stock are allowed, the
Secretary for Agriculture will authorise approval of applications for periods
of not more than five years, with the understanding that all permits are
terminated at any time and that the renewal of permits will be within his
discretion.

The present fees are nominal. The rates are based upon an annual charge
for cattle, which varies from Is. 8d. to 6s. per head according to the situation
and advantages of the forest.

Since horses require about 25 per cent. more pasturage space than cattle
and do greater damage, the rates for horses are from 25 per cent. to 40 per
cent. higher.

For pigs the rates are from 25 per cent. to 40 per cent. lower.
For sheep and goats, the charge is 25 per cent. of that for cattle.

An additional charge of one penny per head is made for the privilege of
lambing ewes.

For periods less than twelve months the rate is slightly higher.

All fees are payable in advance and before issue of the permit.

Permits are issued only to persons entitled to share in the use of the
National Forest by virtue of prior use, local residence, or dependence upon
the pasturage. New settlers are not regarded as having gained a permanent
preference until they have demonstrated the good faith of their settlement by
three years of residence, improvement and cultivation.

Preference is given to local residents in all cases, and American citizens
are given first consideration.
:

A certain number of live stock is fixed for each National Forest, and
permits are issued up to that number so long as no damage is done by such
stock.

“A reduction will be made from the number of stock grazed
‘during the previous season if, owing to the number grazed or the
method of handling stock, damage is being done to the forest, and
in extreme cases all stock will be removed.”

“ Every effort will be made to distribute the stock satisfactorily
in the range in order to secure greater harmony among the users |
of the forest, to reduce the waste of forage by tramping in unneces-
sary movement of stock, and to obtain a more permanent, judicious,
and profitable use of the range.”

64 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The average number of stock which a settler must graze in order to
utilise the products of his farm or derive a reasonable profit is determined
upon each Forest, and is regarded as a “ protective limit ” safe from reduction
in any renewal of the permit.

In arriving. at this average the dependence of settlers upon the National
Forest ranges is considered.

Under ordinary conditions the average number of stock per permit is.
taken as the basis.

To prevent monopoly, the District Forester establishes a maximum limit
upon the number of stock allowed any one applicant.

In fixing the grazing periods endeavour is made to meet the general needs.
of the people and to secure an economical use of the range. The condition of
the pasturage rather than the desires of the applicants, however, is the prime
consideration. It is deemed unwise to allow stock on Forest Ranges before the
feed has started, or while the range is so wet that the stock will cause injury
to both forage and tree growth.

An endeavour is made to secure the best use of each class of range by
allotting the class of stock to which each is most adapted. The Forest is
classified into divisions consisting of national grazing units defined by
topographic boundaries.

“Cattle and horses ordinarily graze both ways from a stream, but seldom
cross the summits of the surrounding ridges. Sheep and goats ordinarily
graze the crests and slopes of a ridge or mountain, but will cross none but
shallow streams except on bridges. This should be kept in mind in fixing
range boundary lines.”

Separation of dairy cattle, stock cattle and steers is regarded as beneficial,

and is encouraged as far as possible. Sheep and goats are generally allotted
individual ranges.

When the silvicultural needs of the Forest demand it, the Supervisor may -
close an area to all grazing, or reduce the number of stock allowed upon it,
or prohibit its use by certain classes of stock.

“For instance, sheep may be excluded from a Timber Sale area for a
certain number of years after cutting; or in a year of scarcity of mast, hogs
(otherwise permitted) may be excluded from the oak type. Where planting
operations are being carried on, it will usually be necessary to exclude all
classes of stock.

“Tf silvical investigations show that grazing is responsible for the scanti-
ness or lack of reproduction over a considerable area, a portion of it may be
withdrawn from range use until young growth has become established, several
years later another portion, and so on until the whole area has been treated.”

The aim is to secure the welfare of the Forest with the least possible
friction or interference with stock interests. If total exclusion of stock from
a Forest is contemplated, one year’s notice is regarded as being not excessive.

A feature of the U.S.A. forest grazing policy is the principle of a
co-operation with Live Stock Associations, the majority of whose members use
the National Forest range.

“The primary purpose of all the regulations is to make the National
Forests as useful as possible to the people, consistent with their protection
and perpetuation. It is clearly impossible to meet the wishes of each
individual user, but it may be entirely possible to meet the wishes of the
majority if made through an organisation. It is to secure from the people
collectively, definite statements of their needs and wishes that the organisation
of stock associations is encouraged.”

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 65

Such Associations are recognised as being in a position to express
accurately the wants of the stockmen composing the Association and to give
valuable advice regarding the handling of the interests represented. The
responsibility of dealing with the suggestions and recommendations made,
however, remains with the Forest Supervisor, and the good of the Forest is
the governing consideration. The Supervisor may attend meetings of these
Associations.

Upon the specific request of the majority of the permittees, and where
such rules will tend to prevent damage to the Forest lands or secure a more
complete or more economic use of the Forest resources, special rules are made
to bring about economies of operation, larger natural increases, improved
grades of live stock, etc. The placing of bulls or other breeding animals of a
specified grade upon a range may be made a requirement.

Regulation G4 provides that Live Stock Associations may be granted
permits to construct corrals, drift and diversion fences, roads, trails, sources
of water supply, etc., and the District Forester may stipulate in the permit.
that, during the ten years following, all permittees will be required to pay to
the live stock association an amount equal to their pro rata share of the cost
of constructing the improvement, which after the tenth year becomes the
property of the Government. The cost of construction will be divided by the
total number of stock, to find the proportionate cost per head, and. payment
is made a condition precedent to the issue of a permit.

The District Forester must assure himself that the proposed improvement
is actually necessary for the proper management of the stock, and generally
beneficial to the majority of the permittees, and that it will be substantially
and economically constructed. Permittees are to be safeguarded against
extravagant or wasteful methods of construction.

Permittees are required to repair all damage done to the roads and tracks
by their stock, to build any new roads found necessary, and to fence any
spring liable to damage by trampling.

Salting is regarded as a means of forest protection. Salt and water are
two important factors in distributing cattle and horses on the range. Stock
will alternate between the two.

Permittees are required to salt all stock regularly at such places and in
such manner as the forest officer may designate.

The amount of forage trampled by a closely herded flock of sheep is as
great as the amount actually fed. The sheep must, therefore, be bedded not
more than six nights in succession in the same place.

A new bed every night—the “ blanket” system—is favoured, and through
it the Forest Service is working towards a pasture system.

The grazing plan of the United States of America Forest Service has
achieved a remarkable success. Originally opposed by stockmen with the
fiercest antagonism, there is now a spreading demand for its application to
other Government roads, besides National Forests,

Originally the range was free, and subject to close and unrestricted
competition, resulting. in a rush every spring, and consequent severe over-
stocking.

The initial problems were to reduce the total number of stock upon the
National Forests, and to overcome the increasing deterioration of the pasturage
owing to the overstocking.

The office of Grazing Studies was created to further the rational use of

46 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

the Forest range, and to collect data and formulate plans harmonising both
with the interests of the live stock industry and those of forest conservation.
Grazing was to be put on a sustained yield basis.

Whence developed Grazing Working Plans and Grazing Reconnaissances.

Estimates of grazing capacities on the basis of acres per sheep or cow
were found unreliable, and as the demand for pasturage became keener, and
pressure upon the Forest Service increased to the extent of disputes concern-
ing its estimates of the carrying capacity of the Forests, a new and quite
astonishing science of forage assessment developed.

A grazing reconnaissance is carried out on the basis of the foundational
topographical strip survey which is progressing on every Forest. The crew
consists of a five-men party, each’ man working singly, and running a four-
mile line a day.

Ten pasture types are recognised, viz. :—

(1) Grassland other than meadow; (2) Meadow; (3) Untimbered weed
range; (4) Sage brush range; (5) Browse range; (6)
Coniferous timber land; (7) Waste range in dense timber;
(8) Browse; (9) Woodland ; (10) Aspen.
These types are located, and a forest pasturage map constructed.

In each type sample grass: plots are taken, and the forage is harvested
and weighed. The density of stocking and the proportion of forage plants
is ascertained by actual measurement. : :

Thus, assuming 108 acres of No. 1 type have a 50 per cent. density of
stocking, and an 80 per cent. proportion of forage plants, then—

108 x 50. 80
mo too

which gives the “forage acres” for the 108 acres of grassland.

By ascertaining the number of “forage acres” per 40-acre section,
and the carrying capacity per “forage acre,” the actual carrying capacity
of the type and the forest is determined scientifically, with a much greater
accuracy than is given by general judgments, however expert. It is really
the adoption of assessment for grass as well as for timber, superseding
experienced “ guessing.”

Grazing allotments are being made on the basis of “ forage acres.”

I recommend the general adoption in Australia of the grazing license
system of forest pasture disposal, in preference to the rather dangerous
leasing: method.

The valuable drought-tree forage of the inland Forests should be managed
on the same plan. This class of forage is uniquely Australian, and is a
resource of great importance to the State: but it is in danger of being
exterminated if the prevailing virtually unrestricted exploitation be permitted
further.

Disposal should be closely regulated under grazing permits, carrying a
royalty approximating as closely as possible to the real and ascertainable
value of the forage.

Cuarter VI.

“SPECIAL USES ’”? OF FOREST RESERVES.

_ Leasing of National Forest lands for any purpose is regarded by the
United States of America Forest Service as objectionable in the extreme.

The National Forests are vast tracts, enclosing settlements of all kinds.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 67

Upon them are found residences, farms, apiaries, schools, churches, stores,
sawmills, factories, hotels, sanitoriums, summer resaqrts, telephone and
telegraph lines, roads and railways, dams, reservoirs, and conduits, etc.

All such occupancies, except where specific provision is made in
regulations governing grazing, timber sales, water power, &c., are termed
“special uses” and are authorised under “ Special use Permits ”—which are
equivalent to our Occupation Permits without their limitation to timber-
getters.

No fee is charged in respect to schools, churches, cemeteries, cabins,
corrals, stock tanks, drift fences, sawmills sawing timber principally from
the National forests, water supply schemes, logging roads, &c.

For other uses the rates and conditions-are fixed by Regulation, L. 33 :—

Kinds. Minimum Rates per Annum. Explanation.

Agricultural and Cultivation | Is to 12s. per acre. Not | Not to exceed 160 acres to

less than 8s. 4d. for any one permittee
any permit
Apiaries ales ia -. | Minimum £2 2s, and 5d. | 1 to 3 acres. Hives to be
per hive over 100 counted in April and
payments due May Ist
year each,
Barns, Garages, &c. .. | £1) to 75 upwards .. | 2 acres or less
Gravel es ae .. | 3d. to 6d.-per cubic yard,

Not less than 8s. 4d.
for any permit

Bay Cutting a -. | Is. to 4s. per acre, Not
less than 8s. 4d. for
any permit

Hotels and Resorts .. | £5 50 £50 and upwards .. | 1 to 10 acres Not to
exceed 5 acres under
term permits. &

Pastures... we .. | 2d. to 4s. per acre. Not | Not over 320 acres to any

less than 8s. 4d. for one permittee (charge is
any permit in addition to grazing

fee; 4 to 5 acres, de-
pending on local con-

ditions.
Residences .. ae -. | £lto £5... oye .. | $to 5 acres
Sawmills .. os .. | £2 to £40 and upward .. | 1 to 10 acres
Stores, &c. .. a -. | £2 to £10 and upward .. | } to 5 acres

Permits may be granted with such conditions as to area, time, charges,
ete., as may be provided for in the regulations, or as may be deemed necessary
to protect the National Forest.

Permits granted by the Forest Supervisor may be revoked by the District
Forester. Those issued by the District Forester may be revoked by the
Forester; those granted by the Forester may be revoked by the Minister.
Appeal lies in the first instance to the District Forester, from his decision.
to the Forester, and from his decision to the Minister, in all matters covered
by the Special Use regulations. ;

All permits are revocable at the discretion of the Forest Department.

68 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

One single and limited exception to this rule is provided in the Act of
4th March, 1915, which authorises the occupation of “ National Forest lands
for any period not exceeding thiry years, where the lands are to be used for
summer homes, hotels, stores, etc., but.no person may be allowed to use more
than five acres.”

This exception was made to allow of the erection of permanent rather
than temporary residences in the Forests, and to safeguard those who had
spent considerable sums in improvements under their permits.

The use of National Forests as places of residence and recreation is
encouraged, on the ground that the resident becomes a volunteer fire-fighter.

It must be remembered that National Forests are regions rather than
areas, and the policy could not be applied with equal force to the circum-
scribed forest reservations of Australia, but it is quite conceivable that certain
of these apiaries, corrals, stock tanks, sawmills, water supply schemes,
logging roads, might prove desirable in special cases. “Special Uses” policies
for Australian States require to be devised carefully and applied most
conservatively. —_—

Cuapter VII.
REFORESTATION AND AFFORESTATION.
MODERN NURSERY AND PLANTIN G METHODS.

Of recent years, artificial regeneration of forests by direct planting, has
replaced frequently in Europe, the method of natural regeneration previously
followed.

The practice has been made possible by increasing timber values, and is
a natural consequence under intensive management of the endeavour to obtain
quicker and more regular results. ;

Natural regeneration is safe and cheap. It protects the soil conditions,
and the soil life. It shelters the seedlings against weather effects, and the
insects which frequent clearings. It restricts the spread of weeds and brush.
It is often the only system possible under extensive pioneering conditions, and
consequent low timber values.

It is, however, slow, uncertain, and complex. It necessitates careful and
systematic preparation for many years before. It calls for a combination
of favourable soil, seeding, and climatic conditions at the precise moment
when the old stand commences to open. Jt involves the leaving of a large
number of seed trees, which are thereby rendered liable to windthrow. It
requires an uneconomical prolongation of exploitation; and in the final stages
subjects the regrowth to damage.

Still many of the Australian forests are prolific regenerators. In the early
days of settlement, from the Blackbutt forests of the coast, to the Cypress
‘Pine “Scrubs” of the West, one is told of open park-like stretches through
which one could see “for miles.” To-day those same forests are dense two or
three storied thicket, and pole stands “too thick for a dog to bark through,”
and the original mature scattered overwood, now being exploited, is the open
forest of the early days.

Why then plant?

Certainly, planting may be a less complex, a much simpler problem than
inducing regeneration where nature is stubborn, and assuredly it makes for
regular, even aged woods, clear cutting, and more economical logging. But
it is laborious and costly, whilst involving as much risk. And to keep pace
with exploitation, the operations would have to be on a scale too stupendous
to contemplate in these days of shortened loans.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 69

New Zealand has nailed her forestry flag to the method of planting, and
has abandoned almost irrevocably her fine natural forests, because their
growth is alleged to be slower than that of imported conifers.

But the cost of planting alien timbers has run into from £7 to £13 per
acre, and it is easy to demonstrate by orthodox rules of forest finance, that
the final result will be a deficit.

The Australian States may not follow blindly the lead of middle Europe
and New Zealand. ‘Their forest flora is too valuable to be jettisoned, and its
powers of reproduction too great to be overlooked.

Australia must pin her faith to natural regeneration—the main hope,
too, of America. Only in two instances at the present time is planting
justified, viz., for the production of cheap imported softwoods not replaceable
by indigenous species, and for the afforestation of waste lands, burns, and
watersheds.

If artificial regeneration can be carried out in Australia at a sufficiently
low cost, its further extension will be justified.

In contrast to the high New Zealand expenditure of at least £7 per acre,
the average cost of planting, done in District No. 1 of the United States of
America Forest Service in 1915 was only £1 5s.

The distance planted apart was 8 ft. The wages paid were rather
higher than the Australian rate. The plants had generally to be taken into
the planting area from the nearest railway by packhorses. The cost included
nursery expenses.

I was so struck by these figures that I made a particular investigation
into this branch of forest practice. I visited the Savenac Foresty Nursery
in Idaho, reputedly the most efficient in the United States of America. I
inspected also planting operations on the Lolo National Forest. I was able
finally to secure a great deal of data from the Chief of Planting at Missoula,
Montana, and the Manager of the Savenac Nursery.

The Savenac Nursery has an area of 27 acres, 22 being for transplants,
and 3 for seedbeds. Jt has an authorised stock capacity of 3,750,000. It
propagates only about six species.

Scientific Management was initiated in 1913. Very considerable experi-
mentation was carried out. For two years, the study was applied only to
transplanting, and under great difficulties. Success has been achieved at last,
and as a direct consequence the number of plants transplanted. per man per
day has been increased from 5,000 to 12,000, and the cost of transplanting
reduced by 2s. per 1,000.

The study is being extended to other branches of the work, and scientific
management is being introduced throughout.

Transplanting takes place in the spring. At least a week before, the
ground is ploughed for the second time, and harrowed, and levelled.
V-shaped trenches are made in the following order :—

<.
Ss

Zz

Se wal o

SMa wb
Y

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

70

be yruasy vo sas
WIT STR ET IOSS Sayavoy SL ug Preeg So 4j6ua7 Gas eg eeat the thong

Sploy ayid YOu

NISO 2
~ C)
S2yQ]04y MAG SaxS

buy v0Aep Jo abueyy

L

Cabuy yung,
euey7 Sursd> See ape

d
Orsi ajnz c) buy

X
M
2)
NN
XN
s

Ped yoy - : = —

QFSO7T) Pw NOILIFS

UNE wip em OF
Cex) 4

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Suing dade

pey W179 A =

|

Yorsuayxz ot
v

g ayes | ©
G2FSO7ID- MI/A WOLLOP vourt

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G7YLYOP INILNG IA S 7

The rows are 7 in. apart, with five rows to the bed, 2 ft. being left

between the beds for irrigation laterals.
The smallest-sized one-horse plough is used. An 8 in. landslide is placed

upon it, and the mole-board is cut off at the back so that it will not throw

the dirt too far.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 71

When a round trip has been made, the ploughman cleans out the loose
dirt from the trench with a specially designed hoe, having a blade 2 ft. wide.

The men who take up seedling stock are selected for speed. They can
pull about 30,000 per day.

The seedlings are taken up from the seedbeds in bunches of about seventy-
five, with spading forks; the dirt is shaken from their roots; the roots are
then pruned with a small butcher’s cleaver in co-operation with a wooden
block. The seedlings are placed in long narrow ‘boxes called “seedling
packets ” which hold fifty bunches in two layers. The bunches are separated
by long nails driven into the centre of the box. They are protected from
drying out by placing round each layer a strip of moist burlap. ;

Trenching Plow
Trench Cleaner
Seedling Packet

“4 Transplent Board
s Plantin g Rake

The trees are not puddled or washed at the nursery from the time they
germinate until they leave.

The packets are placed four in a crate, and taken to the transplant ground
each morning and noon, on a slide drawn by the plough horse.

The essential machinery of transplanting consists of two ingenious labour-
saving devices, the introduction of which into Australia should result in very
considerable advantage.

72 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

One is the “threading board,” which consists of two light planks hinged
together, and closing upon each other, thus holding in place the seedlings
which are set out evenly along it, their roots outwards. This board is placed
in the trench, and the soil pressed round, after which it is opened and lifted,
leaving the seedlings in situ. ;

l

COD DENG SO 44
ee hd ih fivoreas i

rer

.
AT
l

|

Hl

|

(a.) THE OLSEN PACKING BOX.
{b.) THE OLSEN SHIPPING ROLL COMPOSED OF HESSIAN, PAPER, AND WOOD WOOL.

A considerable saving in materials, labour, and weight is effected.
The paper makes the roll wind proof.

It has been constructed with minute care, after close experimentation,
and is so worked out that the time required for one man to plant a board, is
exactly the time required by his fellow-worker to put the seedlings in another
one. :

It is 84 ft. long, holding seventy-five plants in seventy-five notches,
placed 14 in. along its inner edge. It is fitted with a self-clamping hinge.
I secured a drawing of it, a copy of which is attached.

The other invention is the “threading table,” which is a portable bench
with a trap slide in the centre, down which the filled threading board is
pushed to a shelf below opening on to the back of the table. Above it is a
rack for holding the “seedling packet.” It is walled and roofed in with
canvas to shelter the threader, and to prevent the seedlings being blown from
the board during threading operations.

At this table stands the threader, who sets the seedlings in the board
ready for planting.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 73

Aanting and trench making
1. Plater for Gew N°]

2 . ~ « MY

3 Plowman

4 foreman

5 Threading Tent

Each man carries also a planting tool specially devised for the work. ‘It
resembles a short one-hand hoe. (See illustration.)

74 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The empty board is placed by the planter upon the table in front of the
threader, opened up. The threader pulls it towards him with his right
hand, taking a bunch of seedlings from the packet above the table with his
left. The seedlings are worked forward with the fingers of that hand, and
placed in the board with the right.

A poor tree is culled before it is dropped in the board, if seen before
doing so. If not, it is left in place, but a good plant is put alongside it. When
the board is finished it is closed, and pushed with one hand in one movement
down the trap slide ready for the planter, who, approaching from the back,
puts his empty board on the table, and takes the full one to plant. Only the
two boards are used per crew.

The planter walks to the trench, and facing the land slide, sets the board
on the edge of it, tilting it slightly backwards. He then takes the specially
designed planter’s rake (see illustration) and scrapes the loose dirt against
the board, packing it firmly as he walks along it and back again. He throws
the rake ahead a little in readiness for the next trip, and opens and lifts the
board, leaving the seedlings planted. He then returns to the threading table
for- another board.

The number of seedlings planted is tallied at the end of each day by
counting the rows. The following morning the threader and the planter are
given a time-sheet, showing the work done the previous day.

Threaders and planters are paid on a sliding scale.

Each spring before the scale is used, various men on the nursery force are
tried out, and those best suited to the work are chosen. Generally, boys
make the best threaders, and short husky men the best planters.

The wage scale in 1915 was—

Boards per hour. Wages per day

of 8 hours.

s. d.

36 ais oe es a sie Li 5)
37 =e sia de oe .. 11 10
38 ey sity — ssh vs 12 1
39 ar se ve i .. 12 4
40 ue aks sists ee .. 12 6
41 seis ey ee 3 we 12 6
42 fe ad ten ig .. 12 9
43 533 = oe ex .» 12 1]
44 Me bes he ae wee dhe? 1
45 ie se sds ed .. 138 4
46 ve 333 ba a . 13 6
47 sie re ay aa . 13° 9
48 — me sib vs at “tO
49 shea nee i ese .. 14 8
50 a stb on wk .. 14 4

The record was 64 per hour for two hours. Under normal conditions
on a 2,000,000 job, the crews will average 40 boards per hour each.

From these wages, the men pay 1s. a meal—the actual cost.

Transplanting costs in all 3s. 2d. per 1,000.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 75

The organisation for the whole work of transplanting is shown in the
following table :—

TRANSPLANT CREW, SAVENAC NURSERY, 1915.

Olsen, in ae of Nursery.

Foreman.
Supervision Grinding plough Moving tables
Laying-out beds Trrigating* Seeing to repairs
| | | | |
Ploughman— Crew No. 1 Crew No. 2 Crew No. 3 Crew No. 4
drives plough- Threader Threader Threader Threader
horse, Planter. Planter. Planter. Planter.

cleans trenches,
moves tables,
tends plants,
carries drinking-
water.

* The foreman makes the irrigation laterals in the centre of the 2 ft. space between the beds, as
each bed is planted.

Stock distribution is now being placed under scientific management.

The Feigly Tree Digger is used to lift the plants. It resembles a plough,
but has a share like an L-shaped knife, with a wedge-shaped piece of iron
attached to the blade, an inch back from the cutting edge. It is drawn by
two horses in tandem along the row of plants, and severs the roots, about
seven inches below the surface, raising the plants so that the slice of earth
breaks up when it falls back into place behind the Digger, leaving the trees
so that they can be pulled from the ground quite easily, yet without exposing
the roots.

Where formerly it took one man with a spade to lift what two men could
pull, with the Tree Digger two men can lift enough to keep twenty men
pulling.

Considerable loss resulted from the use of the Digger during the first
experimental stages.

The order of lifting is as follows :—

6
12
15
11 =
5 ed
2 4
< 10
< 14
= Ss
zZ..
NN
4
13 >
7 Ss
>

The men follow the Digger, pull the plants and tie them up in bunches
of a hundred. These bunches are laid down, and the roots covered with a
handful of dirt.

F

76 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The bundles are packed immediately before they have to be despatched.
The bunches are thrown into the wagon and conveyed to the Packing Machine.
This really consists of a box mounted on Jegs, and having one hinged side.

Two 6-ft. lengths of yarn placed 1 ft. apart, and having stapled to them
at 18 in. distance, two wooden cleats, are placed at the bottom of the Packing
Box and hung over both sides. A strip of burlap 6 ft. by 21 in. follows,
and finally a sheet of wrapping-paper. The bunches of plants, after a moderate
root pruning, are then laid in the packer with the roots inwards, in two
layers, which are well packed by wet shingle tow. When the container is
full, the ends of the burlap and paper are drawn together at the top; and
wrapped around a stick 1 in. by 2 in. by 2 ft., whose ends protrude about
2 in. beyond the edge of the burlap. A 16-in. “wrench” is applied to these
ends, and the stick is turned so as to fold the burlap over it, and tighten it as
much as desired. A catch on the packer holds the wrench in position, while
the yarn is tied tighter round the bundle, which is then ready for shipment.
The hinged side of the packer is then let down, and the bundle taken out.

An average bundle weighs 90 lb., and contains 4,000 plants. The bundles
are easier to handle than wooden boxes, and much faster to pack. The plants
do not dry out or heat.

Each bundle is stencilled to show the number of trees, species, and age
class.

Formerly, boxes.were used. The Packing Machine and the bundle method
are the invention of the Nursery. The cost of packing has been reduced
thereby from 34d. to $d. per 1,000 plants.

The age of transplant stock when shipped for planting out is as follows :—

Pinus ponderosa—|1—2 (3 years, being 1 year seedling and 2 year
transplant).

Pinus monticola—1 and 2—2.

Pinus strobus—1 and 2—2.

Picca engelmanni—2—2.

Lariz occidentalis—2—2.

Thuja plocata—2—2.

The methods of sowing are of interest. All coniferous seed is sown broad-
cast in the beds, which are £ ft. by 48 ft. with 2 ft. paths. A sufficient
quantity of seed for 48 square feet is placed in pails set 12 ft. apart in the
rows. The sower walks down one side and up the other, from pail to pail. of
the row, casting the seed from the path to the centre in quarter circular
sweeps.

The seed is covered with river sand. The depth of the sand cover has
been proved to be of vital importance. For White Pine a quarter inch is the
best, and one pound of seed with this depth of cover is as good as two pounds
at half an inch. :

The sand is distributed with a shovel, levelled off with a straight-edged
board, and packed with a water-weighted roller.

I was shown a machine which is now being developed for the purpose
of spreading an even depth of sand and rolling it at the same time. It con-
sisted of a carrier from which the sand poured on to a travelling canvas
éperated by cogs from the roller wheels. It is a machine which should exercise
an important influence on nursery practice. :

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. ed

The unit crew for sowing consists of two men to wheel and spread the
sand, one to weigh and sow the seed, and two to level off the sand and roll
the beds. This crew can sow and cover two hundred 12 ft. beds per day.

Apart from general policy, the nursery managers are given an almost
free hand, in accordance with the general American habit of non-interference
with management, and judgment by results. The system makes for progress.

Detailed cost-keeping records are a feature at the Savenac Nursery. The
cost of production varies from 12s. to £1 4s. per 1,000 plants, but averages
16s. 6d., which, with planting at 8 ft. apart, represents an initial expense for
stock of lls. 2d. per acre.

With the extension of scientific management throughout all the nursery
operations, it is expected that this cost will be reduced by a further 25 per
cent.

Five thousand one hundred and eighty-seven acres were planted in 1915,
at an average cost of £1 5s. per acre, including the cost of the stock.

It is estimated that ultimately this figure will be brought down to £1.

One thousand five hundred and twenty acres were broadcasted in the
forest as an experiment at a cost of 13s. 6d. per acre.

The seed spot method is also being tried out. Direct seeding is done on
experimental areas chiefly, but is sometimes employed to establish small
patches of growth on large burns as a basis for subsequent natural regeneration.

In every district, intensive experiments are required to be made, with a
view to determining and developing the best methods.

Forest supervisors are responsible for the effective direction and
extension of reforestation work. Assistance is furnished by the District
Forester.

In District No. 1 this function has been taken over by the Chief of Planting
at the District Office.

The leaving of seed trees during logging for the purpose of reforestation
of cut-over areas by natural regeneration is a general practive in the United
States of America. Timber sale contracts provide for the ringbarking or felling
of defective, diseased, or dead trees, -and the burning of débris and brush, and
grazing is excluded for some years. A close study of cut-over areas is also
made with a view to developing natural regeneration.

These, however, are really the only measures of natural regeneration
adopted, and the growing and planting of nursery stock is the chief fentare of
the reforestation plan.

It is laid down that areas, which are not satisfactorily restocked within
ten years from the date of cutting are to be taken up as planting projects.

Operations are restricted at present to the most favourable areas, with a
view to developing successful methods capable of application to less favoured
sites.

When the most suitable areas are not known- definitely a planting
reconnaissance is made before any other work is undertaken. Its basis is a
strip survey disclosing the location, size, and accessibility of the area, its
soil, elevation, aspect, climatic factors, and present cover; the species,
methods, and seasons promising the best results ; and the size and organisation
of the most efficient crew and the estimated cost of the project. -

78 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The planting reconnaissance map shows—
(1) Green timber.
(2) Brush prohibitive to planting (very dense brush).
(3) Reproduction sufficient (400 or more trees per acre).
(4) Alienations.
(5) Proposed camp sites (one to every 800—1,000 acres).
(6) Proposed tracks.
(7) Proposed roads.

(8) Outlines of planting areas according to species, age, classes, and
spacing to be used.

On the back of the map are shown data as to—
(1) Soil.
(2) Brush.
(3) Windfall.
(4) Standing dead timber.

The planting instructions issued by District No. 1 for 1916 work provided
for the following organisation for a planting crew of 35 men—
Supervisor

Officer in charge

| |
Cook Packer or
Flunkey Teamster
!
Foreman Foreman
|
Tree and water Tree and water
packer packer
I | |
End 12 abd End 12 End
man planters man. man planters man.

The new men are put in one crew, or in the middle of the line.
It is laid down that—
(1) The camp should be ready before the crew arrives.

2) Before work is commenced the man in charge should go over the
g g'
planting area with his foreman and plan;

(a) A system for working the crews whereby they will start work
each morning and finsh at night throughout the job, as
near camp as possible.

(5) The best system to follow in keeping crews supplied with trees
and water. Trees and water should be packed on horses
whenever possible.

Each man is given a planting bag full of plants. The bag is carried over
the shoulders. The foreman and end men are required to have them filled
ready for the men before they leave camp. Wet burlap is wrapped round the
roots in the bag to keep them moist.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 79

TREE PLANTING.

80 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The planting process consists of scraping away the surface litter with a
few side strokes of the planting tool, and then digging the hole, setting the
plant in and filling up as shown in the diagram attached.

The crew is lined up in the following formation, not exceeding fifteen men
to the crew.

End man 1

13
15 Foreman 14 End man.

No. 1 sets the pace. No. 14 marks the line. They reverse on the return.
These men get an extra shilling a day.

The foreman follows behind, testing the planting and generally directing.
The crew is turned in the following way :—

No. I finishes first and takes his place for the return trip:

15

1 144 138 12 111098 7654832121
2
3
4
5
6 No. 1 is in place when No. 14 plants his
7 last tree.
8 No. 14 now sets the pace back; and
9 No: 1 marks the line.
10
11
12
13
15 14

The spacing is generally 8 x 8, judged by the eye.

The planting operations I observed were in Lolo National Forest in
Montana on a large burn, and the site, was to all appearances a typical hilly
N.S.W. North Coast dairying selection after ringbarking and burning off.
The only difference was the climate—six or eight months’ snow, and a 15-inch
precipitation. It was considered too dry a site for a homestead.

The ground was not prepared in any way for planting.
This represents the greatest cost-saver in planting work.

I inspected some areas which had been planted for a number of years:

The plants were thriving and there appeared to have been an 80 per cent.
success.

The records show that for Montana, the average success is 60 per cent.
after three years.

This result is considered a good one for the expenditure, and sufficiently
satisfactory for forestry purposes.

No special fire protection is afforded beyond that provided by the general
fire organisation.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

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(6)

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making @ Chan Sguare hole

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The collection of seed for nursery use is part of the regular work in each
district. It is concentrated on areas where seed of the species and locality
desired, can be gathered at the lowest cost. Extensive collection is not

attempted in seasons when the cost is likely to be excessive on account of poor
crops.

(4)

Place roots strargh? down in the
same depth st stood in the nursery fi

Drive mattock in full leng th
middle of fhe hole.

and as near perpendicular as

possible

All planting operations are “ closely studied by district and forest officers
to ascertain the reasons for success or failure, and enable the experience
gained to be intelligently applied.” Detailed periodic inspecticns and sample
plot measurements are made and their findings reported.

82 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Good hole- tree improperly

= foo o& : :
Good hole- Tree foo oeep packed leaving air space below.

Shallw hole - roots Shallow narrow hole - lower roots
curved foward surface curved foward surface.

Curved lower roo/ss

Poor hole - made by pressing and air space due to
down on handle of mattock ‘neck tn the middle.

I see no reason why American methods should not be applied to Australian
conditions, after intelligent modification where required. If their application
-achieves the same financial result, then they will save the State, in course of
years, a huge sum of money.

Cuaprter VIII.

FOREST CLASSIFICATION.
A “LONGSIGHT” POLICY.

The early solution and rapid development of American forestry, are
founded upon the clear cut, direct, initial policy of forest classification.
The Australian theory has been “classification first, dedication after-
wards.” The American was “dedication first, classification at leisure.”
_ The first has resulted in a fierce scramble between lands and forestry
interests, with the nine points of possession in favour of the former. Mean-
while forestry practice is postponed.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

“LOMLOUd ONILNV1d-GauL V

ge

ee

84 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The second has resulted in the immediate establishment of forestry
practice. Classification was subordinated to the paramount purpose of the
dedications—and is not yet complete. But it is being done coordinately
with the purpose of the National Forests.

Under the Act of 3 March, 1891, the President was empowered to create
National Forests, and vast tracts averaging 1,000,000 acres apiece were
proclaimed as such.

A following Act of June, 1897, stipulated that it was not intended to
include lands “chiefly valuable for minerals or for Agriculture,” and the
Act of 11 June, 1906, authorised the Secretary of Agriculture “at his discre-
tion” and upon approval or otherwise to locate such lands “ which, in his
opinion, might be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury to the
forest reserves, and which are not needed for public purposes,’ and to
request the Secretary of Lands to make them available in areas of not
exceeding 160 acres.

Under this Act preference was given the first applicant for the examin-
ation of tracts. This preference clause was taken advantage of by land agents
to instigate floods of applications for new tracts—at a fee of from £1 to £20.

\
Just as often as not the land applied for was located on a rocky mountain
side unfit even for goats, and the application was turned down.

Whereupon the resentment of the land-seeker was skilfully deflected by
the land agent against the Forest Service on the score of error, misrepresenta-
tion, and fraud.

Much the same thing has occurred im Australia.

The amendatory Act of August, 1912, which completed the classification
scheme, “ directed and required the Secretary of Agriculture to select, classify,
and ‘segregate as soon as practicable,” all such lands, and granted liberal
appropriations for the purpose.

In some respects, the classification problems of American forestry were
much simpler than those of Australia. Most of the National Forests were
situated in the high rugged mountain regions of the west, where agricultural
lands are very limited. Furthermore, such lands as in Australia would be
regarded as suitable for mixed farming consequent upon the much more
productive climate could not be classified as such in America, owing to the
coldness, dryness, and high altitudes. A further feature was remoteness
and inaccessibility, as opposed to the proximity of our own forests to: civilisa-
tion.

Apart from the segregation of agricultural lands within a forest, the
general character of the lands contemplated by the dedicatory Acts of 1891
and 1897 had been defined in a joint letter to the President by the Secretary
of the Interior (Lands) and the Secretary of Agriculture, dated 7 February,
1910, as follows :—

(1.) Lands wholly or in part covered with brush or other undergrowth,
which protects stream flow or checks erosion on the watershed

- of any stream important to irrigation, water power, or to
the water supply of any city, town, or community or open

lands on which trees may be grown, should be retained within

the National Forests, unless their permanent value under
cultivation is greater than their value as a protective forest.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 85

(2.) Lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, or
cut over lands which are more valuable for the production of
trees than for agricultural crops, and lands densely stocked
with young trees having a prospective value greater than the
value of the land for agricultural purposes, should be retained
within the National Forests.

(3.) Lands not either wholly or in part covered with timber or
undergrowth which are located above timber line within the
forest boundary or in small bodies scattered through the forest,
making elimination impracticable on limited areas which are
necessarily included for a proper administrative boundary
line, should be retained within the National Forests.

(4.) Lands not either wholly or in part “covered with timber or
undergrowth except as provided for in the preceding para-
graphs, upon which it is not expected to grow trees, should
be eliminated from the National Forests.”

This is boundary work, and each forest in its entirety and all large units
of forest land must meet the requirements of those four rules, or otherwise
should be eliminated.

The “principles and procedure governing the classification and segrega~
tion of agricultural lands” under the Homestead Laws of 1906 and 1912 are
likewise laid down and set forth in the publication bearing that title.

Here the Forest Service only was concerned ; it was “ directed and required
to select, classify, and segregate as soon as practicable, all lands within the
boundaries of National Forests that may be opened to settlement,” those lands
were such as, in its opinion, might be occupied for agricultural purposes,
without injury to the forest reserves and which were not needed for public
purposes.

Classification was left practically in its hands.

The policy of classification has been minutely worked out, and carefully
standardised.

By “agriculture” was understood the production of farm crops under
established farm methods.

But “land that would produce timber may also produce certain farm crops
in a limited way, with sufficient expenditure of money and labour.” It was
deemed out of the question, therefore, “to attempt to segregate from the
timber land all land having agricultural characteristics.”

It was felt that to “warrant its segregation for settlement the land must
have sufficient positive value for agriculture to make probable its occupancy
and use for that purpose. The soil must be cultivable and capable of
permanent agricultural use.”

The requirements were, therefore, laid down—
(1.) The land must have a positive value for agriculture.

(2.) It must be of greater permanent value for agriculture than for
the primary purpose for which the forests were created, viz.,
timber production or watershed protection.

(3.) Its occupancy for farm purposes must not injure the National
Forest.

(4.) It must not be.needed for public purposes.

86 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The tract must be shown to have “some real agricultural value.”

An isolated area is not assured of permanent use for agriculture unless
large enough to constitute a practical farm unit, but the same area adjoining
other agricultural land would be certain to become part of a permanent
practical farm unit.

The acreage necessary to constitute a living area is set forth—

“One hundred and sixty acres—or the maximum—at high
altitudes where hay and hardy vegetables are the chief products; 40
to 60 acres of irrigable land at lower altitudes where the leading crops
are grain and forage, with some fruit and vegetables ; 20 to 40 acres
in the Southern States where the leading crops are semi-tropical fruits
and vegetables with some grain and forage.”

It is added—

“Owing to the necessity of keeping some stock on each farm
to consume wastes, to perform work, to furnish meats, dairy and
poultry products, and also to furnish fertiliser, it is doubtful whether
any farm as a rule should be smaller than 20 acres.”

If a given tract of land is found to be of greater permanent value for
agriculture than for forestry, the land is to be made available, otherwise not.
The question of accessibility to market in regard to agriculture, or inaccessi-
bility in regard to forestry is not to be taken into consideration.

Heavily timbered lands are not to be thrown open under any conditions.

Unfortunate experience has demonstrated repeatedly that to do so is to
retard agricultural development rather than hasten it. The timber value
invites speculation and crowds out the farmer. The homesteader invariably
sells to some lumber company as soon as he gets his patent.

“Jn 1901, under an enthusiastic demand to throw a portion of the
Olympic National Forest open to settlement, and which demand was said to
be in behalf of bond fide settlers, 705,000 acres of lands were released. It was
urged at the time that business was suffering; that the entire section in
which this forest is situated was at a standstill; that development was
retarded; that actual settlers were desirous of taking up lands and making
homes thereon, and that if something were not done, chaos would result.
In ten years 625,000 acres of this land are in the hands of private owners
who are holding it for its timber.” (Fifth National Conservation Congress
Report, 1913.)

Much the same thing has taken place in Australia.

Again, if the land is of such size and character that ultimately the public
interests are best served by its being under cultivation rather than under
forest, the timber is sold under clear-cutting conditions and the land is made
available after exploitation has taken place.

Which is much the same idea as that of the New South Wales temporary
“timber reserves ” save that in the Jatter case administration is divided with
the Lands Department.

“On the other hand, there may occur here and there, patches of land
under heavy timber which are cultivable, but which are so intimately an
integral part of the forest that they cannot be segregated without destroying,
from an administrative standpoint, a forest unit. A certain advantage 1s
gained from a forest standpoint, by a limited amount of settlement in or

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. a7

near each forest unit, but a forest should not be shredded by alienations to a
point making protection, general administration or application of forest
management unpractical. In the progress of settlement a point is ultimately
reached where a choice must be made between refusing to list additional areas
or abandoning the entire forest unit, regardless of the character of the
remaining lands.

“Not always will it be either possible or practicable to fairly appraise
the agricultural or forest value of a given tract of land by the apparent value
of each small unit of area for a given purpose. Agricultural lands are most
valuable when subdivided into reasonably small farm units, but forest lands
are most valuable when handled in large unbroken units.”

“Because of this, care should be taken where great forest value is at
stake, to define the boundaries of the forest unit,” which will then become a
permanent retention area, even though certain tracts therein when valued
without relation to the surrounding area, appear to have agricultural possi-
bilities. :

In a few special cases, it will be necessary to appraise the land by large
units and define such units as permanent retention areas. By classes such
cases may be—

(1.) Where the listing of the land without agricultural soil would
shred a large area of forest land without resulting gain
sufficient to offset the loss which must follow because the
remaining-forest area cannot be practically managed.

(2.) Where a considerable area of forest is clearly of great economic
value to the nation or State, and an attempt to transform it
into an agricultural country might result’ in irreparable
disaster by disturbing a well established climatic or economic
equilibrium (as in the case of the Pilliga Forest of New South
Wales).

(3.) Where small areas in their present condition are found to be of
little forest value and but slightly greater agricultural value
when viewed without relation to the surrounding area, but
are entirely surrounded by forest lands of a very valuable
type, they should be retained if necessary to preserve, the
integrity of the area as a practical forest unit. Such areas,
by a little work or expense, may often be made a producing
part of a well-rounded and logical forest unit and thereby
greatly increase its value for that purpose.

Watershed protection is'one of the dominant purposes of the forest.
Under no circumstances should land be released which is necessary for this
purpose.

“This refers not only to the alienation of slopes which should be retained
as a whole under public control, but to the bottoms of gulches where the
removal of the tree or brush cover would, in the long run, result in a scouring
by the flood waters with disastrous effects on the waterflow. Watersheds from
their very nature must be handled and considered as large units.

“Under no circumstances should land in an important watershed be listed
if the slope is so great that the soil is certain to-be washed to such an extent
as to destroy the fertility of the land.”

The law prohibits the alienation of land “where such action would injure
the National Forest,” or where the land is required for public purposes.

88 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

If the listing will seriously interfere with or hamper the administration,
protection or use of the National Forest then the listing is injurious.

“Tt is useless to administer a forest if it cannot be protected. It is
equally useless to administer and protect if it cannot be used. It follows,
therefore, that not only is it necessary to retain such areas as may be
required to protect and administer the forest, but it is also necessary to retain
such tracts as may be required for the practical use of the surrounding forest
areas.”

Exploitation requires mill sites, camp sites, banking grounds, logging
roads, chutes, &c. It is necessary to maintain “ practical grazing units, corrals,
watering places, lambing and round-up grounds, stock driveways, and holding
grounds.”

Water power development in the National Forests necessitates holding
rights of way for reservoirs, dams, canals, &c.

Finally, proper administration demands the retention of “areas needed
for ranger stations, pastures, lookout stations, roads, trails, telephone lines,
planting or nursery sites, firebreaks, and every other area needed in the work
of the forest officer—and such areas needed for public camping grounds,
health or pleasure resorts, or other purposes for the use of the public.

In the enforced hurry of classification in the Australian States, the
importance of many of these issues often has been overlooked, and adjust-
ments must continue for years beyond dedication,-involving resumption and
purchase. There has been no preliminary forest plan “ without first carefully
studying which no forest officer should attempt to classify the land in a forest.”

The elimination of agricultural land in the United States of America is
done in conjunction with boundary revision. Ths procedure is laid down for
a systematic plan of classification, comprising the following lines of work :—

(1.) Boundary revision.

(2.) Extensive examination of areas for which data is available,
showing few agricultural possibilities and overshadowing
timber or watershed values.

(3.) Intensive examination of areas believed to have considerable
agricultural value and doubtful value for timber or watershed
purposes.

(4.) Examination of small areas upon individual application to avoid
the delay of waiting until reached in the progress of the
regular classification work.

An extensive classification forms the basis of the system. Ali written
and unwritten information which the service and its officers have already
secured is correlated and combined in a report by a forest officer who should
have broad experiences, liberal ideas, and extensive general farm experieice
or who should be assisted by the direction dnd advice of an experienced agri-
culturist familiar with the general farm practice of the region.

The report covers :—

(1.) Value and importance of the forest as a sound timber supply and
need of retaining it for timber production.

(2.) Value and importance of the forest as a watershed and need
of retaining it to preserve the natural cover for the regulation
of stream flow.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 89

(3.) The general character of the land which should be classed as agri-
, cultural.

(4.) The need of retaining lands having agricultural or other non-
forest value in order to preserve the integrity of the forest
and make possible its practical administration, protection,
and fullest use.

(5.) Forest and agricultural history before and after withdrawal
’ for forest purposes and any other facts bearing upon the
character and value of the land.

The report is accompanied by a diagram of the forest showing the area
classified as non-agricultural and the area pending classification.

The report is artistically typewritten in double columns on atlas-sized
paper and is generally illustrated by photographs and is bound in heavy
binders, followed by the map of the unit area.

Possible agricultural lands are subjected to a following intensive examin-
ation. The examiner is selected by the district forester and must be competent
to direct and carry on the timber-cruising, surveying, and mapmaking
necessary.

He is required to make a “careful and detailed study of the forest and
other non-agricultural value of the area, paying particular attention to the
lands classed as agricultural by the expert and should submit the information
thus gathered in the shape of a map on the scale of 20 chains to the inch, and
a report with recommendation as to what portions of the area should be classed
as chiefly valuable for agriculture.

The standardised headings for the intensive report are—
1. Value of the area for forest purposes.
(a) Value as a source of timber supply, present and future.

(6) Value as a source of water supply and need for watershed protec-
tion.

2. Need for retaining for forest purposes any of the land designated as
agricultural by the Bureau of Soils, so as not to prevent the accomplishment
of the purposes for which the forests were established.

(a) To preserve the integrity of the forest unit. It must be recog-
nised that the objects of the National Forests, viz., the
production of timber and the regulation of stream flow by the
protection of the watershed cover, cannot be accomplished
if the forest is allowed to become so shredded by private
holdings that it ceases to be a practicable unit for protection
and administration.

(5) For proper administration of the forest including areas needed
for ranger stations, government pastures, lookout stations, &c.

(c) For the proper protection and administration of recognised uses
of the forest, including tracts needed for logging rights-of-way,
log landings, public camping grounds, areas needed in the
administration of grazing, fire protection, &c.

(@) To prevent the listing of lands chiefly valuable for timber rather
than agriculture. Agricultural land carrying a heavy stand
of timber of such value that the timber speculator, in the
place of the bond fide home builder, would seek to acquire
title will be classified as chiefly valuable for forest purposes,
and will not be opened to entry until-the timber has been
removed.

90 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

3. The necessity of withholding land, the disposition of which is provided
for by existing laws. In this class are water power or irrigation-sites, and
mineral or medicinal springs. ,

4, Exceptional value for the land for special uses not above enumerated,
as for example, for town sites purposes, hotel sites, &c. The disposition of
such cases will be handled finally in the forester’s office with reference to such
authority as may exist at the time action is taken.

When lands in the National Forests are finally classified and segregated,
their status is permanently established.

Cuaprer IX.
WORKING PLANS AND FOREST MANAGEMENT.
AMERICAN DEVELOPMENTS.

The European working plan is the instrument of a complex forest
organisation. It is essentially and intensively silvicultural. It revolves
around the problems of sustained yield and regulation of the cut.

The instrument itself is not so much characterised by this complexity as
the situation it reflects—the elaborately developed application of the records,
teachings, and experiences of centuries of fixed traditions and favourable condi-
tions—conditions too of low wages and high prices which do not and can
never exist in Australia.

Forests in Europe are managed almost as intensively as vegetable patches.
They are well protected and well organised. They are divided into small
working units by complete systems of roads and “rides,” and their history
and that of every section and almost every tree is known and put on record
from year to year. Silvical data are abundant and increment yield and volume
figures are available for every unit.

The degree of abnormality has been reduced by long-continued tending
and already the forests approximate closely to the “normal,” i.e., ideal forest
which the Australian Forest Services have yet to develop in the years to come
from their present disordered wildwoods,

As a matter of fact, working plans are nothing more than orderly records
of information available and the deduced ideas of the manager with regard
to the future working of the forest.

After all, no business can be controlled effectively without system, and
no system can be maintained effectively without being reduced to written
records for the dual benefit of present and future users.

This is the basic principle of scientific management and of working plans.

It matters nothing whether the forest is managed on the basis of sustained
yield or without any basis in forestry technique at all. If a high phase of
development has been reached, the working plan will be a formidable one; if
development is only beginning, the plan will be simplicity itself.

As the forest organisation extends, so also must the working plan—its
reflection. There must be a normal and coincident development of both.

But it were absurd to attempt to apply to the management of the primeval
forest, the working plan of the gardened one.

In. the period of confused thought supervening upon the inception of
forestry practice in the United States of America this very absurdity was
attempted, and only now, after fifteen tyears’ experience, are American
foresters coming to a realisation of the extent of the absurdity.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 91

This initial period was a period of European ideals, when European
systems were to be introduced bodily. Working plans were the last thing in
European forestry; they would be the first thing in American. Sustained
yield was the basic principle of European forestry; it must be the first plank
in the American platform. European working plans were silvicultural in
character, so also must be the American.

Since such forest activities as grazing, improvements, fire protection, &c.
were absent from European practice, and, therefore, from European working
plans, they were overlooked entirely in the preparation of the American.

But since such activities were necessarily the first care of the Forest
Service in its work-a-day business, effective systems of management of them
were developed without realising that those systems were really chapters of a
truly American working plan.

Meanwhile came a reaction against “academic” working plans as super-
fluous, and from 1905 to 1911, the Forest Service turned its whole-hearted
attention to problems of actual protection and administration, working out
step by step the details of departmental policy and practice, correcting
mistakes, adjusting difficulties, aiming at absolute efficiency in all respects.

Forest survey and assessment constituted a prime need of management,
and the Forest Service pressed on feverishly with this work, aiming at the
satisfaction of an urgent demand for quick results, for the assessment of a
maximum area at a minimum cost. Assessors were hurried from one area to
another without time to complete their reports.

The elaborately designed working plan recomnaissance become nothing
more than a survey and assessment for purposes of timber sales and classifi-
cation. But maps and estimates of considerable value were produced in the
process. Scattered forest descriptions and silvical data accumulated in
reports and on files, suggestions developed with regard to silvicultural systems.
Marking rules for different forest types were recommended in. timber sale
reports.

All this information lay unused, but when it became essential to record
it in accessible form, systematisation ensued.

Time had brought a considerable codification of thought.:

The “National Forest Manual” laid down that “the object of working
plans was to systematise the management of each forest in accordance with the
cumulative experience and information which the service had acquired.”

The plans were to be subdivided into seven sections in order to provide
flexibility in preparation and use—

(1.) General forest description.
(2.) Silviculture

(3.) Grazing.

(4.) Lands.

(5.) Protection.

(6.) Improvements.

(7.) Administration.

The Forest Service had come to a realisation that there were other
activities in American forest management than the silvicultural aims mono-
polising the European plan. :

G

92 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Sections and parts of sections were to be “ revised and made more complete
and final in character as the need arose and more data became available. A
satisfactory working plan must necessarily be built up gradually as more is
learned about the forest or district and about the best ways of handling it.”
The object was to furnish the information currently needed, and its best
application to the present work of the forest in the form which would be of the
greatest possible assistance in each phase of administration, not only to rangers
or supervisors, but also to the district forester.”

Working plans had reached at last a stage of normal development.

In May, 1912, the “standard outline for forest working plans” was
adopted.

Its essential purpose was to provide a framework upon which to hang the
data that had accumulated in the office files and other records which would
be collected from time to time. No expense was to be incurred in specially
designing plans, but the matter was to be kept in mind and dealt with as a
necessary section ef the administrative work.

Timber reconnaissance was to be restricted to areas in immediate demand
for purchase, or which’ were required to complete working plans necessitated
by urgent local circumstances.

The “outline” is of peculiar interest as indicating the American struggle
for clearness in despite of the native passion for detail. Where the European
plan is now a definite set of directions with regard to fellings, regeneration,
and thinnings, the American has become both a history and a compendium.
Overlooking the inaugural caution against “unnecessary detail,” the authors
have established the headings for a large book on every National Forest. In
offering criticism, however, one may not forget that the United States Forest
Service had to deal with undivided regions rather than with chess-board
wocdlets, and that many issues were involved besides those of pure silvi-
culture. Nor had silviculture yet emerged as the final fact. The search for
light was proceeding momentously, but the clear-cut instructions of the
European working plan had not yet crystallised from the mass. The American
working plan at this date represents the accumulated information which the
Forest Service has acquired with regard to each of its million-acre timber
tracts.

I reproduce the “Standard Outline” here :—

OUTLINE FOR FOREST WORKING PLANS.

To be effective, working plans must be designed wholly for use in forest
administration. They must be concise, complete, and intensely practical.
While they must be based upon the best technical data which can be
obtained, and must take into-account service regulations and policy and apply
all specifically, they must exclude academic discussion, material with no
bearing on the plan, and unnecessary detail. Unnecessary discussion may be
eliminated by tabulation wherever possible, and by statements of requirements,
principles, conclusions, &c., and 1, 2, 3, order. Plans will consist of a state-
ment of—

(1.) The resources of the forest with necessary description.

(2.) The conditions governing their use.

(3.) The measures to be followed in their administration and develop-
ment.

Unless otherwise specifically provided, the plan should outline the general
management for a long period, usually a rotation in silviculture, and in detail

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 93

for some such period as ten to fifteen years. ‘The varying divisions of the
forest required are indicated under each section of the plan. It is intended
that the outline shall be followed only so far as it applies to the local conditions
covered by the plan.

I.—GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

General data which relates to two or more sections of the plan, or which
can be treated more logically here than under other sections. Under most
headings the discussion will be a summary of important points treated in detail
in other sections of the plan.

Creation. Area, past and present. Totals of alienated lands by classes.
(Tabulated form.)

Physical features. (Concise. Include the information which has a distinct
bearing upon or forms the basis for the provisions of the plan.)

Climate. (Data not of direct application may be placed in the appendix.)

Topography. (For use in the division of the forest into working circles,
as well as its bearing upon use, development, and administration of the forest.)

Geology. (As it affects soils, &c.)

Soils. (In such form that statement may be applied directly in silvicul-
tural practice, settlement, policy, &c.)

Land Classification. Forest, agriculture, grazing, barren, &c. Tabulated.
Brief discussion, if necessary.)

Transportation. (Railroads, water, &c., only as it affects the adminis-
tration or the development of the forest.)

Settlement. Present and probable future. (As it affects the forest and
the plan.)

Industries. Mining, grazing, ranching, lumbering, &c. (Only as they
have a bearing on the plan.) :

II.—SILVICULTURE.
TIMBER.

Estimates and detailed descriptions of timber.

Estimates by species, separately by divisions, blocks, and other natural
or artificial subdivisions. Quality, and condition of timber, age classes if
stand is even-aged, accessibility, information on logging, &c., as necessary,
cutover areas. (Tabulation.)

Forest Types.—Composition, occurrence, distribution of age classes, and
condition of timber. (Concise general descriptions and the fundamental
silvicultural requirements and principles which form the basis for the choice
and application of silvicultural systems.)

Species.—Concise. Treat, from the standpoint of the type and the stand
rather than the individual tree, the characteristics and requirements upon
which will be based-conclusions regarding the species to be favoured and the
relation in the management of each species to. the others in the stand or type.

Climatic, soil, moisture, and light requirements.

Growth, form, volume, &c. (Tables to be included in the plan if they
will be used frequently, otherwise in the appendix.)

Reproduction. Advance reproduction present. Conditions necessary to
secure it.

94 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Value of wood. (Properties, comparative values.)

Causes of injury. Fire, insects, fungi, mistletoe, smelter fumes, weather,
animals, &c. (Control under protection.)

Increment. Yield table or other data, or the method used to determine
increment. Effect of thinnings on growth, dc.

TimBER OPERATIONS.

Markets. Consumption and demand, local and general, past, present,
and future. Relation to surrounding forests if any. Cut, by years, sales, and
free use. (For use in the determination of working circle boundaries and in
regulation.)

Prices. (To aid in stumpage appraisals.)

Methods and utilisation. (Methods in relation to preservation of proper
silvicultural conditions, also as a basis for costs. Reasonable possibilities in
utilisation.)

Costs. (As a basis for stumpage appraisals.)

Objects of management. Watershed protection, species of timber and
classes of material, sustained annual or periodical yield, &c. (State specifically
in order of importance the objects which materially affect the provisions of
the plan.)

Silvicultural systems and their application. or each type. (Concise
descriptions of the systems adopted and provisions for their specific application.
Include brush disposal.)

Regulation of yield. Rotation, cutting cycles, &c. (Rotation of maximum
volume production. Cutting cycles as short as practical considerations will
allow.)

Division of the forest into necessary divisions (working circles), areas
within which sustained yield, annual or periodic, is now or will ultimately be
desirable, based upon markets, transportation, and topography. (This may be
done elsewhere in cases where such action will simplify treatment.) Blocks
and chances only when they are actually needed to assist in regulation. (Blocks
—main logging units or groups of logging units. Chances—single logging
units or the subdivision of blocks necessary to carry out the management.)

Annual or periodic cut. The limitation of cut including sales and free
use. Accurately for ten years, and approximately for the periods of the rota-
tion. (Include in the plan only the essential features of the method used, and
cover necessary details in the appendix. Blank table for tabulation of limita-
tion and amounts actually cut. Sales and free use.)

Sales. (By divisions, if advisable.)

Policy. Restriction and encouragement, and location. (The plan of
cutting and specific application to actual conditions of the preceding con-
clusions and of the service policy and regulations. Past management to be
treated only as it will help in an understanding of that proposed.)

Stumpage appraisals. Maximum and minimum rates.

Administration and other features. Special force needed. Costs.
(Summary for use in obtaining total forest expenditures in Section VII.)

Free Use. (Principles applying specifically the general free use policy,
especially where it is more or less vague and general. By divisions, ‘if
advisable.)

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 95

Present and prospective annual demand by classes of users and of forest
products.

Policy, restriction, or encouragement by districts and classes of products.

Administration. Free use areas. Blanket or year-long permits. Other
measures to promote economy. Special force needed. Costs. (Summary for
use in obtaining total forest expenditure in Section VII.)

Map or maps showing topography, types, classification of timber, boun-
daries of divisions, blocks, &c., free use areas, cut-over areas, &c.

Forzstation.
General relation to ultimate timber management.
Areas requiring forestation. By types. (Brief description. Tabulated.)

Methods and species. (Concise. Base upon results of past work. In
addition to sowing, planting, &c., include seed collection, poisoning rodents,
&e.)

Detailed plan. (Iive years. or if impracticable, omit and provide for
annually.)

Areas, methods, and costs. (Tabulated.)

Administrative features. Special force needed. (Regular and special
work, such as seed collecting, etc.)

Nurserr.
Ultimate production, species, and numbers.
Methods. (Essential features.)
Detailed plan (five years).
Species, numbers, and costs. (Tabulated form.)
Administrative features. Special force needed.

Map showing areas to be reforested, classified as above, etc.

INVESTIGATIONS.

Which can be conducted inexpensively in connection with the regular
administration of the forest, and which should result in practical information
needed in the administration. Brief.

ItI.—GRAZING.

Rance MANAGEMENT.

Types. (Concise descriptions of each.)

Names of important and characteristic forage plants.
Accurate data on seasons of growth.

Accurate data on forage value.

Acreage. With forage. Waste. (Tabulated.)

Carrying capacity. Present. Possible. Brief descriptions. By
allotments or divisions. (Tabulated.)

Demand and other local conditions in the live stock industry which affect
grazing on the forest. Relation to silviculture.

96 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

ALLOTMENTS.

Arrangement. (Division of the range between cattle and sheep, grazing
districts, and individual allotments to be shown on map. Guiding principles,
or necessary comment in the discussion.) Te secure—

Best division between cattle and sheep.
Full and equal utilisation.
Best division of types and early and late ranges.
Best division of watering places.
Proper silvicultural and watershed protection.
Number and kind of stock grazed. By allotments or divisions. Number
of permits by classes.
SEASONS.

To secure full utilisation of the forage without seriously interfering with
the natural requirements of plant growth. Each portion of the range should
occasionally, every few years, be grazed only during the last half of the
natural growing period, in order to keep the plant constitutions strong, and
allow some actual reseeding. So far as is consistent with this principle, the
green tender feed should be available for the stock during as much of the
season as is practicable. This is essential, especially for sheep. This plan
may be considered a variation of seasons or a division of allotment.

FEss.

By classes of stock and season. (Tabulated.)

‘é
Meruops or Hanning Stock.

Cattle.—Salting and necessary riding by permittees to secure equal
utilisation of range, and prevent congregation along streams and water holes,
with resulting destruction of plant growth and poor development of stock.

Sheep—
Size of bands.
Herding. (Develop open quiet herding, and avoid driving back to camp.)

Salting. (Encourage abundant use of salt, it means easier herding, less
danger from poison and disease, and less damage to the range.)

Other stock. (When special provisions are required.)

Rance IMPROVEMENTS.
(Permanent improvements in the Improvement Section.)

Reseeding either with cultivated plants or by restricting grazing for
natural reseeding, posting poisonous areas, changes or improvement in stock
driveways, extermination of predatory animals, prevention of erosion by
proper handling of stock.

Pouicy AND ADMINISTRATION.

General principles of policv not already covered. Protective and
maximum limits, new owners, advisory boards, ete.

Administration. [Extermination of predatory animals, counting stock,
or other special phases of the work. Special force required. Costs.
(Summary for use in obtaining total of Forest expenditures in Section VII.)

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 97

INVESTIGATIONS.

Proper seasons, carrying capacity, poisonous plants, artificial reseeding,
demonstration tests of proper utilisation, effect of grazing upon reproduction,
and most efficient systems: of grazing management to eliminate damage.
Herbarium with necessary notes.

Map or maps, showing types, water, fences, corrals, topography, grazing
districts, allotments, reserved areas, driveways, or ether factors or features
which influence or illustrate the handling of the stock.

IV.—LANDS.
SETTLEMENT.

Soils. (Classification with brief description and a statement of compara-
tive agricultural and forest value of each class, based upon land values, forest
expectation values, etc.)

Demand for agricultural lands. Past, present, and future.

Policy. (In 1, 2, and 3 order, application of policy based upon the
preceding classification, results of past policy, service policy, and any other
principles as a guide to examiners. Practicability of detailed classification
of certain districts in advance of application.)

Map, showing soil classification, if data is available.

Uszs anp Easements.
Resources.

Demand. Past, present, and future.

Policy. (Special features which are important by kinds of uses or ease-
ments.’ Include charge compared with value to users.)

WaATERPOWER.

Resources. Streams, sites, power. Cost and market data and stream
measurements. (Tabulate.)

Demand. Past, present, and future.

Policy. (Special features.)

ADMINISTRATIVE SITES.

Sites, rights of way, etc., withdrawn, or still needed, and to be with-
drawn. Include comprehensive plan of rights of way needed for future sales
and other uses, as well as sites and rights of way required in administration.
(Tabulate or show on map.)

ADMINISTRATION.

Special force needed. Other administrative questions.
Costs. (Summary for use in obtaining total forest expenditures in
Section VII.)

INVESTIGATIONS.

Map or maps showing status, location of uses, easements, water power
projects, administrative sites, etc.

98 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

V.—PROTECTION.
Fire.

(By divisions or geographical subdivisions, if advisable.)

Liability—Statement of value of destructible resources by classes, and
for districts or regions. Timber, expectation value of young growth, forage,
arbitrary value per acre of watershed protection. (Possible money damage.
Tabulate.).

Hazard or risk.—Statement by types or regions based upon character of
stand, danger of fires starting, and difficulty and cost of suppression. (Should
be based in part upon a study of past experience.)

Protection required. (Principles which sum up on the basis of liability
and hazard the relative amount of protection needed in specified parts of the
forest.)

ConrtRoL.

Improvements available. By districts. (Brief description, tabulate if
map is not sufficient.)

Communication. Telephone, etc.
Transportation. Railroads, roads, trails, pack trains, etc.
Fire lines. Lookout stations.

Supplies and tools. (Distribution or how they are to be purchased, etc.
Tabulate. )

Co-operation. Adjoining forests, between ranger districts, State associa-
tions, corporations, individuals, etc.

Organisation and administration—

For lookout stations and patrol. Numbers of men and duties by
districts. (Tabulate so far as possible.)

For fighting fires. (Tabulate if possible.)
Regular and temporary force.
Co-operation, labour including users.
Outside labour.

Costs. (Summary for use in obtaining total of forest expenditure in
Section VII.)

Specific and detailed instructions to rangers based on the above, and
resulting in its direct application, should be issued to all forest officers engaged
in fire protection.

Map showing types, topography, improvements, and as much of above
information as is possible and advisable. Copies to accompany letters of

instruction.
InsEcTs.

Extent of infestation and damage.

Control, administrative measures, methods. Special force needed. Costs.
(Summary for use in obtaining total of forest expenditures in Section VII.)

Otuur DamacEs.
Extent. Amount of damages.

Control, administrative measures. (As under Insects.)

Game.
Policy and administrative measures.

INVESTIGATIONS.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY, 99

VI.—IMPROVEMENTS.

Improvements. Comprehensive plan of the improvements needed.
Location, brief description, estimated costs, indicate those which should be
undertaken within the next five years. (Tabulated form.)

Roads, trails, telephone lines, fire lines, administrative fences, stock
fences, including the fencing of poisonous areas and bog holes, bridges,
corrals, dwellings, other buildings, water development, stream improvement,
dams to prevent erosion, other projects.

Maintenance, as above.
Policy and administration.

Improvement policy of the forest. (Concisely by lines of work such as
silviculture, grazing, protection, general administration, etc.)

Administrative provisions. Special force needed. Costs, exclusive of the
costs of individual projects.

Map showing all improvements constructed and planned, with a sufficient
amount of other data to make intelligible.

VII.—ADMINISTRATION.

Administrative districts. Number, area, and relative importance or
amount of work. (Tabulate.)

Force. Office and field and assignment. Salaries. Also a brief forecast
of future requirements. (Tabulate.)

Permanent, statutory. Semi-permanent and temporary.

General administrative policy of forest. (General relation of important
lines of work. Include also points not already covered; fully and briefly in
1, 2, and 3 order.)

Receipts and expenditures and results. By lines of work for fiscal years,
past and estimated future.

Administrative provisions for increasing receipts or reducing expenditures.

Map, boundaries of administrative or other districts.

APPENDIX.

Material which should be preserved in connection with the plan, but
which will be used infrequently in actual forest administration.
List of species.

Details of methods used in the collection of data, costs, and areas covered.
(Reconnaissance.)

Tables, growth, volume, etc., when it is reasonably certain that they will
be used infrequently.

Details of method for regulating yield.

Detailed silvical discussions upon which conclusions and principles out-
lined in the plan are based, if preservation seems necessary or advisable.

General notes upon which the conclusions in the plan were based.

Inventory of existing improvements, if desired. (Tabulate.)

Regulation of the cut on the basis of the sustained yield had been early
the objective of the American Forest Service, as it is that of the Australian
Forest Services to-day.

100 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Limitations were established for each National Forest and were alterable
only by the Minister. But these limitations were fixed when the sales were
considerably less than the estimated annual increment, and when the sales
approached the limitation the pressure brought to bear was such that resort
was had to the specious method of combining with the limitations of one forest
the specified cut of adjoining areas, although their outlets often were hundreds
of miles apart. In the case of the Whitman Forest, the permitted exploitations
of five forests were added together in order to justify a proposal to exceed the
sustained yield of the original unit.

The facts had not been faced squarely.

To exploit the forest at a faster rate than it grows is tantamount to
cashing the company’s capital to pay the dividends.

The principle of the sustained yield is limitation of the periodic cut to
the amount of wood accretion during the period. Is is the essential purpose
of State forests, which are set apart to perpetuate the timber supply, and the
chief justification for their existence as such. It is the only scheme of manage-
ment under which ordinary business efficiency can be achieved, and mis-
management guarded against. It is the only scheme under which forest
industry can be established, and logging and milling plants assured a reason-
able life, thus making, by elimination of high depreciation costs, for cheaper
timber for the community, and providing the best form of investment. It
makes possible permanent transportation facilities and permanent forest
communities, and establishes labour conditions, and as such has the best social
results—a consideration which no Australian can overlook.

But it is another matter to persuade operators to transfer their operations
from handy forests before they have cut them out, to inaccessible forests with
often inaccessible markets. In the North-West of New South Wales the
forests adjacent to railways are being overcut, while the huge over-maturing
supplies of the Central Pilliga cannot be exploited owing to lack of transporta-
tion facilities. To prohibit cutting on the accessible forests because
exploitation has exceeded the wood increment, is not possible until other
sources of supply are opened up, and to do so would destroy the timber
industry.

Railways and markets are necessary to the establishment of manage-
ment on the basis of the sustained yield. It is not so much a question of what
should be done as what can be done.

Until railways and markets are available, sustained yield for forests
or even working circles, to a large extent, must remain as theories. Limita-
tions of the cut are of value in the pioneer phase, only as a standard and a
danger signal. They should certainly be established, so that it will be possible
to tell approximately the amount of.the overcut or undercut.

To the Australian forester, the lack of increment data is a handicap.
We have-no reliable information as to the rates of growth, and are at a
disadvantage as compared with Europe or America, in that annual rings are
no guide, and we must gather our data by prolonged observation of the trees
themselves.

Furthermore, it is necessary that we should have beforehand, an intimate
knowledge of our forests, so as to ensure that cutting will be concentrated
on overmaturing and deteriorating stands, and detailed data as to acessi-
bility, transportation facilities, and markets, so as to safeguard the silvicul-
tural aims against sacrifice to purely local business considerations.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. lol

The “ United States of America Forest Manual” now sets forth—

“Intensive methods like the management of timber, so as to secure a
sustained yield, should not. be attempted until required by the demands upon
the forest, or other conditions affecting the use of its resources.”

In harmony with this policy, the following instructions were issued by
District No. 3 for the guidance of its officers :—

“The first step in the management of the National Forests
under existing policy is to sell the overmature timber that is deterior-
ating and to develop a net revenue. Yield regulation must be
secondary to the silvicultural requirements and a market. It is
clearly valueless to impose a local limitation of cut which is unprac-
tical because of the necessity of a larga annual cut to justify
commercial logging. At least until the overmature timber is removed,
therefore, the policy of an annual (rigid) sustained yield will not be
applied.”

This surely is evidence of the reaction against European ideals.

The Standard Outline, which was an attempt to stimulate and guide
the development of working plans, was designed in the hope that forest super-
visors during the winter months, would assemble under it, all the data available
for their forests. But the outline was so complete as to appear too formidable
to deal with. Only a few enthusiasts grappled with it. Not every supervisor
was capable of undertaking the task. ?

A very recent development of this situation is a proposal by D. T.
Mason, formerly assistant district forester in District No. 1 and now Professor
of Forestry at the University of California, for “a regional silvicultural plan.”

I had an opportunity of discussing the matter with the author of the
proposal. He contends that the working plan for any one forest covers
general principles and practices applicable to all those in the same silvi-
cultural region. He regards as cumbersome under these circumstances, the
preparation of separate plans for similar forests, and not good policy, because
all supervisors are not silvicultural specialists.

An immense amount of duplication work in involved, and he advocates,
therefore, the preparation of “timber plans, not for forests, but for forest
regions.”

“The idea is to include in one full report for each silvicultural district,
all the material dealing with the silvics, silviculture, and utilisation which,
under the Standard Outline was to have been included in the plan for each
forest.”

For instance, under Australian conditions, there would be a “ regional
silvicultural plan” for the cypress pine type, another for the hoop pine type,
another for the eastern hardwood type, another for the Jarrah type, and so on.

Mr. Mason suggests that the preparation of such plans should be allotted
to specialists.

Simplification of the U.S.A. working plan was proceeding, and with it the
realisation that in establishing a pioneering forestry system,. conservative
timber-getting. and regenerative measures were the first needs.

But still further simplification is proceeding as instanced by the proposal
for a simple annual plan based upon and really a corollary of the regional
plan. It is actually an annual report upon the work of each forest, affording

OF ASIERICAN FORESTRY

STUDY

AUSTRALIAN

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AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 103

an opportunity for assembling and discussing the year’s records and results,
and of recommending plans of management for the ensuing period. It is really
a preliminary working plan adapted to the quickly-moving conditions of the
pioneering period.

As silvical data increase and influence the system of management, the
annual plan will evolve into the true working plan known to Europe. In the
meantime, the “regional silvicultural plan” so-called, represents the separa-
tion from the mass, of the idea of silviculture as the ‘central fact of manage-
ment. It emerges as a compilation of silvical data, upon which the true
working plan must be founded.

Such has been the evolution of the American working plan. What should
have come first has come at long last.

Organisation and working plans started off at opposite poles in the
beginning of American forest administration. Time has elaborated the former,
and simplified the latter, until both are now practically coincident and co-
ordinate.

The lesson for Australia is that development must be founded on the rock
bottom of established conditions.

The vehicles are policy, organisation, silvical research, and annual
working plans. Through them the final working plan will be attained.

Policy is the foundation, and it will be furnished, in all good time perhaps,
by State legislative enactments. Those enactments should vest in the State
Forest Services (a) an adequate forest estate; (6) full technical control; (c)
authority to reinvest the forest revenue in the forest. Short Acts are quite
sufficient ; they should afford the widest possible powers of management to the
forest administration, and provide ready means for keeping pace with the
rapidly changing phases of extension which must ensue.

The basis of organisation is reconnaissance and division of the area. There
must be a wide and vigorous development of forest assessment and survey
work, so as to provide necessary maps and figures for management, and in
order to indicate the location of exploitable timber belts. The distribution of
age classes must be ascertained so that those belts may be dealt with in
order of their maturity as far as possible. A stocktaking of little-used species
is requisite in order to determine their possibilities and extend utilisation to
them, thus removing a very serious handicap to effective forest practice.
Silvical investigations must be carried out. There must be a study of the
chief forest types and their growth and reproduction. Increment data must
be secured. An investigation of markets and industries, including studies of
methods and costs of utilisation, transportation facilities and local needs js of
prime importance, since such considerations must govern the royalty and
timber sales policy.

A standard outline for silvicultural studies should be drawn up, and all
information which has been collected should be assembled systematically in it.

There must be a preliminary division of the area into convenier.t units of
management and operation. A resident forest personnel must be appointed.
Forest stations and nurseries must be established, also forest experiment
stations.

In the annual plan, the managing officer should record the year's opera-
tions for the forest, reduction of timber estimates by cutting, fire, &c., the
results and information obtained and the work projected for the ensuing
twelve months.

104 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Adoption of the annual plan would encourage officers to systematise their
data on resources and methods and conditions of utilisation. In course of time
and by normal growth, the annual plan would emerge as the true final
Australian working plan. But there must be evolution, not revolution.

Limitation of the cut of each forest on the basis of the sustained yield
must be an important objective. of management. Its adoption generally,
however, hinges upon a general accessibility.

It should most certainly be applied in the case of accessible reserves
where excess operations can be diverted reasonably to other areas, such as
lands in process of clearing for settlement. There is no dearth of such lands
in Australia and their resources should be fully utilised, in any case.

In the absence of increment and assessment data, an approximation of
the sustained yield, based on a rough stocktaking and a tentative rotation,
should be adopted.

Sound silvicultural practice is the prime need of the moment. Operations
must be conducted so as to give the maximum opportunity for natural
regeneration.

Silvicultural systems are linked very closely with the timber policy, whose
first principles should be the safeguarding of the interests of the future forest,
and those also of the present industry. Silviculturally speaking, exploitation
is, after all, only a means to an end—the end of regeneration and the produc-
tion of the normal forest.

Clear cutting, with reservation of seed trees, singly or in groups or blocks,
is the silvicultural system adopted almost exclusively at present in the United
States of America. It is a method for over-mature, even-aged forests under
an extensive form of management, and is almost obsolete in Europe.

The forests of Australia are not usually even-aged. For the most part
they consist of a scattered overwood of over-mature and deteriorating trees,
with an irregular mixed underwood of many species, many of them mere forest
weeds. White ants or borers infest the former; bush fires have ravaged the
latter.

Removal of the overwood is indicated, but it must be regulated so as to
safeguard the underwood, and make for reproduction to the normal extent and
composition. Exploitation must be conservative, and defective and useless
trees inust be eliminated from the stand. Disposal of the débris and brush
may be desirable in some instances as a regenerative measure.

But red cedar for fencing, and rosewood for pig troughs! Thus it was
in the beginning, and thus it continues, if in diminuendo, to this day. Rioting
among a virgin plenty (for the handful pioneering population of Australia) the
Australian licensed timber-getter has followed the policy of the small boy let
loose in the orchard; he has confined his attention to the pick of the timber
stand, and has left behind him a trail of wasted wealth to be offered up as a
burnt sacrifice in the bush fires of the coming summer. Of the trees he
actually fells for mill logs, he takes two-thirds; of the precious ironbark for
sleepers he leaves two-thirds. The important cypress pine resources of the
West fare no better, despite local shortage, while the valuable but limited hoop
pine scrubs of Queensland are being wastefully culled in order to satisfy the
fastidious taste of the day for clear lumber unspecked by a single knot.

The timber-getter transfers responsibility to the miller who refuses to
accept any but selected logs. The miller in turn blames both the general
consumer who will not have anything to do with second-class timber, the
architect who declines to depart from the traditional specification on which
he has been reared, and Government departments which insist on the finest
quality of wood for every purpose. —

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 105

This insistence upon picked timber is a pioneering phase, consequent
upon a limited need and a comparative original abundance. Australia is still
a young country, but its resources in wood are limited. The time for conserva-
tion and efficiency has arrived, and pioneering methods must go. Virtually,
only one grade of timber is employed at present—the best. The American
timber trade recognises ten different classes.

Conservative timber-getting is the first step in silviculture. And, since the
fate of the forests is at present largely in the hands of private enterprise, the
methods of private enterprise must be regulated. There must be attached to
timber sale agreements and licenses, such conditions as from time to time may
be found requisite to secure improvement. In this way is being guided the
betterment of logging in American reservations—wde my remarks under
“Timber Sale Policy.”

But conservative lumbering involves a greater expenditure of energy,
both mental and physical, and although it achieves substantial economy in the
utilisation of the product and the preparation of the ground for regeneration,
it makes immediately for added. cost in working. And added cost is not
shouldered willingly by private enterprise, whose main concern is maximum
profit.

The question of royalties, therefore, is involved. As a matter of fact, the
correct appraisal of stumpage values is fundamental to forest management.
Nor is it an altogether simple task. since it includes not only considerations
of silvicultural treatment, but also the necessities of the timber trade. An
intensive enquiry into labour, freight, and market conditions is essential to
success. No rough-and-ready approximations will suffice, and the subject must
be tackled. with determined thoroughness, and worked out by thoroughly com-
petent men. There is no greater bone of contention between the forester
and the timber-getter than an untrue royalty, arid no greater curse to forestry
than its arbitrary imposition. Values must be natural.

The “uniform royalty” expedient is one that still survives pioneering
necessities in most of the Australian States. Its crudity and general ineffec-
tiveness are obvious, but it seems difficult to break away from a tradition.
Progress after all is a mere patching-up in perpetuity. Recently, New South
Wales has strained away from its ancient principles and in lieu of the uniform
royalty has adopted a “minimum royalty.” But the new minimums are
considerably higher than the old “ uniform” rates, and if applied as such must
have the effect of arbitrarily bolstering-up stumpage values or of increasing
the use of imported timbers—when peace permits. There is, however, no
definition as to the incidence of the minimum rates.

Of all the Australian States, Queensland has been the most fortunate with
regard to timber sale policy. It avoided the wiles of the royalty license
method, and from the beginning founded its development upon the solid rock
of actual sale on the open market at competition.

Despite inevitable discrepancies of a minor nature, owing to the machina-
tions of groups of buyers, the adoption of the auction principle has culminated
in the natural market values that now obtain, and, combined with the
governmental policy of building railroads to the forests, has been responsible
for the securing of the highest stumpage values in Australia—and beyond.
The system is safeguarded by the fixing of upset prices based upon a scientific
study of labour, freight, and market conditions.

106 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The Queensland timber sale policy is virtually identical with that of the
United States of America. It is a policy which must be copied eventually by
all the Australian States, and not only because it ensures the receipt of the
true stumpage value, but because it avoids the dangers of competitive exploita-
tion, and furnishes a sure basis for the further extension of systematic forestry.

Under the licensing systems of most Australian States, timber-getters
armed with a half-crown license may prospect any bush and contest with other
forest freebooters the possession of the forest loot. The system has been
responsible for tremendous wastage of the timber resource, and while it lasts,
effective management is impossible. Like that of the United States of
America, the Queensland timber sale policy awards to the purchaser at public
auction the sole right of logging on a defined lot, for the conduct of the
‘operations on which the holder is responsible. It is a simple system, rendering
supervision easy and making possible the natural extension of the functions
of forestry. It avoids also the necessity for an interminable code of regulatiqns
such as too often characterises the forest administration of other Australian
States.

The New South Wales exclusive-right idea represents the clumsy patching
up of the licensing method into the semblance of such a scheme. It gave
to the holder a fifteen years’ monopoly of 10,000 acres of then more or less
inaccessible timberland, at the prevailing uniform royalty. It provided for
no revision of conditions, and virtually took from the forester for the term
of the right, all possibilities of instituting silvicultural treatment or of
obtaining true stumpage values. So little amenable is it to forestry control
that any alteration of a cutting condition involves alteration at the hands of
Parliament of the whole code of regulations!

Further patching has produced the special license idea which is much
less objectionable because of the greater power of control, although the
maximum term of fifteen years is likely to hamper management.

Certainly, a reasonable operating life should be guaranteed established
milling plants, in order to stabilise the industry and make both for higher
stumpage values and lower selling prices to the consumer. Long term rights,
however, are not merely monopolistic, but a virtual deliverance of forest
practice into the hands of the enemy. A reasonable operating life may
best be safeguarded by the establishment of the principle of the sustained
yield, and the making of annual or semi-annual sales up to the limits thereof.
Such a policy would remove the danger of monopoly, whilst avoiding the
undesirable multiplication of small and temporary milling plants, working
on a “ boom and bust” principle.

The short-term sale of defined timber lots furnishes a convenient basis
for the extension of silviculture. Could the Australian forester take over
forthwith the whole work of exploitation in addition to that of thinning, he
would be in a position at once to apply the results of his experience. But
there are other interests to be considered besides those of pure forestry, and
the timber trade has a big say—too big, very often—with regard to the job
of logging. Evolution will place the forester in actual control eventually,
but, until then, other means must be employed to bring about the intro-
duction of elementary forest practice. The crude expedient of minimum girths
has been the mainstay of Australian forestry in the past, and it has served a
useful purpose. It is entirely inadequate, however, to meet the requirements
of applied silviculture, and must go. In its stead should be erected the principle
of marking the trees to be felled. The acceptance of that principle would
place in the hands of the forester an instrument wherewith to shape the
destinies of his charge along the lines opened up to him by his previous
experiment and research. It would make practicable an instant advance into
the realms of applied forestry.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 107

A further step in the right direction would be to set apart for direct,
management one of the timber lots opened up for sale annually on each
forest. That lot should be exploited by the forest service itself, with regenera-
tion primarily in view. It should serve both as an example of conservative
timber-getting for the benefit of the private operator on the same forest, and
as a beginning for the Australian forester in applied silviculture. In principle,
the idea is identical with that of the “ Area of Concentrated Regeneration ”
of Troup.

The forest service should undertake also the planning of the road and
compartment systems, and the actual work of construction. The timber which
has to be removed should be worked up and sold.

There remains the question of setting in order the areas already cut-over
under the unrestricted conditions of the past. Victoria and New South Wales
both have undertaken a considerable amount of what has been styled
“cleaning-up ” work. It includes both thinning and regenerative measures,
and also overmuch tidying-up of the forest. The work is being carried out
by casual labour under temporary bush gangers, or by occupiers of forest leases
under the terms of their holdings. The profits from the sale of the trees
on the areas treated are credited against the cost of treatment. It is proposed
to extend the operations to all the areas of past exploitation.

The project appeals to the people who want public moneys spent in their
districts, and there is a danger of its being erected into the be-all and end-
all of forest practice. But it is scarcely appropriate to either the needs or the
finances of the moment. It lends itself to unsound bookkeepeing. It is an
inordinate undertaking for unorganised forest services. It is likely to trench
too far on funds required for more pressing organising work. It is building
without adequate foundation. It is a function, at all events, not for temporary
bush foremen and casual labour, but of a trained forest personnel—which does
not yet exist. Both forest organisation and silvicultural investigation must
precede it. And, when all is said and done, accomplishment waits upon wider
markets than at present exist in Australia. The requirements of small
communities are narrow. There is little sale for thinnings, and thinning
work, therefore, should be avoided. The forests, also, are filled with a
miscellany of minor species awaiting a market, and immediate treatment,
therefore, involves a sacrifice and expenditure which economic management
would not countenance. Markets should be found in the first place. There
should be a complete stocktaking of the goods available, a full investigation
of their possibilities, a development of appropriate seasoning methods, an
establishment of timber grades, a cheapening of costs by roadmaking, etc.,
and finally, a hustling of markets.

Twenty years ago in New South Wales, such species as blackbutt,
flooded gum, and brush box were despised and rejected—as they are in
Queensland to-day. Yet in the former State they now furnish the bulk of the
milling supplies. Crowsfoot Elm—a valuable timber—occurs abundantly
in the hoop pine scrubs—yet there are no buyers. Many such useful woods
remain unutilised because they are more or less untried, and the trade has
been “ brought up” on big-sized logs. But since Australia is importing cheap
softwoods from abroad to the tune of £10,000 per day, there should be no
excuse for the neglect of the Australian product.

“Organisation and investigation” must be accepted as the keynotes of
Australian forestry at this stage. Broad and substantial foundations have
to be laid before details can be added. Working plans rest upon division of
area and investigation of silvics: division of area depends upon forest survey,

H

108 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY

and silvical knowledge upon research ; the whole waits upon organisation of a
trained forest personnel and the working out of system. The annual forest
plan is the vehicle which will bring to Australian forestry the true final
working plan, as it is known in Europe.

Such are the foundations. Upon the manner in which they are laid to-day
depends the entire future of Australian forestry. To establish them ‘effectively..
all the funds available will be required.

Meanwhile, the Crown timber reserves should be withheld as far as
practicable from operation. The longer exploitation is deferred, the better
the prospects for management. These limited areas ultimately will have to
shoulder the whole burden of supplying Australian needs. In the meantime,
alienated and alienable timber lands are being cleared for settlement pur-
poses, and large bodies of wood are being wasted. It is most important that
this material should be utilised, so that, apart from questions of mnagement,
the supplies in the national reservoirs may be to the same degree conserved for
the future. Australia is not so blessed with forest abundance that it can
afford to neglect this essential economy, or so far insolvent as to be obliged
to liquidate its forest estate forthwith. The quest for revenue has been the
curse of most Australian forest services. Alienated and alienable timber
lands should assume to the utmost the responsibility of supplying present
requirements.

The recent history of the North-West Forestry District of New South
Wales offers a valuable instance of the carrying out of such a policy. In 1912,
timber-getters were weaned from the Crown reservations, which have remained
closed to operation ever since. Exploitation was diverted to vacant Crown
lands, leaseholds, and private property. As these became cut-out according
to the then existing ideas, the logging standards became reduced, until
ultimately the closest utilisation ensued. White cypress pine was the major
species. A stumpage height of 8 in. and a top diameter of 5 in. were
established. Trees down to 7 in. DBH were used ; drought-killed stands were
converted. The second-grade black cypress was introduced to the market,
as were other lesser species.

Meanwhile, the forests had been surveyed, and organisation was pro-
ceeding. The closer reserves had been subdivided into convenient units with
complete road systems calculated to cheapen transportation. Forest overseers
were appointed and timber-getters were employed to convert the trees on the
roads to saleable material, mill logs, sleepers, round and split posts and
rails, or whatever they were best suited for. Costs were carefully recorded for
each operation, and it was found possible to sell below the casual contract
rates. Situated on the edge of the North-Western plains, there had been a
passive demand for such rough building material. The demand was galvanised
into activity by advertisement, and a strong trade developed.

Improvement thinnings were then undertaken in the compartments, and
all dead, damaged, defective, and inferior trees were removed, converted, and
sold. In five years, the practice of forest spoliation had been replaced by that
of forest betterment ; 50,000,000 superficial feet approximately of timber of
first-class quality from the Crown reservations had been saved; the timber
trade had been educated to conservative timber-getting, and real forest practice
had been initiated.

When of necessity the timber reservations have to assume once more
the burden of supply, they will be in a position to do so with safety, and the
fifteen years’ gap between the mature and immature stands will have been
bridged. The foundations of forestry having been established, the rest must
follow in natural sequence.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 109

Cuapter X.
THE U.S.A. FOREST SURVEY AND ASSESSMENT SCHEME.

Forest survey and assessment work is the foundation of forest organisation
and administration.

Boundary survey is necessary for the effective control of the forest
business; intensive reconnaissance is essential to the extension of forest
management.

The United States of America Forest Service has developed this branch
of forest practice to a very high degree of efficiency, and has evolved a
standardised scheme for carrying it out which furnishes a very useful guide
for elaboration of Australian methods.

Necessarily the plan has to fall in with the United States of America
Public Lands Survey system. That system differs basically from the
Australian practice, and it is necessary, therefore, to describe it briefly in
passing.

The United States of America Public Lands Survey plan dates from the
time of the Revolutionary War, when General Putnam conceived the idea of
parcelling the country into regular rectangular blocks with 24-mile sides.

These blocks have been cut up since into “townships” of 6-mile sides,
and still later the “townships” themselves were subdivided into thirty-six
sections each a mile square. These “sections” again have been parcelled
out into “forties,” z.e., sixteen blocks of forty acres each.

It was an after discovery that the convergency of meridians towards the
North Pole interfered with the ideal of regularity, and ‘“ correction lines” had
to be introduced on the northern side of the “ townships,” throwing all errors
of convergency into the north half of the north tier of “sections,” which
were reduced in consequence below the original standard area of 640 acres.

All existing data with regard to the national forests is consolidated in the
Forest Atlas at Washington. This Forest Atlas is the “central repository
of maps, diagrams, statistics, and history of the national forests.”

It comprises now 204 volumes, containing map sheets exactly 18 in. by
21 in., on the standard scale of eighty chains to the inch.

In each District Office is kept a District Atlas, holding copies of the map
sheets for the district. It consists generally of twenty or more volumes.

The sheets covering a national forest are assembled into a “folio”;
which forms the basis for all further forest mapping.

The United States of America Forest Manual declares that—

“ Accurate base maps on a large scale showing the topography
and culture are essential for the proper and successful management
of the timber and forage, of special uses and settlement, and for
the improvement and protection of the forests.”

The entire forest survey work is vested in the Office of Geography, whose
broad aim is to build up a series of topographic base maps on a standard
scale of twenty chains to the inch, with 50 ft. contours, and of sufficient
accuracy and detail to serve every purpose of forest administration for at least
twenty-five years ahead.

The base maps are to be called “ Working Plan Maps,” and are to cover
eventually the entire National Forest Area.

110 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Their fundamental purpose is to record timber sales and working plan
data, and their development is correlated, therefore, with the collection by
the Offices of Silviculture, Lands, Operations, and Grazing, of information
with regard to stumpage (royalty) appraisals, forest types, age classes, site
qualities, soil classification, forage types, fire protection, permanent improve-
ments, silvicultural provisions, timber estimates, and any other purposes
requisite for effective management.

For the present the work is to be restricted to areas where operations
are in progress or in prospect, or in which there is danger of exceeding the
requirements of established plants, or the interests of local communities.

A skeleton map of the area to be surveyed is prepared on a 20-chain
scale, and on it is plotted all existing data.

This map becomes the “camp map.”

A preliminary field inspection is then carried out by the chief of party,
accompanied generally by the forest supervisor and perhaps also by a member
of the district office.

It covers the following points :—

(1.) The desirability and probability of an immediate sale.
(2.) The specific problems on the forest. :
(3.) The area which should be covered by reconnaissance.

(4.) In detail, what data will be necessary, and exactly how they
will be obtained.

(5.) The plan of topographic control.

(6.) The percentage (5 per cent. or 10 per cent.) which should be
estimated.

(7.) The size and organisation of the party.

(8.) The necessary equipment, transportation facilities, trail con-
struction required, possible camp sites, etc.

(9.) A tentative division of the area into blocks and chances and, if
possible, its relation to the forest as a whole.

(10.) Deviations, if considered advisable, from the district instrue-
tions.

(Instructions for intensive reconnaissance, 1914.)

As a result of this preliminary inspection, a complete plan of work is
prepared in the form of a letter of instruction to the supervisor, and is
submitted to the district forester for his approval and signature.

United States of America Forest Service mapping combine the features
of both cadastral and topographic surveying.

There are three divisions of the work, viz., primary, secondary, and
tertiary control.

Primary control has as its object the orientation of the survey on the
earth’s surface.

It is seldom necessary in forest practice because of the foundational work
of the geological and lands surveys.

Secondary control consists of the horizontal and vertical extension from
the primary control, of a framework of traverses upon which to hang the
topographic details.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 11]

In well-surveyed country it amounts only to a retracement of existing land
lines and the reblazing of at least every second “section” line. In poorly
surveyed areas, it consists of establishing a gridiron of traverses in cardinal
directions. In unsurveyed lands, it has to furnish a skeleton of traverses along
the ridges and creeks.

The object is “to criss-cross each project with a series of more or less
parallel lines and profiles, not over two miles apart, preferably one mile in
timber reconnaissance and land classification and not over three miles in
grazing reconnaissances. The endéavour is to parcel the area out into forty-
acre blocks.

Transit and stadia are most usually employed in secondary control, a
light mountain transit with stadia hairs and solar attachment being used. The
crew comprises four men, viz., an instrument man in charge, a recorder and
computer, a rodman, and an axeman.

Where the cost of brushing for stadia sighting is heavier than that of the:
necessary chainmen, transit and chain is the method adopted.

In cases where the area is not to be “stripped ” owing to its unimportance
in the forest scheme, the Johnson plane-table and an 18-inch telescopic alidade
and stadia rod are employed. The positions are located by triangulation
and the details are sketched in at the same time.

Where speed is essential a three man crew with chain and compass and
new Abney are employed.

This year (1916) District No. 1 is trying out the Solar compass and chain
method, with the idea of overcoming local magnetic attraction, and achieving
a high rate of speed.

Lines are blazed, and permanent monuments established at intervals of
about a mile. A guide stake is set up at every ten chain distance to indicate
the starting and closing points for strip surveys. Each north and south line
is lettered, and each strip station is marked with the letter of the traverse,
the number of chains from the south end of the forest, and the elevations.
The strips are numbered consecutively.

The limit of error with transit and stadia is set at 4 feet horizontally and
1 foot vertically per 1,000 feet of distance. With the compass and chain,
however, two or three times this error is permitted.

Before a traverse is used as the strip starting base, it is plotted in ink
on the camp map and the closing error distributed by graphic adjustment.

Tertiary control is the actual work of clothing the secondary control frame-
work with the topographic detail. It is the “ intensive reconnaissance.”

Ordinarily it is accomplished by “strip surveys.” Exceptionally, and
where unimportant patches occur, it is carried out by plane-table triangulation
and traverse.

On timber reconnaissance and land classification, the strips are placed
every ten or twenty chains; in broad grazing reconnaissance they may be as
much as forty chains apart.

The organisation of the assessment party depends on the class of recon-
naissance to be undertaken.

The officer-in-charge is generally an assessor of ability and experience.
He is appointed by the district forester, but is responsible directly to the
forest supervisor.

112 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY

Technical men from the offices concerned are attached to the party, and
it is laid down that their number should be “large enough to obtain the
technical data required and to develop trained men to take charge of other
parties in the future.”

A topographic draftsman is appointed to all main parties of more than
six men. His duty is to keep the map material up to date and to co-ordinate
the estimates made.

The general district instructions are required to set forth in detail the
duties to be carried out and the data to be collected by each member of the
party. All are to be given an insight into the broader phases of the work,
and its ultimate objects.

In order to obviate his becoming “a mere administrative machine,” the
carrying out of original work is encouraged in the officer-in-charge.

The party is divided into crews. On most projects the two-men crew is
adopted, although in grazing reconnaissance a one-man crew may suffice. In
the former case, one man—the compassman—does the surveying, and the
other—the estimator—the estimating and soil typing.

Usually a crew is assigned to a block of about 320 acres (half “ section’),
in order that “ its familiarity with one strip may help it on the next.”

Compass and pacing or rough chaining, are the means employed in
“tertiary control.” An error of 3 chains per mile or 5 chains in two miles in
alignment is permitted.

In pacing, a closing error of 6 chains in 2? miles is allowed. Errors, how-
ever, must be noted on the sketch.

Rough chaining is employed to obviate secondary control in dense brush
and broken country, or when the new Abney is used.

At the end of each 40-acre block a mark is left for checking purposes.

The elevations are obtained by the aneroid and new Abney and are
based on the secondary control.

The compassman uses a small sketching sheet, with a transparent dupli-
cate superimposed. Before leaving camp he transfers to the sketching sheet
from the camp map the topographic data secured in primary and secondary
control, so that he may tie his sketch into the control.

On this sheet he enters the surveying data, stations, elevations, barometric
readings, contours, cultural and topographic features. On the transparent
duplicate he shows the soil, grazing, timber type and age, class, boundaries
quality, sites, and names, etc. , ’

The complete sketch of the topography and culture is finished in the field.
Contours are drawn in and made to fit with adjoining strips. Each sketch
must be corrected at the end of each day's work before it is handed to the
camp topographer for fitting with the sketches of strips of other crews into
the camp map.

The estimating is done by the rear man of the crew al stri (
within a half-chain of it on both sides. All the trees are ee oe te
two inch diameter classes of species. Heights are obtained by estimating the
number of 16 feet (the standard) logs in the tree or the total height. As a
temporary expedient pending adoption of other plans. the following method is
often used :— i :

_ “Construct at the beginning of the work thr s i
(in 16-feet logs cr total height) on diameter ae ie ee
and ‘short’ timber. Then each 40-acre block is thrown into its
proper class by the actual measurement of a few representative
as which are recorded on the bottom or margin of the tally
shee

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 113

“The unit of estimation is the 40-acre block. Tallies are kept separate
by types and logging areas, and in even-aged stands by age classes.” In
uneven-aged stands estimates include (a) all merchantable timber; (6) where
needed for regulation a division of the stand into age classes based on dia-
meters ; (c) data on age classes below merchantable size for determination of
increment and purposes of management.

The officer in charge deals with the more difficult questions such as
logging costs, silvicultural systems, cutting policies, etc.

All the topographic detail collected is fitted into the camp map and
inked in by the topographer before the party leaves the field, so that the final
maps can be prepared forthwith by the district office drafting staff.

Timber types and other special data for the project are not shown on the
camp map, which is regarded purely as a topographical base map.

The final maps are prepared from the camp maps, either in the form of
tracings from which white prints are made, or as photolithos by photo reduc-
tion. It is these white prints which are used to record timber cover, soil, and
grazing data.

The final result is four maps. showing respectively—

(1.) Topography and culture;

(2.) Types and age classes ;

(3.) Timber estimates by 40-acre “sections”; and
(4.) Improvements planned.

The estimates are computed and checked in the field or as soon after as
possible. For convenience in stumpage appraisals they are summarised by
blocks and logging areas and where deemed advisable by age classes for each
type, giving in all cases the amounts to be cut and to be reserved.

In map-making, a standard scheme of colours, signs, and symbols has
been designed and adopted.

Drainage is shown in blue, contours in brown, and “ culture” in black.
Lo) 3 3

There are separate type “legends” for land classification; logging;
planting; fire; and grazing.

The basis of the land classification legend is not the forest type, but the
density of stocking.

There are five density types, shown in five shades of green, and varying
from 2,000 to 50.000 feet (sawn output) per acre. Woodland, scrub, waste,
burns, etc. are shown in other colours. The progress of exploitation is shown
by hatchings, and the status of land by initial letter symbols.

Forest types are indicated by a very clever scheme of alpha-numeric
symbols. which show the composition, character, and stand of any forest, and
which is so much simpler and more effective than the symbolisation table I
designed for assessment work in the north-west of New South Wales in 1912
that I have no hesitation in recommending its adoption in lieu thereof.

The svmbolisation is by letters and numbers instead of by hieroglyphs,
and follows a carefully devised plan for assisting the memory.

116 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The Mapping Branch of the Department should be developed into an
Office of Forest Engineering, with at least a representative at each District
Office.

The importance of this branch of the forestry organisation justifies the
appropriation of £10,000 annually for its especial purposes.

Cuarter XI.
SETTLEMENT OF FOREST OFFENCES.
Tue Mopern ATTITUDE.

Changing thought and kaleidoscopic policy mark the tendencies of the
time. The stealing of a handkerchief is a medical question of to-day, where
it was a hanging affair of yesterday.

Crime is a matter for cure and not for vengeance.

Gaols are translated into hospitals. The crown and sceptre of the
“ majesty ” of the law fall from a faltering grip. “ Frightfulness ” continues
to go out of fashion.

Progress is the rebellious slave of tradition—whose handmaidens are
proverbs and phrases.

Nothing has influenced administration of the law so much as set combina-
tions of mere words. “A dangerous precedent,” “Making an example,” and
“ As a warning to others” are phrases which have decided the fates of many
delinquents.

This phraseological philosophy of the official is contested hotly by the
contrary one of “giving a man a chance” and “ ordinary commonsense ”
of “the man of the world”—the philosophy of the “Roads and Bridges ”
member when defending his erring constituents.

The two philosophies clash, to the accompaniment of frequent. explosions ;
some modification of outlook accrues, but confusion of thought persists and
advancement is imperceptibly minute. But it is advancement, nevertheless.

Severity frequently produces the spirit of the “revanche”; mildness
often results in co-operation. “The quality of mercy is not strained.”

The United States of America policy of settling forest offences is persuasive
rather than penal. It is marked by a certain “sweet reasonableness ” that is
alluring to a degree. More subtle than our own, it aims to deal with the
interior motive rather than the exterior deed.

Breaches of the forest laws are regarded as either “innocent” or “ wilful,”
and specific treatment is provided in either case. If, “having exercised due
diligence,” the offender was unaware that he was trespassing, the act is
regarded as innocent; if otherwise, it is “ wilful.”

2

“Tgnorance of the law’

as in despite of tradition, is regarded as an excuse
in law.

Such “innocence” or “ wilfulness” determines the basis for assessment
of damages due to the Government.

If an offence be “ innocent,” the basis is “the difference between the value
of the area before, and after, the trespass; 7.e., the royalty value of the
timber taken plus any incidental damage. done to the forest.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. J17
If an offence be “ wilful,” the measure of damages is “ the value of the
timber in its condition when and where found.” Thus if the trespass is
discovered after felling, the damages will be the royalty plus the cost of
felling ; if cut into logs, the cost of cross-cutting is added ; if found at the mill,
the cost of both cross-cutting and hauling is included; if sawn up into boards,
the current market value of the boards is taken.

To those assessments are added the estimated money value of any avoid-
able damage due to young growth or timber left standing, or of any timber
wasted in high stumps or low tops.

If the timber be purchased unwittingly from a wilful trespasser, its
value is determined as that at the time of such purchase,

In the case of occupancy, no permits are required for the purposes of
travelling, temporary camping, hunting, surveying, or prospecting; if other
trespasses occur, the Forest Supervisor is required to make every effort to
secure satisfactory adjustment amicably, through interview, and persuasion
or compromise.

Where stock are found trespassing on a forest, the owner is to be
“ordered to remove it at once.” If the situation is urgent, the forest officer
may remove the stock—‘“in any way that does not injure it physically "—
and finally, may arrest the person in charge of it.

Even this mild arrangement leaves room for enterprise on the part of the
forest officer. I quote an instance of a persistent grazing trespasser who was
discovered for the third time on a National Forest without a permit. The
forest rangers took possession of the stock and removed it from the area—in
such a way “as not to injure it physically.” Since the regulation did not
say that the person in charge was to be deposited on the same spot, they
took him across the forest, and released him on the opposite side. The penalty
upon the trespasser was that the forest was thirty miles wide at that point,
and before he got round it, his stock had had time in which to scatter.

In the administration of timber sale agreements, any condition “ found
by experience to be unreasonable or impracticable” is modified forthwith.
“Drastic action is not to be taken until every other recourse has been
exhausted.” The first measures adopted are to request compliance, issue a
warning, and finally enforce the penalty scale. When the offences becomes
“serious and persistent,” the operations may be suspended. At last, before
action for breach of contract is taken, the sureties are given an opportunity
to complete it.

“In civil cases, the employer is liable for the wilfulness of the employee
if he knew of the trespass and took no means to stop it; or if after the trespass
was committed, he knowingly approved or adopted it by receiving the fruit
of the trespass; or whenever he employs persons to do the cutting, knowing
them to be careless, reckless, and unreliable.”

Ordinarily, and especially in civil cases, “ while the men who do the actual
cutting may legally be held for trespass, it is advisable to proceed against
the corporation, company, or individual by whose direction and for whose
benefit the cutting was done.” ~

In such trespassing cases, where there is evidence of wilfulness on the
part of the stockmen. but not of the owner, the offence is divided into one of
wilful trespass against the former, and of innocent trespass against the latter.

118 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Upon discovery of illegal operations, the Forest Officer’s first duty is to
ascertain the location and status of the area affected. He then serves upon
the trespasser, in the presence of witnesses, a written notice requesting him to
discontinue the trespass. He records in his notebook the date and particulars
of the trespass, and of the serving of the notice.

He may seize the material cut, even if it be on private property, and even
if it be sawn up. Asa last resort, he may even confiscate the article or build-
ing into which the material has been manufactured. If the timber is mixed
ap with other, he may seize the whole.

If a seizure be made, however, the Government cannot recover the value
of the material from the trespasser. Seizure is a method not usually adopted.

The Forest Officer submits his report, on a specified form, to the super-
visor, who informs the offender and gives him fifteen days’ time in which
to present his version of the facts. Whenever possible, the supervisor is
required personally to interview the delinquent.

Finally, the Supervisor forwards the whole of the papers, together with his
finding, to the District Forestry Office, where the Assistant Forester in charge
of the branch affected prepares a memorandum as to the damages sustained,
and his opinions and recommendations, and submits it to the District Forester.

If the District Forester be of opinion that the facts do not disclose a
trespass, he may close the case forthwith. Where the damages do not exceed
£100, he may settle, on his own responsibility, all “innocent” offences, and
any “wilful” ones wherein he regards prosecution as unnecessary.

If damages exceed £100, he refers the case to the Forester. If damages
exceed £1,000, the case is one for final determination by the Minister.

In first offence cases of “innocent” trespass, where the damage does not
exceed £20, the timber may be released on payment of the royalty. The
Supervisor is authorised generally to deal personally with all such cases where
the damages are under £2.

The American “Crown Solicitor” is “The Solicitor” at Washington. He
has a representative who co-operates with the District Forestry Office, and is
styled the “District Assistant to the Solicitor”; his duty is to advise the
District Forester in all legal matters.

All cases other than those of first offence and involving further action
are reviewed by this officer, and the sufficiency of the evidence is determined
by him. Then the District Forester writes to the trespasser, offering to
settle the matter.on a basis determined upon by himself upon the advice of the
Crown law officer, and warning the offender against further violation of the
forest laws. Fifteen days are allowed for voluntary settlement, and at the
expiration of this time, if there has been no response, the matter is referred
to the District Assistant to the Solicitor, who writes a second letter to the
trespasser. If no reply is then received, the papers are forwarded to the
forester, who transmits them through the Solicitor to the Attorney-General
for the purpose of instituting a civil suit or, in flagrant cases, a criminal
prosecution.

A card record is kept in the Supervisor’s Office, to record timber tres-
passes and their settlement.

The safeguard of the whole scheme is that second offences cannot be
“innocent” ones.

The adoption in Australia of the American procedure of settling forest
offences is well worthy of consideration. It is one in full accord with the
democratic mood and would save, ofttimes, very much friction and worry,

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 119

Cuapter XII.
UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE OFFICE M®=THODS.
Some Norss.

The office methods of the United States Forest Service are characteris-
tically direct and logical. Essentially, there is an especial place designed for
everything, and everything is made to fit automatically into that place.
Typically, there is a detailed standardisation of procedure set forth in written
departmental directions for the guidance of officers.

A roomy tidiness, an absence of papers, and a surrounding presence of
‘ oak cabinets, are the general impression of the observer. These results flow
from the filing system adopted.

The correspondence registration system of Australian public departments
generally involves the numbering consecutively of every letter received, and
the recording of a summary of its subject under its appropriate section in
a tome-like correspondence register.

A corollary of the scheme is another tome—the big index—which keeps
trace of every letter in its meanderings throughout the service from the time
it is first received until it is deposited finally in one of the piled-up bundles of
papers in the dusty archives of the department.

This process involves the detention of each letter for the best part of
the day in the Record Room, and, while it is effective, it is unnecessarily
tardy, cumbersome, and untidy.

The vertical filing system adopted by the United States of America
Forest Service obviates the keeping of a correspondence register and an index,
and, in fact, the employment of a special records staff.

There is nothing very new about the scheme, which is in general use in
the commercial world. The diversity of the subject matter handled, and the
intricacies of departmental routine, however, have militated against its
employment by the public services.

In view of that fact, it is of sufficient interest to describe here in some
detail, the methods adopted by the United States of America Forest Service
in applying the vertical filing system successfully to the needs of Government
business on a large and complex scale.

Vertical filing means filing papers on edge in the drawers of a specially
designed cabinet. All related letters, the most recent one on top, are placed in
folders, one of heavy manila paper, which serve also to keep them smooth,
flat, and clean. The folders are separated and indexed by “ guides” of stiff
material, which keep them upright in the drawer. The tops of these guides
project, and bear the letter, name, or number of the classification. The
indexing of the file is arranged on the basis either of the correspondents’ names,
the location, or the subject.

Thus the papers themselves are translated into pages, the “ guides ”
become section headings, and the cabinet itself provides the cover. All com-
bined form an automatic correspondence register in the applied science. of
labour-saving, and the classification scheme replaces the index.

The main difficulty in applying this system to the needs of the Australian
forest services appears to have lain in the formulation of a classification system.

The United States of America Forest Service has evolved a subjective

classification arranged on a self-indexing basis. No card records whatever
are employed.

120 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Each file consists of two general sections—

(1) A classified section; in which is filed, behind appropriate guides,
all correspondence which bears a subject designation expressed
in words (¢.g., F. Personnel, Jones, J. H.).

(2) A miscellaneous section; in which are filed alphabetically,
without regard to forests or subjects, all correspondence
bearing as a designation the letter Z after the branch or
office key initials (e.g., FZ, OZ, OOZ).

The mail clerk opens and refers to the respective branches by date
stamp, all letters received. Each is there marked with the key mitial of the
branch and the subject- designation, and is then ready for action and reply.
Carbon copies are the only record kept of outgoing correspondence, and when
a letter is answered, the carbon copy, or the letter itself, or both, are handed
to the filing clerk, who at once puts it or them in the cabinet in the folder and
behind the guide for the particular branch and subject noted thereon.

When correspondence is withdrawn from the file, a memorandum is
substituted in its stead. When necessary, cross-referencés are made, by filing
under the second subject involved an extra carbon copy. Miscellaneous
correspondence is transferred from current to closed files annually; classified
correspondence is transferred as may be found advisable.

All the records of an officer may be assembled in one central file room,
or separate files may be kept in each branch. In the Missoula District Office,
the latter alternative is adopted, and as a consequence no special file clerk is
employed.

The success of the system depends in some measure upon the general
administrative practice. In the United States of America Forest Service,
business is very largely decentralised, and the District Forester is given much
wider discretionary and executive powers than are at present vested in our
own managing officers. As a consequence, there is an increased local trans-
action of business, and a reduced circulation of correspondence between head
office and the district branches.

The New South Wales system provides for the reference to the District
Forester of all matters affecting his district. He refers them similarly to his
own divisional officers for report, upon receipt of which he furnishes recommen-
dations for the guidance of head office. At head office the report and recom-
mendations are summarised in a minute for the Minister, upon receipt of
whose approval or decision, the reply is written to the persons concerned, and
the papers are forwarded to the District Forester to note and return.

In case of delays, reminders are sent periodically to the District Forester
and by him to the divisional officers. ,

In contrast thereto, the American system arranges for the recommenda-
tions to be furnished by the District Forester in the form of a letter prepared
for the signature of the Director or Minister. Three copies are made at the
same time. One is retained by the District Forester and two accompany his
letter to head office. When the Minister or Director’s approval and signature
are affixed, the letter is despatched, and one of the carbon copies, similarly
signed, is returned to the District Forester, who substitutes it for the one
retained by him as a record. The third carbon copy at head office becomes the
head office file copy.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 121

When a request is made by the District Forester for approval of any
action he proposes, he leaves an approval space in the lower left-hand corner,
thus:

Date We eek

BPPO VED sisi cert cates tei stead tsbta seta retech states tanner ded oe

Director or Minister.

Two carbon copies are prepared at the same time, one of which is retained
while the other accompanies the request to head office. Upon approval by
the Director or Minister, this second copy is returned to the District Forester
to show the course decided upon.

No fresh letter is prepared when a carbon copy will suffice. Whenever
a communication is written at head office for despatch to a District Forester,
or referring to his district, one, two, or three carbon copies, as is requisite,
are prepared at the same time and forwarded for the information of the
District Forester and the Supervisor and ranger concerned.

When forwarding a document to head office, the District Forester endorses
his recommendations directly upon it. A letter of transmittal is never written.

To follow up requests to field officers for reports on action, one white
postcard and three yellow slips (3 in. by 5 in.) are used. On the four, the
date, subject, and key initials are entered by carbon duplication. The post-
card and two of the slips are forwarded with a request for the report. The
third slip is placed as a reminder in a small box styled the Promise Card Box.
The District Forester forwards one of the two slips received by him to the
field officer concerned, and puts the other in his own Promise Card Box.
The field officer notes on his slip the date on which his report will reach
the District Forester, and returns the slip to him. The District Forester
substitutes it in the Promise Card Box in the place of the one retained. He
then notes the date of the projected report on the postcard, and mails it to
head office, where it is filed in place of the third slip retained there.

The same process is used to record all promises involving future action.
A standard promise card box, daily and monthly guide cards, and plain white
cards constitute the equipment. A promise must be definite, and the date of
proposed fulfilment must always be given. It is recorded at the time it is
made on a plain white card, thus:

Date of fulfilment...

Name..

Subject of Promise... ccc ce ce

Date casiactemancanioniinnpecds eames 2

122 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

If the promise for any reason cannot be fulfilled, the person to whom
it was made must be informed and the card redated.

The substance of any letter received is never used as a preamble in the’
reply. Reference is made to the letter by quotation of the file numbers or
initials. The form “ Your letter of March 30th has been received” is adopted.

“Dear Sir” and “Very truly yours ” replace our own formal and cumber-
some “ Sir” and “I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant.”

All letters are double-spaced except quotations which are single-spaced.
Ministerial letters are written in blue elite; others in standard black pica.

Letter size paper is used; foolscap is conspicuous by its absence. It is
regarded as cumbersome and wasteful

Correspondence and final reports are written on white paper, while
memos. and scratch copies, even though typed, must be on yellow. In all
cases, every piece of writing must be dated, and signed or initialled.

Mineographs are used very largely for duplication purposes. For district
offices the Rotary No. 76, and for supervisor’s offices, the Edison No. 61 are
employed. Calculating and other labour-saving machines are to be seen in
every branch.

The vade mecum of the forest service is the “ National Forest Manual,”
a veritable encyclopedia of instruction for forest officers, which details the
standardised procedure to be followed in every possible contingency. It is
an expression of the scientific management policy—the recording of method.
In order that it may be revised as desired, it is bound together on the loose
leaf principle, and revision is made by the substitution of reprinted pages.

Practically every one of the United States of America office processes
developed in this chapter could be incorporated into our own systems with
every promise of increased efficiency and expedition, and added economy.

Cuapter XIII.
FOREST SERVICE PUBLICITY AND PUBLICATIONS.

The case for publicity in forestry matters is summed up in the findings
of the Forestry Committee of the Fifth National Conservation Congress held
at Washington, United States of America, in 1913.

That committee reported—

“Progress in forestry depends more on what the public will
permit than upon foresters and timbergetters. Consequently public
education is of primary importance.

Education is a matter of publicity, and publicity is a trade in
itself. It cannot be practised intuitively.

Since no one else has the interest or the requisite forestry know-
ledge, foresters and timber people must learn this trade.

It is not forests, but the use of forests, that we seek to
perpetuate.

Therefore, to be sound and convincing, educational publicity
must include the timber business. So long as the public believes

forestry good, and timbergetting bad, there will be confusion and
no real progress.”

In a democracy, progress can be achieved only through a majority. A
minority by itself can never succeed. Legislation is a response to public
stimulation.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 123

“We cannot hope to have the industries dependent upon the forest
fostered and protected as they deserve to be, until the public and legislators
regard them as they do agriculture, for example, and have equal understanding
of their governing conditions and needs. They will not attain such under-
standing unaided; the aid is limited by their demands for it; they will not
demand it because they do not understand the need.”

Which, apparently, amounts to a deadlock.

The solution, according to the committee, is to acknowledge that forestry
is a business, and that “it pays to advertise.” A necessary part of a forester’s
equipment is a training in publicity.

There are already public departments in Australia which have recognised
the uses of advertisement. In not one of them is the need for publicity and
publication work greater than in forestry. Apart from propaganda, publica-
tion of results is essential to the proper conclusion of investigative work,
and the standardisation of method.

The United States of America Forest Service has appreciated these facts.

One of its numerous branches is the Division of Publications. One of its
important officers is the editor, who “has charge of all work designed to
promote general education in forestry by the diffusion of information concerning
forests and their best use, through the supply of information to newspapers
and other periodicals, through the giving of addresses, or through exhibits in
co-operation with schools.”

Regulation A9 states that—

“Jn general, the papers on file in the offices of the forest service
relating to the transaction of national forest business are public
records, and as such are open to the public. Information should
not be refused to persons whose interest is legitimate. Recommenda-
tions on matters pending should not be made public.”

The “ National Forest Manual” affirms that—

“Tt is desirable that all proper opportunities should be afforded
the public to understand the work of the service, and the principles
and application of forestry.”

District Foresters and Forest Supervisors are authorised to respond to
legitimate demands for information. They are required to be “ accessible to
newspaper men” and to furnish them with “copy.” The proviso is that
“controversy, self-advertisement, and partisan discussion of questions of policy
must always be avoided, as well as criticisms of any other department.”

District Foresters may permit also the giving of formal addresses by
forest officers, although in the case of important meetings, where expenditure
of time and money is involved, approval must first be obtained.

The Office of Geography at Washington is equipped for all classes of
photographic work. It issues cameras and supplies to competent forest
officers, and takes photographs to accompany reports and furnish evidence
(temporary pictures); recording changing conditions (progress pictures) ;
illustrating publications (special pictures); and covering subjects not in the
service collection (new pictures).

It supplies photographic and lantern slides to forest officers for office use,
for instructive display, for use in giving addresses, for illustrating reports on
articles, or for their office photograph album. It may furnish them also to
co-operators outside the service, and to publishing houses for illustrating
books and newspapers.

It is authorised to sell at cost plus 10 per cent.

I

124 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY

Forest libraries are attached to District Forester’s and Supervisor’s
offices. They carry forestry books approved by the library committee at
Washington, the publications of the forest service and such periodicals as
“The Forest Quarterly,” “Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters,”
“ Botanical Gazette,” ete.

A collection of photographs illustrating forest conditions and adminis-
trative methods on the national forests and elsewhere is maintained in these
libraries.

Forest service publications are supplied also to rangers, and to all officers
for their office files and personal use.

The United States of America Forest Service publishes a large number

-of bulletins on forestry matters generally, both for propagandist purposes and
as scientific records. i

Suggestions of subjects on which publications might be prepared are
welcomed from all members of the forest service.

“Tf the subject relates to investigative work or involves the
compilation of data, it will be referred to the district investigative
committee ; if to administrative work, authorisation may be sought
from the forester to prepare it.” :

An endeavour is made to solve the difficulties of properly assigning
credits for articles. The following is a genera] statement of the policy
adopted :—

(1.) Publications embody primarily the work of the Forest Service,
not of individuals.

(2.) Results which have been gathered by individuals belong not to
the individual, but to the Forest Service.

(3.) The Forester has a right to expect all members of the service
to contribute willingly and to any extent towards making
any and all publications as good as possible.

(4.) The giving of proper credits is a stimulus to good work.

(5.) The man who has actually put most into the publication should
have principal credit for it.

6.) Supervision of work, though it may actually make suitable for
pervision 8. a 4 :
publication the completed report, does not entitle the one
supervising the work to assume credit as the author.

(7.) When a man undertakes a publication concerning work of which
he has charge, the necessity of acknowledgments is a matter
of administrative judgment.

(2.) It is desirable to give credit for original work without detracting
from the value of the publication through minute or excessive
acknowledgments or interruptions of the continuity of
presentation. :

Carter XIV.
FOREST INVESTIGATIONS.

The inapplicability of European forest data to American conditions made
it inevitable that the United States of America Forest Service should under-
take quite early a comprehensive study of American forest problems.

Research and progress, in both forestry and forest industry. march hand
in hand. It was realised that the only possible basis for a successful develop-
ment was an accurate and detailed knowledge of the facts. Empirical practice
was a delusion and a snare.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 12

wt

The “ National Forest Manual ” affirmed that:

“Forest investigations of systematic character, and conducted
with scientific accuracy, form an important part of the work of the
Forest Service, both as a means of building up the science of forestry
in the United States of America, and of assisting and improving the
administration of the national forests.”

Every member of the Forest Service was expected to co-operate in the
common task of forest study, and all opportunity and encouragement were
afforded officers to carry out investigations side by side with their ordinary
routine duties.

The investigations were to cover every branch of forestry, “ especially
silviculture, including reafforestation, tree and shrub distribution, volume and
yield measurements, forest influences, protection from fire, insects and disease,
lumbering methods and costs, stumpage appraisals, dendrology, grazing, and
utilisation of forest products.”

The attached list is a compilation of the studies now being carried out
by the United States of America Forest Service. It is of interest because of
the fact that almost precisely the same range of research must inevitably be
undertaken by Australian Depaitments of Forestry, as a basis for their
scientific development.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOREST STUDIES—A COMPILATION.

Forest UTILIsaTION.

1. Studies of existing industries, covering methods and costs of manu-
facture; grading rules; collection of market prices; mill-scale studies to
determine grades and over-run; investigation of kiln-drying methods.

2. Market prejudices against particular species or classes of material and
means of overcoming them through special studies or publicity.

3. General questions of timber supply and demand, markets, and freight
ratés; stumpage appraisals and royalties.

4, Advice and assistance in the construction of State forest improvements,
particularly in the use of wood preservatives.

5. Advice and assistance to persons in the respective districts, outside
of the Forest Service, or any of the foregoing or related questions.

6. Preparation of publications on any subjects covered by the foregoing
investigations which have marked practical or scientific value.

7. Demonstration of methods or processes developed by the Forest Service
for the benefit of local industries.

INDUSTRIAL.

8. Collection and compilation of statistics on the production and con-
sumption of forest products, prevailing market and stumpage prices, imports
and exports, and transportation rates.

9. Compilation and study of specifications of rough and manufactured
forest products.

10. Studies of timber manufacture and wood-using industries as to
methods, forms of material, waste, costs, equipment, substitution of one
species for another, and improvements through more conservative use of raw
material.

11. Advice and assistance through co-operative agreements and otherwise
to other departments, industries, and individuals concerned with such lines of
work.

126 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

SILVICULTURAL.
12. Silvics and dendrology; silvical descriptions of forest types and
species.
13. Forest management—utilisation, cuttings, thinnings, and natural and
artificial reproduction.

14, Reafforestation—general problems.
15. Forest influences—forests and climate, stream flow and erosion.

16. Forest mensuration—critical analysis of forest measurements, and
publications dealing with fundamental laws of the growth, comparative growth
of different species, methods of working up field measurements.

17. Wood structure and identification.
18. Forest distribution.
19. Cut over areas—study of.
GRAZING.
20. Improvement of range by seeding to cultivated forage plants.
21. Improvement of range by natural reseeding—rotations.
22, Studies of forage plants.
23. Methods of handling stock—and other phases of the live stock
industry related to efficient management of grazing lands on national forests.
24. Range development—water and tracks, fences, and other improve-
ments.
25. Influences 2m re reproduction, floods and erosion, forest fires, and
water supply.
GENERAL.
26. Forest manuals—preparation of. instructions governing the adminis-
tration of the forests and the various branches of technical work involved.

27. Scientific management in forest practice—time studies—elimination
of lost motion—efficiency engineering.

Forest Propucts.

28. Mechanical, physical, and chemical properties of wood.

29. Air-seasoning and artificial drying of wood.

30. Agencies destructive to wood.

31. Wood preservation.

32. Wood distillation.

33. Production of pulp, paper, gums, oils, dyes, and other chemical
products of wood.

34. New uses for indigenous species through wood preservation.

35. Waste—and closer utilisation through improved methods.

_, 36. Introduction of industries which will result in closer or more profitable

utilisation, e.g., pulp and paper, wood distillation, turpentining, and the
manufacture of secondary wood products.

Many of these studies, of course, are being covered in a general way by
the Forest Service as a whole, concurrently with its administrative work. and
the activities of its specialised branches. ,

In the Office of Silviculture, for instance, the expert officers have under-
taken a large amount of research work with regard to growths and vields
reafforestation, and tree studies generally; while observations are being
maintained on cut-over areas to determine the best methods of cutting and
slash disposal for each type. =

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 197

Forest supervisors, again, are required to bring under notice matters
affecting the broad administration of their forests, such as “the presence of
large quanties of unmarketable species, of dead timber, or of material not
used in current sales, local manufacturing and marketing problems, market
prejudices, etc.; and experts in forest products are attached to each District
Office to deal with these matters and investigate the general utilisation and
market problems of the district.

The Office of Industrial Investigations also conducts statistical and
industrial inquiries as to wood uses and manufacture.

In other specialising branches of administration, similar general investiga-
tions are being carried out.

Such investigations, however, were largely of a transitory nature, bounded
by the beginning and end of field seasons, and subordinated to the adminis-
trative activities upon which officers were really engaged. Something more
was required if well-ordered and substantial progress was to be made. In
addition to general investigation, the need for intensive research on a
permanent basis was realised.

Intensive studies were classed under the four heads of Dendrology,
Grazing, Silviculture, and Products.

An Office of Dendrology was constituted at Washington to carry on the
dendrological studies of the Forest Service, and field officers were required to
co-operate with it by collecting specimens.

An Office of Grazing Studies also was established, with experiment stations
of its own on several of the national forests.

The strictly technical research on forest products was centralised at the
well-equipped Madison Forest Laboratory attached to the University of
Wisconsin.

Intensive study with regard to silvicultural problems was allotted to
forest experiment stations, similar to those of Germany and India, three of
which were established in the central and southern Rockies, one in the Sierras,
one in North-Western Idaho, and one at the University of Minnesota.

Finally, with the accumulation of data on every hand, and the extension
of investigative activities throughout the Forest Service, the necessity of
co-ordination was felt, and the organisation of the forest research work was
completed by the appointment of investigative committees in each district
with a controlling central investigative committee at Washington. The
duty of the district committees was to prepare an annual programme of forest
studies for the respective districts. These programmes were to be submitted
to the central committee, whose function was to correlate, plan, and direct
the entire research work of the Forest Service, and publish the results periodic-
ally in a review of investigations.

Forest studies are just as essential to the development of Australian
forestry as they were to the building up of the American science. But our
investigative resources are more limited. We have not organisations highly
specialised like that of the United States of America Forest Service, nor have
we even a staff of scientists or experts in the various branches of forestry.
Tt is true that something. can be done in a general way by the present super-
visional and assessment staff in the shape of accumulating extensive data, but
much more is necessary. Certainly, Mr. R. T. Baker, at the Technological
Museum, and Professor Warren, at the Engineering School of Sydney Univer-
sity, and others, have contributed greatly to our knowledge with regard to
forest products, while Mr. J. H. Maiden, at the National Herbarium, has

128 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

recorded in his “ Forest Flora” all the dendrological data at present available.
But silvicultural, industrial, grazing, utilisation, and management problems
are not covered in any way, despite their supreme importance in every day
administration.

Moreover, there is a lack of co-ordination, without which a well-ordered
development is impossible.

There should be a mobilisation of our limited and scattered investigative
resourees, and an organisation of a comprehensive system of forest studies.

My proposals are—

1. Forestry and forest industry investigations should be centralised
at a State Institute of Forest Research to be attached to the
proposed schools of forestry ; provided that:

(a) That section of research relating to forest products be
allocated under a suitable agreement to such institutions
as technological museums and the engineering schools.

(5) That section of research relating to botany and general
dendrology be left in the hands of the Government
Botanists, as heretofore.

2. That a permanent forest investigation committee consisting of the
representatives of the institutions concerned be established
to co-ordinate the research work to be undertaken.

The proposed combination of teaching and investigative work at the forest
schools would make for the greatest possible economy and efficiency, especially
with regard to the school itself, since a stronger faculty and wider facilities
would be available to the students. An important precedent for the proposal
is a similar combination in the case of the Imperial Forest Research Institute
and College at Dehra Dun, India. The same idea has been adopted largely
in Germany.

CuHapTer XV.
FOREST IMPROVEMENTS.

ORGANISATION First.
A natural forest is a mere wildwood.

The introduction. of business management implies the provision of means
for the fullest possible protection and utilisation of its resources.

The first consideration is organisation, and the primary requirements,
therefore, are means of transportation, control, and communication.

These needs were especially felt in the American case owing to the over-
shadowing danger of fire ravage.

That danger provided the great spur to American forest development.
To its existence was mainly due the improvement of the national forests up to
the present pitch. The Fire Protection Plan called for roads and tracks to
make all parts of the forests accessible for look-out stations and forest. officers’
headquarters for purposes of control; and for telephone communication with
settlements for mobilisation needs.

The provision of means of travel and transportation was the prime
essential in organisation. The standard was accessibility to saddle horses.
The aim was to develop a system of roads which would place every part of a
forest within seven miles of a wagon road—that is, a day’s return journey for
a pack horse. .

In open forests there was no immediate necessity for “ trail” construc-
tion; operations, therefore, were concentrated in the heavily timbered areas
most in need of protection and management.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 129

: The topographic map again affords the basis for organisation. An
improvements map is prepared from it, showing existing and proposed routes.

The “ultimately necessary” road system is decided upon, and those roads
which unquestionably must be built are located first. The supervisor prepares :
data and recommendations with regard to extensions and submits them to the
district forester, who determines the needs, and the order of construction.

The “Manual of Trail Construction ” establishes a uniform classification
of roads and “trails,” and sets out standard specifications for each class; it
describes approved methods of location, construction and maintenance, and
furnishes reference data useful in preparing estimates and in actual construc-
tion work. :

The “ trails” were designed as the forerunners of the roads of the forest
and their classification is based upon the uses to which the “trails” may be
put. Those following main valleys, and likely to constitute the framework of
the permanent road system are located with-a maximum grade of 6 per cent.,
so that they may be convertible into first-class wagon roads. Those following
ridges or tributary streams are classed as B or C. Class B “trails” have a
maximum grade of 12 per cent. and are convertible into safe mountain roads.
Class C “trails” are intended only for pack horse routes and may have a
grade up to 18 per cent.

Trail construction includes the building of all necessary bridges.

Where waterways exist, boats, launches, or ferries are used; and where
railways or logging railroads are available, speeders and hand-cars are
requisitioned. Motor cars similarly are utilised.

Furthermore, if it is possible to effect a saving thereby, these means of
travel, as well as pack horses, teams, wagon scrapers, road grades, stump
pullers, and other road-building equipment are purchased rather than hired.

The construction of logging roads, chutes, and flumes solely for the
purpose of extracting timber is undertaken by the Forest Service only in excep-
tional cases. As a general rule, this phase of improvement is left to the
operator.

For purposes of control by the forest personnel, a survey is made of all
the administrative sites required, and a special map showing topography
cover, soil, and improvements, is prepared on a 20-chain scale.

On these sites, such requisite buildings as ranger’s headquarters and
offices, lookout stations, summer camps, barns, sheds and pounds are con-
structed and paddocks laid out for the use of the forest staff.

Standard Forest Service plans and specifications have been prepared for
all buildings and work in these classes. The maximum amount which may
be spent in this work is limited by enactment to £130 per building. This sum
has proved inadequate in the case of ranger headquarters.

Forest officers are permitted to cultivate forest land “for the economical
production of forage crops,” and build fences to provide requisite pasturage for
live stock used in the work of the Forest Service.

The construction of dams, tanks, and fences for the development of the
forage resources generally, is carried out as a rule by the livestock associa-
tions using the forest, under co-operative agreements entered into with the
Forest Service. In exceptional cases, funds may be allotted, however, for
this purpose.

130 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The linking up of lookouts, ranger stations, supervisor’s headquarters,
and district forestry offices by telephone communication is looked upon as an
essential for effective fire protection and economical administration. Where
possible, commercial lines are utilised, and commercial companies and settlers
are encouraged to build lines on or near the forests. The Act of 4th March,
1913, permits the free use of timber for the construction of such lines as are
necessary for fire protection purposes.

_ The Forest Service, however, maintains a telephone department of its
own, which undertakes the bulk of the telephone installation and maintenance
work upon the National Forests. It is a department which is assuming large
dimensions, controlling, even at this early stage of its existence, some
thousands of miles of line.

Tt, too, has produced a manual of its own, aiming at standardisation and
uniform efficiency in the whole work of planning, building, and maintaining
the entire telephone system upon the Forest Service holdings.

Tree line construction generally is adopted on account of its simplicity and
low cost. The Forest Service standard is a grounded No. 9 wire. The lines
are built along the course of trails. The average cost is about £8 per mile.

A wonderful little portable telephone eminently useful in Forest Service
work has been evolved recently by R. B. Adams, in charge of the telephone
section in District No. 1.

_ Miners, settlers, logging foremen, and other persons needed in the fire
plan, may be appointed “ per diem” patrolmen, and allowed telephone service
free under co-operative agreements.

The whole improvement work upon the National Forests of the United
States of America is carried out by the Forest Service itself by day labour.

The success achieved is due to the fact that the complete organisation
and thorough system which have been built up have afforded the necessary
framework upon which to hang all details. By no other means could it be
obtained.

The work is carried out by the branch of operations, which includes the
offices of geography and quarters, trail and telephone construction, all of
which it is proposed to incorporate into a new and single branch of forest
engineering.

These offices design the work to be undertaken and draw up plans and
specifications. The actual construction and maintenance are carried out by
the forest personnel, the district ranger (our proposed resident forester or
forest overseer) being placed in direct charge of improvement crews.

Every. managing officer is given practically a free executive hand. His
limitations are those only of policy and funds.

Improvement allotments to forests are made by the district forester in
conformity with the improvement plan as to constitution and on the basis of
the supervisor’s annual estimates as to maintenance.

A classified cost record is kept in every case, as it serves as a measure of
efficiency and as a guide in future work.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 131

The “National Forest Manual” sets forth that :—

“The construction and maintenance of improvements require the
most rigid economy consistent with the fulfilment of their purposes,
particularly as they afford greater opportunity for inefficiency and
extravagance than any other line of work. Because of these facts
all plans for improvement demand the most careful consideration both
as to preparation and execution.”

Little, if anything, in the nature of secondary improvement has been
undertaken, all energies having been directed to the work of organisation.

Some silvicultural improvements were initiated in the early days when
European ideals dominated the departmentall attitude. They have been
abandoned for the present before the greater needs of transportation, communi-
cation, and control. Conditions of timber sale agreements now are made to
provide a foundation for further development along the lines of forest tending.

Cuartrr XVI.
FOREST PESTS.

‘The annual forest loss in Australia owing to the activities of forest pests
is incalculably large.

Probably 80 per cent. of our hardwoods show some degree of hollowness
or decay due to the ravages of termites. The greatest enemy of hoop pine is
the borer. The mantis is responsible for wholesale destruction within our
forests. The wombat has ringbarked enormous numbers of our bush giants.
The rabbit, in drought time, has nibbled away the lives of multitudes of our
western shrubs and trees.

Not alone insects and animals, but prickly-pear and other forest weeds
by destructive competition contribute to the tremendous waste of our limited
timber resources.

The American forests are not subject to so fierce a ravage. :

Nevertheless, the United States of America Forest Service has appre
ciated the necessity of grappling with the forest pest problem.

Realising that unless insect attacks are met in the early stages it becomes
a difficult and costly task to attempt their elimination, local officers are
required to keep a close check on existing infestations, and whenever and
wherever possible secure the removal of infested trees by utilisation.

Whenever an infestation is too extensive to be disposed of in this way, the
local officer is required to report the fact and forward specimens.

A plan of control is then prepared by the forest. officer in charge of insect
control. The execution of the.plan is carried out by the Forest Service, but
recourse is had to the Bureau of Entomology of the Department of Agriculture
for assistance, and for the making of entomological investigations.

The officer in charge of the project is given considerable latitude in the
execution of the plan.

132 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

Funds are allotted specially for the work.

Control areas are constantly studied by the Forest Service with a view to
making control measures increasingly effective by obtaining data on methods
of attack and the history of-insect infestations, past and present.

In view of the limited extent of our own timber resource, and the scope
of the pest ravage within the forest, I recommend the adoption of a compre-
hensive system of control.

I propose the appointment of a forest entomologist and zoologist to under-
take a systematic investigation of the forest pests. He should be stationed
at the Forest Institute where his services would be available also in a section
of the teaching work. Such measures as are evolved at the institute should
be applied by the field staff to their forests.

With regard to the overwhelming white ant infestations, it is possible that
silvical measures may exercise far-reaching control influences. Apparently,
white ants gain ingress to the tree either through a broken root or a broken
branch. They follow the grain and cannot bore transversely. It is impossible
for them to attack a sound tree. Consequently, it is the ancient and over-
mature overwood which is most open to attack; the robust pole underwood
escapes.

A close well-grown stand cut before maturity is passed would probably
be entirely free from white ant infestation.

Cuapter XVII.
THE FOREST WATER RESOURCE.

It is true the water resource of our forests is infinitesimal in. comparison
with that of the United States of America, but that fact should warrant the
application of much more intensive control.

“The United States of America Forest Service Manual” provides for the
development of a definite water protection plan :—

“Tn order to follow a definite and consistent policy with respect
to the restriction of the use of the forest resources for the purpose
of protecting the water supplies, complete information must be
collected as to the sources, the amount, and use of water arising in the
National Forests, the present condition of the vegetative cover on
the watersheds, as to its influences or run-off and the special measures
necessary to maintain the protective value of the cover.

“This information will be presented in the form of a definite
water protection plan. This will include an administrative map and
report.”

The administrative map shows the—

“watersheds which supply water for municipal and domestic use, for
irrigation, and for the development of hydro-electric power. It
includes the location of ditches, corrals, flumes, dams, power plants,
and other works; also the streams subject to disastrous floods and

the settlements, mines, railroads, or other works in need of protec-
tion from snowslides.”

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 133

The report covers—

“the amount of water, the purpose for and extent to which it is used
at the present time, the probable future use, the condition of the
cover, and the special protective measures which are at present in
force, with definite recommendations of measures which will be needed
to meet future demands.”

The protective measures applied include “ restriction of grazing, special
uses and settlement, possible modifications of lumbering, reafforestation, and
range improvement ; the appointment of extra patrolmen, and the construction
of works for the prevention of fires, floods, snowslides, and the contamination
of the water.”

It is the duty of officers before issuing licenses or permits to consider
the possible effect on the water supply and when necessary to attach condi-
tions affording necessary protection.

Streams are to be protected from pollution.

I advocate the stocktaking of the water resources of our forests and the
preparation of a water protection section of the working plan ‘of each forest.
This duty should constitute part of the general forest reconnaissance work.
It is a function of the branch of forest engineering. .

Cuaptrer XVIII.
FOREST SERVICE BOOK-KEBEPING.

A review of the orderly modern system of accounts of the United States
of America Forest Service is of great suggestive value.

Two main features distinguish the method of dealing with receipts.

One is that payment in advance is a requirement in respect to all fees
and royalties due to the Forest Service.

No tree may be felled, no exploitation may begin, until the sale has
been confirmed in cash.. Deposits must be made in advance of cutting. The
timber sales account for any operator must always show a credit balance.

The other is that forest officers are not collectors of forest revenue, and
are not permitted to receive any monies due to the department—the policy
also of Queensland.

At all district office headquarters a bank is selected and designated as a
Government depository for the district, and debtors are required to pay
directly into that depository, to the credit of the Forest Service, all National
Forest revenue due by them.

The receipt and disbursement of funds and the execution of all formal
papers affecting the grade, assignment, or salary of members of the Forest
Service are vested entirely in the chief of accounts at Washington. This
officer has a representative at each district office, who is styled the district
fiscal agent, and is charged with the entire execution of the accounts system
for his district.

134 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

A letter of transmittal is the vehicle employed in making payments. It
is in the following form :—

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

191
Western Montana National Bank,
United States Depository,
Missoula, Mont.
There is enclosed herewith a Money Order for
Draft an
Dollars ...........

drawn payable to your order, to be placed to the credit of the Treasurer of the U.S.A.

This deposit is

(First, second, or third payment ; payment in full ; deposit)

on account of

(Timber Sale, settlement for trespass, &c.)

(Signed) Si Haire stctar canbe anc ee

Sed.

Forest Officer.

(Complete case designation)

Coupon—Do not detach.

(Name)

Deposit on account of

National Forest... ccs sen :

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 135

Three separate styles of letters of transmittal are adopted, viz., one for
special use permits (coloured blue); one for grazing fees (coloured yellow) ;
and one for timber royalties, &c. (coloured white).

Forest officers are required to furnish these forms to the persons making
the payments. The latter must lodge postal or money orders for the amount at
the depository accompanied by the letter of transmittal. (Cheques are not
accepted unless certified by the bank).

A daily abstract of receipts is prepared in duplicate from these letters
by the depository, and both abstracts and letters are forwarded to the district
fiscal agent, who stamps the letters “paid,” and after detaching the coupons
therefrom, forwards them to the forest supervisor.

The latter, after making the necessary records in his office, informs the
ranger concerned, and forwards the letters to the respective payers as receipts.

At the district fiscal agent’s office the detached coupons are totalled by
classes and the totals entered on one of the abstracts. The coupons are then
filed by forests and classes in a current file.

At the end of each month the coupons for the month are totalled by
classes and forests and the totals recorded on forest receipt cards, the totals
to date brought down, and the totals for each class on all forests in the district
summarised on a card of the same form. The totals by classes are verified by
comparing them with the entries on the retained copies of the bank’s abstracts.

Refunds for excess collections are dealt with similarly, but the totals are
entered in red ink on separate cards which are filed immediately behind the
receipt cards.

Monthly and annual statements of receipts are forwarded to the chief of
accounts.

The system is a model of directness, simplicity and labour-saving and its
adoption by the Australian Forest Services is worthy of serious consideration.

The basis of the disbursement plan is a series of specific appropriations
from which allotments are made by the forester to the-district forester, and
from the district forester to the forest supervisor, and from the forest super-
visor to the forest ranger.

The allotments are in accordance with annual.estimates prepared by
officers in respect to their districts or forests. Estimates are made on the basis
of the bedrock cost of protecting the forests and carrying on the current
business under average normal conditions; and for completing such improve-
ments as are most urgently needed to supplement ordinary protection and meet
the immediate needs of administration.

The annual preparation of allotment estimates is a work of some
magnitude, and the principles, factors and procedure in regard thereto have
been made the subject of a special manual of instructions.

136 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

A standard list of accounts has been prepared under the following heads :—

HEAD OFFICE. DISTRICT OFFICES. SUPERVISOR’S OFFICES.
Forester District Forester Salaries
Editor Property Auditor Operation
Law Supply Depot Protection
Accounts Law Improvements
Operation Accounts Silviculture
Lands Operation Lands
Silviculture Lands Grazing
Research Silviculture
Grazing Grazing
Acquisition Products

There are innumerable subheads, and additional subdivisions are
authorised, to any extent found useful in the application of the system.

The procedure in regard to disbursements includes a comprehensive
system of cost-keeping, which has been designed to secure economy and
efficiency in Forest Service business by the comparison of costs with results ;
and to provide statistical data for the information of the supervisor, district
forester, forester, secretary of agriculture, and the United States Congress,
showing in detail and by units of’ organisations the specific purposes for
which the annual appropriations have been expended and at the same time
furnishing a basis for future estimates and allotments and for general appro-
priations for the service.

The card-system of book-keeping is adopted throughout.
The principal cards are—

(1.) Major control and suballotment cards ;
(2.) Salary cards;

(3.) Project cards ;

(4.) Quarters cards ;

(5.) Leases cards;

(6.) Transportation cards ;

(7.) Voucher register cards ;

(8.) Cost cards; and

(9.) Distribution cards to accompany each voucher to indicate the
appropriations to which each item is to be charged.

The forest supervisor’s accounts system consists of card records showing :—
(1.) District forester’s allotment to the forest from various appro-
priations ;
(a) Statutory salaries ;
() General expenses of the forest ;
(c) Improvements ;
(d) Roads and trails ;
(e) Fire fighting; and
(f) Special appropriations.

(2.) The supervisor’s cost records by activities, lines of work or
projects.

AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY 137

The cards are filed in accordance with the following system :—
(1.) Allotment register ;
(2.) Voucher register ;

(3.) Statutory salary summary. Individual salary cards alphabeti-
cally arranged ;
(4.) General expense summary ;
(5.) Improvement summary. Individual salary cards, if any ;
(6.) Road and trail summary. Individual salary cards, if any ;
(7.) Fire and special appropriation summaries follow, with indi-
vidual salary cards, if any, behind them;
(8.) Cost cards—
(a) Supervision ;
(6) Geography—Atlas ;
(c) Status ;
(d) Boundary surveys, &c.

The accounts record is closed on 25th of each month.

The necessary entries are made on the voucher register, salary and cost
cards, and a distribution of charges form is prepared for each voucher, showing
the distribution of the items by funds and classes of expenditure according
to projects and lines of work.

Vouchers covering the disbursements to be made for the month are
prepared in duplicate, the originals being forwarded on the 5th of each
succeeding month to the fiscal agent, accompanied by a distribution form for
each, and an abstract.

After being certified by the chiefs of offices, they are dated, numbered,
and examined by the district fiscal agent, who assembles them by appropria-
tions, makes the necessary book and card entries, and issues cheques.

All cheques are typewritten, with a special perforating machine, a carbon
duplicate being prepared at the same time.

The carbon copies of cheques constitute the cash book.

Opposite the last cheque drawn are shown. the total charges against
each appropriation, the total disbursements for the day, and the balance to
the disbursing credit.

The appropriation charges are posted daily to the disbursement ledger,
which is kept separately on sheets, and shows deposits and disbursements for
each supervisor.

The district fiscal agent files the vouchers numerically until the end of
the quarter, when they are forwarded with the account current to the chief of
accounts. A register of all vouchers received is kept on cards.

The distribution form is marked “ paid” and returned to the supervisor,
who enters on the current record any changes made by the fiscal agent.

The copy of the voucher retained at the supervisor’s office is filed with all
papers relating to it attached.

The supervisor forwards to the fiscal agent a monthly statement as to
the total expenditure for the month, as shown on the project cards, by classes.

138 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY.

The district fiscal agent in his turn forwards to the chief of accounts a
similar statement for the district.

An annual summary of expenditure is prepared similarly.

At Washington, the monthly statements or receipts and expenditure are
consolidated for administrative and departmental uses. The annual statements
are summarised by districts, States, &c., as a basis for reports to congress.

The district fiscal agent keeps an account with each appropriation and
subappropriation from which allotments aré made.

At Washington, separate accounts are kept of each district’s allotments
-from each appropriation and subappropriation.

General accounts are kept with each appropriation and subappropriation.

Under the cost-keeping system, each officer is required to prepare a
monthly service report from his diary, showing the distribution of his time
to the various projects and activities of forestry work. Every man is his own
timekeeper. Detailed instructions covering every possible point of forest cost-
keeping are provided for the officer’s information in preparing those reports.

The fiscal agent’s office undertakes the cost-keeping records systems.

Calculating machines are used extensively.

An Australian Study
of

American Forestry.

a

Australian Recommendations.

AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

“eRe?

The four corner stones of Australian Forestry development are :—
(a) The immediate provision of a scheme of forestry training.
(0) The building-up of a forest science by research.
(c) The establishment of an organisation.

(d) The construction of a system.

FORESTRY TRAINING.

1. There should be attached to each State Forest Service, for the purpose
of staff training, a School of Forestry.

-2. That School of Forestry should be neither a professional nor a trade
institution like those of Europe, but a vocational one bearing the same relation
to forestry and the timber industry that a School of Mines bears to mining
and the mine industries.

3. Both a three (or four) years’ undergraduate course for a junior staff.
in training, and a three months’ short course for officers already employed
should be provided.

4, An appropriate syllabus is suggested on pages 35-39 of this memoir.

5, The school should be so located as to be of ready access to the forest
and its administrative headquarters, the timber industries’ operations, a
District Forestry Office, a railway, and a town.

6. The students should be selected carefully, and- appointed on an
apprenticeship basis, with board and residence, and a living allowance of,
say, 10s. per week.

7. An appropriation of approximately £3,500 should be allotted to defray
capital cost, with a like amount annually for upkeep.

8. The course should include work in the forest, experience in forest
assessment camps, forest nurseries and experiment stations, demonstration
forests, and forest offices.

DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST SCIENCE.

Education and research go hand in hand, and considerable
advantages flow from the combination. The work of the Forestry
School should be not alone instructive, but investigative and experi-
mental also. In some measure, the school should be a clearing house
for new ideas—analogous to some extent to the planning and training
department of scientific management.

Many problems must be solved before Australian forest
practice can be established soundly. Due preparation and planning
make for economy of administration in the long run. The field of
forest research is very wide. The task should be commenced forth-
with in a comprehensive way. Ss :

IV. AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

9. The important work of forest investigation might be centred with
advantage at a Forestry School, which would be styled: “The State School of
Forestry and Institute of Forest. Research.”

Provided that—
(a) The section relating to Forest Products might be allocated under
suitable agreement to institutions such as the Technological
Museum of Sydney, and Engineering Schools of Universities.

(b) The section relating to Dendrology and Botany might be shared
with State Botanists.

(c) The work of silvical research should be divided amongst Experi-
mental and Demonstration areas, Forest Nurseries and Forest
Stations, and general forest investigations.

10. The State Forestry Museum might be attached to the Forest Institute.

11. The services and records of Forest Officers generally and of Forest
Assessors particularly should be available to the Institute in the collection
and compilation of data.

12. All specialist and investigative officers might be concentrated with
advantage at the Forest Institute until such time as extension of departmental
administrdtion justifies the establishment of distinct specialising branches.

13. The research work undertaken at the Forest Institute should include
the study of forest and timber industries and markets, with a view to
developing improved methods and extended uses for native timbers, and
furnishing advice and assistance generally to the public and the Forest Service
in all its operations.

14. The research work should include also the systematic investigation of
the forest pests, including white ants, borers, mantis, &c., with a view to
reducing the tremendous losses due thereto.

15. The research work should include also the study and planning of
administrative methods and the application of Scientific Management
principles.

16. The functions of the Forest Institute might include the preparation
of manuals, circulars, text-books, reviews, and measures of publicity.

17. Generally, the Forest Institute would be used by the Director of
Forests as an agency wherewith to mould the new forestry. Therefore, it
would come under his immediate control.

ORGANISATION OF PERSONNEL.

Personnel stock-taking is the first measure in organising an
administration.

It has been estimated that 75 per cent. of workers are in
the wrong avocations.

“The ideal for every employee is that he should be employed
in that position which he is best fitted to fill, doing work which by
natural aptitude, training, and experience, he is best qualified to do.”

18. A preliminary measure should be vocational analysis under the
Blackford Employment Plan, of each officer, present and prospective, of the
Forest Service, with a view to the scientific determination of his especial bent
and his allotment to that line of projected duty in which he is best fitted to
engage.

Most of the confusion in the world is due to the incorrect
placing of the individual. Utopia cannot arrive until the right man

AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS. Vv.
is in the right place, whether as leader or follower, “ ...... and
working under conditions of natural environment—tools, rates
of pay, hours of labour, and periods of rest, superintendence
and management, future prospects and education that will develop
and make useful to himself and his employer his best and. finest
latent abilities dnd capacities.”

The militaristic and red-tape types of personnel control which
involve the “mechanical enforcement of rigid rules,” are provocative
of antagonism and unrest, and cannot much longer survive the
advance of the broader ideals of democracy.

The aim should be to develop throughout the Forest Service an
atmosphere of mutual trust and co-operative enthusiasm. Officers
should be afforded generous encouragement and all opportunity to
improve their capabilities of usefulness in the Departments. Credit,
as well as blame, should be concentrated on the individual, and,
within the broad limitations of policy, officers should be given every
possible latitude in initiative and management.

These things are of greater consequence to the average human
being even than salary increments. There must be room for growth.

19. There should be a scientific study of the needs of the staff, leading to
the development of a comprehensive system of credits, and the devising of a
procedure calculated to produce a co-operative enthusiasm in work, and provide
ample opportunity and encouragement.

20. As far as possible under the administrative policy, officers should
be allotted individual spheres of initiative in which to work out their especial
tasks and their own departmental destiny.

; This supreme human need cannot be overlooked. Personal
distinction and pride in work constitute the strength of life.
Specialists are always hobbyists.

21. Personnel control is a matter for scientists.

I recommend the creation in the new Departments, of
Personnel and System Bureaux on the lines of the Blackford Employ-
ment and Emerson Scientific Management Plans, to undertake the
special work of vocational :analysis, personnel employment and
management, and the planning of systems.

In any case, the vocational analysis of cadets and officers who
pass through the schools should be undertaken, and, if necessary,
the proposed bureaux could be planned at and launched from those
institutions.

22. A system of detailing officers to the Forest Institute, District and
Head Offices, and other districts should be worked out. Reading courses
should also be allotted.

23. District and inter-district conferences should be held periodically—
the latter at the Forest Institute.

ORGANISATION OF ADMINISTRATION.

The reconstitution and extension of the forest staff must be
preliminary to the reconstitution and extension of the Forest Service.
A business can develop only as far and as quickly as its personnel
can carry it.

Forest management by contract is impossible. The essential
peg upon which to hang the execution of forest work is a resident
forest staff.

VI. AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

My proposals are—

24, That the new position of resident overseer of a State Forest, analogous
to that of District Ranger of the United States of America, be created; and
that a forest overseer be appointed to each important State Forest, to take
immediate charge of all operations thereon, from supervision of timbergetting
and grazing to foremanship of forest improvement and fire protection crews.

25. That returned soldiers of suitable bent be given preference in such
appointments.

26. That each appointee be given a short course of training at the Forest
School before taking up duty.

27. That qualified forest officers be charged with the direct management
of groups-of State forests under the style of Forest Supervisors, and be given
immediate control of the work of the forest overseers.

28. That each State be divided ultimately into forestry districts controlled
by district foresters in accordance with the policy and general direction of the
Director of Forestry.

29. That as the business of the Department grows sufficiently, the
Director of Forests have the services of inspectors to assist him. Ag far as
possible, decentralisation should be aimed at.

30. That the Forest Assessment staff be extended by the appointment of
a party in each Forestry District.

31. That forest surveyors be appointed to carry out the secondary control
survey work of the State.

32. That the nucleus of a branch of forest engineering be established,
whose duty shall be to direct the work of forest survey (but not assessment),
road-planning and building, quarters construction, water supply, &c., &c.

33. That similarly the nucleus be established of a Working Plans Branch,
charged with the duty of timber sale, assessment, sylvicultural experiment,
and working plans, &c. Jt would work in collaboration with the Forest
Institute.

34, That a forest badge be designed and issued to and worn by Forest
Officers as an emblem of their authority as such,

ORGANISATION OF THE STATE FORESTS.

Organisation of the State forests themselves must follow closely
on the organisation of the administration.

35. The first measures must be the carrying-out of detailed and accurate
topographic forest surveys, and the preparation of forest maps to form a
Forest Atlas.

36. The State forests must be subdivided into convenient units of
management and operation, and the timber estimates prepared in accordance
with those subdivisions.

37, Administrative sites should be selected on each State forest for the
establishment of Forest Stations.

38. Road and track systems must be planned, and construction proceeded
with in order of urgency. All areas under operation should be made thoroughly
accessible in order to cheapen transport and increase stumpage values.

39. Tanks, dams, bores, or other forms of water supply must be provided
at Forest Stations and throughout the forests where required for purposes of
effective administration and exploitation of the timber and forage resources.

40. Under the unavoidable conditions of bullock team logging of
Australian forests, the provision of grass paddocks, &c., is of primary import-

ance. Apart from reasons of necessity, the forest revenue may be increased
considerably by the provision.

AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS, Vil.

41. On the forest stations must be built as required—Overseer’s head-
quarters and offices, nurseries and experiment areas, camps, paddocks and
pounds, and look-outs, &c, Standard specifications should be drawn up by
the Branch of Forest Engineering.

42. Logging railroads and chutes should be laid out into bodies of other-
wise inaccessible timber.

43, Telephone lines may have to be built in some instances, to connect
forest stations to settlements.

All this work is within the especial province of the proposed
branch of Forest Engineering.

Its execution should be under the direction of the forest
supervisor and the foremanship of the forest overseer. Under this
organisation, day labour should be most appropriate and effective
in forest work.

BUILDING A SYSTEM.

The goal of a Forest Service in every aspect of its work should
be “100 per cent. Efficiency.” °

That goal can never be attained by the adoption of a

“muddling through” policy. There must be a persistent scientific
attack upon the problems to be solved. The importance of detail
must be recognised. The principles of efficiency engineering should
be incorporated into departmental routine.

There should be an early stocktaking of existing methods—a
setting. down in writing of the accumulated “head” knowledge and .
experience of all officers, an inventory of laws, regulations, precedents
and procedure. Thére must be a sorting out and a standardisation.
A provisional system must be adopted as a basis for progressive
revision.

I suggest—

44, The preparation of a State Forest Manual parallel to that of the
United State of America Forest Service; to be bound on the loose leaf
principle so as to allow of revision by the substitution of new pages for old.

45. The delegation of a epee officer to undertake its compilation and
progressive revision.

In the meantime, the following suggestions are offered by the United
States of America experience with respect to the development of a system for
each branch of forestry work.

(1.) Forest Classification.

Timber is an elementary necessity of State. Forest demarca-
tion is a vital issue.

There must be an early and complete stocktaking of the timber
resources of each State, with a view to determining what areas
should be reserved permanently, what temporarily, and what made
available for settlement. Australia is a comparatively timberless
country, and it limited forest areas are particularly precious. But
the forests generally are situated in the regions of greatest rainfall
and accessibility, where settlement congregates. Their possession
consequently has been contested fiercely by the opposing interests.

The theory of setting apart the poorer lands for forestry holds
to an infinitely less degree here than even in Europe or America,
since the climate, configuration, and location are such as to make in
Australia even comparatively poor lands desirable in the eyes of
the settler and the land speculator.

Vill. AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

46. There must be a sufficient forest reservation to supply the material
meeds of prospective populations and to afford safeguards against possible
-climatic and waterflow ‘changes.

47. A per capita basis cannot be adopted because the Australian
community is a mere nucleus of what it is destined to become.

48. Since most forest lands are more or less suitable for some form of
settlement, and the theory of relegation to poor soils will not hold in Australia,
an arbitrary forest ratio must be established for each State in framing the
forest policy.

49. As far as is at all practicable the Australian ratio should be fixed
at not less than 5 per cent. of the total State area. In Europe the proportion
of 20 per cent. to.30 per cent. still holds, in despite of teeming populations
and intense demand for land, and forest redemption is still taking place. Mr. D.
TE. Hutchins in his “ Discussion of Australian Forestry” proposes 15 per cent.

50. Preliminary forest exploration work should be pushed as far and as
quickly as practicable. A cursory examination should be enough to secure a
temporary reservation of likely lands pending final demarcation. The
Departments of Lands should co-operate in the project.

51. Final demarcation up to the limits of the prescription for the State
should be the exclusive function of the Forest Services, and should be under-
taken in the course of forest survey and assessment.

52. State Forests should be located as closely as possible to present and
prospective markets, because of the heaviness and bulk of the material to be
transported therefrom.

53. They should be of sufficient extent to make possible and profitable
their management as separate areas. Forest lands are most valuable when
handled in large unbroken units.

54. Primarily, they should furnish a soil and climate adapted to the
production of marketable timber. If they carry seed trees of the right species,
so much to the good; if a mature stand exists, still better; if an abundant
young growth, best of all. If the cover furnishes watershed protection, reserva-
tion may be justified even in default of other factors. Ruggedness is an
argument in favour of retention. Preference should be extended to mountain
forests.

55. Areas necessary for administrative purposes should be retained.

56. Administrative purposes include forest stations, plantations and
nurseries, mill and camp sites, log depéts, logging roads and chutes, and means
of access, look-out points, telephone lines, firebreaks, and every other area
needed in the work of the forester, and such areas as are requisite for public
camping grounds, health or pleasure resorts, or other purposes for the use
of the public.

57. Since Australian forest exploitation depends primarily upon bullock
teams, the provision of water supply and pasture, paddocks, pounds, stock
driveways and holding grounds, is of especial importance, apart from the ques-
tion of general forest grazing management.

58. Patches of agricultural or other non-forest land which might
otherwise be eliminated, but are so intimately an integral part of the forest
that they cannot be segregated without destroying a forest unit, should be
retained. A State forest should not be shredded by alienation to a point
making protection, general administration, or application of forest manage-
ment unpractical. :

59. Agricultural land which might otherwise be cut out, but carries a
heavy stand of timber of such value that the timber speculator in place of the
bona fide selector would seek to acquire title, should not be made available
until the timber has been removed completely.

AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS. 10.¢

60. When a considerable area of forest is clearly of great economic value
to the State and an attempt to transform it into an agricultural country might
result in irreparable disaster by disturbing a well-established climatic or

economic equilibrium, it should be retained. Such an area is the Pilliga
Forest of New South Wales.

(2.) Forest Survey and Assessment.

Forest assessment is an operation which must be repeated periodi-
cally. Forest survey, however, must be undertaken once and for all.
The two projects are inseparable at this stage, and, combined, they
represent an undertaking of paramount importance, since it furnishes
a foundation upon which must be erected the whole edifice of forest
management. A comprehensive scheme of forest survey and assess-
ment should be conceived at the start. It will give the greatest return
in the long run.

61. There should be a broad, but elastic, division of the two component
parts of (1) survey: and (2) assessment; the first to be directed by the proposed
branch of forest engineering, the second by the proposed working plans branch
in collaboration.

62. Forest survey should cover primary and ‘secondary control, the objects
of which are to provide an accurate surround, and a framework of more or
less parallel lines and profiles not over two miles apart.

63. Primary and secondary control may be deemed to be the especial
province of the proposed forest surveyors.

64. Tertiary control and assessment would cover the method of strip
survey, with the aim to clothe the secondary control framework with topo-
graphio detail and to gather working plan data.

65. Asesssment work, including the collection of working plan data, is a
matter for the exclusive attention of experts acting under the direction of
the Working Plans Branch.

66. Small separate camps are uneconomical, and considerable advantages
flow from a combined organisation such as that consisting of a forest surveyor
and two assessment parties (a forest assessor and_ his assistant) working
together. Camp transport work is reduced, and one cook suffices for all; camp
life is made more congenial and the work is expedited generally.

67. Secondary control lines should be blazed, and marks should be set
up as the starting and closing points for horizontal and vertical strip surveys.

68. A camp map should be prepared, on which should be plotted the
surround and framework, and all existing surveys.

69. A preliminary subdivision of the area should be worked out on the
camp map for purposes of convenient estimating and compiling. The United
States of America Forest Service uses the 40-acre lot as a basis.

70. The projected strips should be laid out in pencil on the camp map.
The distance between strips should be ten or twenty chains. Circumstances,
however, may alter cases.

71. A scale of 20 chains per inch and contours of 25 feet interval should
be adopted as standards for the detailed base maps resulting from strip surveys.

72. I recommend the use of the new Bonner Reflecting Abney level and
trailer-tape system of tertiary control. The United States of America Forest
Service sketching-sheet and transparent duplicate with separate tally sheet
may also be employed with advantage. The tally man should book tallies
instead of calling out to the assessor. Perfect synchronisation is requisite if
speed is to be attained.

X. AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

73. The survey season should be fixed to suit local climatic conditions as
far as possible; ordinarily, it should be in the autumn to spring months. The
severe summer months might be devoted to office work or to details of study
and investigation at the Forest Institute and Experiment Stations, or holidays.

74. For the proper assembling of data, four standard maps should be
adopted, viz., (1) The base map, showing topography and “culture” ; (2) the
silvical map, showing forest types and age classes ; (3) the timber map, showing
timber stands and assessment estimates; and (4) the forest organisation map,
Showing present and projected improvements and subdivisions.

75. A State forest atlas of a standard size (say, 18 inches by 21 inches)
should be established at head offices, with district forest atlases at each district
office. In these atlases should be assembled systematically the prepared maps
and collected figures resulting from strip survey. An index map on a scale
ef 80 chains to the inch should be included.

For map-filing purposes, the adoption of the Beck vertical map file and
envelopes is recommended. :

76. The American alpha-numeric symbolisation scheme to denote mixed
stands should be adapted for Australian use.

(3.) Silviculture and Forest Management.

Silviculture is the handling of woodlands in accordance with the
various silvicultural characteristics and requirements of the contained
species; in other words, the incorporation into forest treatment of
the results of the forest research to be carried out at the forest
institute, experiment stations, and demonstration forests, and by
forest officers generally. Its objective is the attainment of the
normal or perfect forest.

Necessarily, it cannot come in its fulness forthwith; the unfold-
ing will be gradual. But its application begins with exploitation,
which, silviculturally speaking, is only a means to an end, that of
normal regeneration.

77. The welfare of the stand must be the chief consideration in permitting
cutting operations, which should be conducted so as to afford the maximum
opportunity for natural regeneration. ,

78. There must be an insistence upon conservative methods of timber-
getting (low stumps, high tops, sawing instead of axeing, &c.), not only upon
grounds of economy, but in order to reduce the accumulation of debris and
improve the chances for reproduction ; where necessary, slash must be stacked
and burnt, or scattered ; dead, defective, and damaged trees must be removed ;
young growth must be safeguarded against injury.

79. Markets must be canvassed in order to develop: a sale for the lesser
species which crowd the forest and stand in the way of profitable regeneration
and improvement.

80. The areas most in need of cutting should be located accurately and
operations diverted thereto.

_ 81. Present timber-getting operations should be limited, by the prescrip-
tion of a high minimum girth, to the skimming from the forest of the
overmature and deteriorating trees.

82. Secondary fellings should be in the nature of a seeding cutting, and
should be conducted, when practicable, by the forest service itself. Otherwise,
the forest service should mark the trees to be removed.

AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS. XI.

83. Marking rules should be developed in the light of the silvicultural
lessons learnt. The work of marking should be regarded as of the first
importance, and be under the direct superintendence of expert officers, who
should establish sample markings on each cutting area. , ,

84. A systematic study of cut-over areas should be maintained, and the
results recorded at the Forest Institute for use in developing silvicultural
practice.

85. The processes of natural regeneration should be observed closely in
the forest, and worked out on experimental areas and in forest nurseries. The
time of seedfall should be recorded for each species. Sample plots of seedlings
should be marked for observation. The influences of firing, light regulation,
shelter, soil-working, &c.—and their costs—should be analysed.

86. Forest improvement in the sense of silvicultural tending should be
carried on, for the present, only experimentally, and as such should be
studied closely as a part of research.

Undoubtedly, it is desirable that areas already cut over under
the unrestricted conditions of the past should be set in order. But
it is a tremendous and costly task, and general forest organisation
should be regarded as of prior urgency, more especially as sound
silvicultural practice has yet to be developed, and to a large extent
also is dependent upon a widening of the Australian market.

87. A demonstration area should be set apart on each forest for direct
exploitation and regeneration by the Forest Service, to serve both as an
example of conservative utilisation and an experiment in applied silviculture.

88. In opening up roads ‘within the forest, the Forest Service should
itself convert and dispose of the trees to be removed.

89. Thinning work should be undertaken only where a market for
thinnings exists or can be established. As a rule, there is little need for it in
Australian forest practice, unless in the way of improvement fellings in the
overwood. Congested pole crops are of infrequent occurrence.

90. A maximum periodic cut approximating to the sustained yield should
be fixed for each forest.

91. Increment plots for the purpose of recording the rate of growth for
different species, and accurately determining the rotation, should be established
on each forest and for each site quality.

92. As the forest approaches normality, it will be possible to increase the
periodic cut. The present annual sustained yield for the Brooloo Forest (Q.)
of 40,000 acres has been fixed at 4,000,000 feet. When fully stocked, it is
estimated that it will produce from 20 to 40 million superficial feet of hoop pine
per annum.

93. Pending their organisation, State forests should be withheld from
immediate exploitation, whenever it is practicable to divert cutting to timber
reserves, ordinary Crown lands, leascholds, or private property. I regard this
policy as of paramount importance to Australian forestry. The timber
resources carried by those lands must be utilised to the uttermost. Every stick
destroyed in clearing for settlement means equivalent loss to the permanent
reservations.

94. A silvicultural advance may be initiated by the attachment to timber
sale agreements or licenses of essential provisos. Compensation for any added
labour cost should be arranged in fixing royalties.

95. The correct appraisal of stumpage values is fundamental to the insti-
tution of forest management. An intensive study of labour, freight, and
market conditions is essential to its solution. ;

XII. AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

96. A natural market value, rather than an artificial royalty, should be
adopted as the basis of timber sale. The uniform royalty expedient must go.

97. Stumpage values must be based on market prices, less the cost of
cutting, extraction, and transport to the market.

98. The Forest Service, however, should fix minimum selling prices for
each forest, which represent the point at which it is believed to be a wise
public policy to withhold timber from sale rather than sell it at the market
value then obtainable. There are cases, however, where it would pay better
to give trees away rather than leave them to cumber ihe forest, and the Forest
Service should not hamper its management by the prescription by Regulation
of high State minimums. Upsets for each sale provide adequate safeguards.
Maximums depend upon imports and tariffs.

99. Direct government exploitation may be reached through development
of the methods of stumpage appraisals.

100. The destructive systems of competitive exploitation occasioned by the
indiscriminate granting of licenses for the same area must be abolished if
silvicultural success, or even ordinary business system, is to be achieved.

101. Every operator should be confined to a definite timber lot, for the
operations on which he should be held responsible. He should be required to
work in accordance with the terms of an agreement drawn up by the managing
forester. ,

102. The agreement should specify a maximum quantity for the period
and a minimum per month. Its conditions should provide for conservative
timber-getting and necessary silvicultural measures.

103. The term should be short, generally not exceeding one year. The
quantities should be based, generally, upon what a single operator can extract
in the time. The sale of the agreement should be at public competition, after
due advertisement. Upset prices per 100 square feet should be fixed accurately
on natural market values, less the cost of cutting, snigging, and hauling.

104. Sales for each forest should be yearly or half-yearly, and should be
limited to the prescribed yield for the area.

105. A reasonable operating life for established plants may best be
guaranteed by such short-term sales up to the limits of the maximum periodic
cut. Unrestricted sales at low prices tend to produce a host of small,
temporary plants on the “ boom and bust” principle.

(4.) Working Plans.

Working plans are nothing more than orderly records of informa-
tion, and the deduced ideas of the manager with regard to the future
working of the forest.

Working plans develop as the organisation grows.

The confusion of thought which exists with regard to working
plans is due to the fact that our only model—the European form—
too often reflects the complexity of the organisation of which it is
the instrument.

In the American experiment, the attempt was made to apply to
the management of the primaeval forest the working plan of the
gardened one.

Organisation and working plans started off at opposite poles.

Time has elaborated the former and simplified the latter until
both are now practically co-incident and co-ordinate.

AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS. XIII.

The American lesson for Australia is that development must start
from the rock bottom of established facts.

The vehicles are policy, forest organisation, silvicultural
research, and annual working plans.

106. Each Forest Service needs urgently legislative enactment vesting in
it :—(1) An adequate forest estate ; (2) wide powers of technical management ;
(3) authority to reinvest forest revenue in the forest business.

107. The reports and maps resulting from forest survey should be
employed as the basis of the working plan. Division of the area is fundamental,
and a tentative arrangement into convenient units of estimation, management,
and operation, with complete road systems, should be worked out on the map.
To the report should be attached a short prescription fixing the maximum
periodic cut, and outlining the general timber sale policy to be applied.

108. Silvicultural methods, based upon the results of research, and
prepared in accordance with a standard outline, should be suggested for each
species and each forest type.

109. An annual working plan report should be required for each forest
under management. In that report the year’s records and results should
be assembled and discussed, and plans for the ensuing period sketched, This
annual report would be actually the living working plan, whose normal growth
would bring in course of time the final working plan, which prescribes the
policy of management not for one year but for twenty.

(5.) Reforestation and Afforestation.

r 110. Artificial regeneration of forests in Australia by planting is justified
only :—
(a) Where natural regeneration has failed.
(0) Where waste lands, burns, and watersheds are to be afforested.
(c) Where cheap exotic softwoods, not replaceable by native timbers,
must be produced. ~
In contrast to the high New Zealand expenditure of at least £7
per acre, is the American one of 25s. per acre, due to improved
nursery and planting methods.

111. I recommend the introduction of scientific management into nursery
and planting practice in Australia.
112. The following devices should be imported into afforestation work
in Australia.
(a) The Savenac threading board and threading table.
() The transplanting rake and trenching hoe.
(c) The Feigly tree digger for lifting plants for stock distribution.
(d@) The packing-machine and the bundle method.
(ec) The modified trenching plough.
(f) The United States of America Forest Service planting bag and
tool.

113. Planting operations should be restricted at present to the most
favourable areas, with a view to developing successful methods capable of
application to less-favoured sites.

114. The United States of America planting formation and methods
should be adopted.

115. The ground should be prepared for planting only just so far as is
absolutely necessary. In many cases there should be no preparation.

XIV. AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

_ 116. Detailed cost-keeping records should be kept, and there should be a
close study and careful recording of results for further guidance.

_ 117. Annual nursery and planting reports on United States of America
lines should be adopted.

118. The collection of seed for afforestation purposes should constitute
part of the duty of forest overseers.

(6.) Fire Protection.

The practice of silviculture must be preceded by fire protection.
Bush fires in Australia have thinned the timber stands, injured or
stunted the survivors, rendering them branchy, and opening the
door to white ant infestations, and finally routed regeneration and
impoverished the soil.

Yet to bush fires has been ascribed the alleged prolific repro-
duction in Australian forests. One fire at the right time may be
useful; it is the recurrent firing that has wrecked the Australian
timber lands.

The solution of the bush fire problem is not difficult if we give
up the search for miracles.

Achievement is possible only through patient organisation.

The measures to be taken are those relating to prevention,
detection, and suppression.

There must be an active promulgation among the general public
and forest users of an attitude towards forest fires and forest
incendiarism parallel to that felt in regard to a burning house:

I recommend :—

119. Persistent publicity, through signs and posters, books and notices,
issuance of forest fire news for publication, education in the school, personal
appeal.

oF 4 The fire liability should be reduced as far as possible.
The forest user must do his part.
I propose— i

120. The attachment, whenever advisable, of conditions to licenses,
permits, and timber sale agreements, to provide for (a) lopping, stacking, and
burning debris; (4) the cutting of dead trees which by their height constitute
a fire menace: (c) the clearing of the right of ways of railways and logging
railroads ; (d) the use of spark arresters on engines ; (e) the regulation of camp
fire building.

121. The establishment of depdts of fire-fighting tools at forest stations
and at likely places in State forests.

122. The opening up of every part of a State forest by roads and tracks,
to provide access and firebrakes.

The cost of establishing a 100 per cent. system of divisional
firebreaks to control a 2 per cent. or 3 per cent. burn would be
overwhelming.

The construction of firebreaks, other than roads, should not
ordinarily be undertaken.

One of the main difficulties of the situation is to ascertain
quickly the outbreak of a fire.

I do not advocate any such costly system of lookouts as that
adopted in the United States of America. The forest oversecrs’
stations should ordinarily be fire lookouts. Further extension of the
lookout system should not usually be necessary.

AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS. XV.

123. License conditions or timber sale provisoes should stipulate that
all forest users must report the outbreak of bush fires, and personally assist
to extinguish them.

124. Arrangements should be made beforehand with non-forest users
who are resident in the locality similarly to report outbreaks and assist in
suppression.

125. A fire study should be made for each State forest, and a fire plan
prepared, embracing the results of this study, and the measures of fire control
to be undertaken for the specific area.

126. The keystone of the fire plan is the proposed forest overseer, who
should maintain a constant lookout during the fire season, and upon the
occurrence of a fire should set the fire plan in motion and superintend the
work of suppression.

(7.) Grazing.

The efficacy of fire protection policies depends very largely
indeed upon the grazing policy.

But, more than that, the economic use of the large forest fodder
resource of tree, shrub, and herb which occurs on the forest estate,
is a subject which intimately concerns the forest administration,
since it has a large bearing upon the question of utilisation of the
timber supplies.

127. Forest grazing control should be vested wholly in the Forest Service.

128. I recommend the establishment of a separate branch to deal with the
forest fodder business; and the appointment of a grazing expert to organise
and control that business in accordance with forestry interests.

129. A scheme of grazing reconnaissance on United States of America
Forest Service lines should be developed, as a vehicle for stocktaking of the
forest forage resource.

130. The system of forest leasing for grazing purposes should be abolished
absolutely ; it should be replaced by a system of annual grazing permits on
a charge per. capita basis, subject to such conditions as are necessary in the
forest interest, and such royalties as represent a fair and reasonable market
value, and revocable at the discretion of the forest administration.

131. In the issue of such grazing permits preference should be given to
forest users and adjoining residents.

132. A maximum number of stock should be fixed for each State forest,
and for each permittee. Reductions should be made where the interests of
the forest growth require.

133. Grazing operations should be limited to the period best suited to the
forest needs.

134. Endeavour should be made to allot each class of stock to individual
ranges.

135. Salting, as a measure of forest protection, should be a condition
of the permit.

136. The forest overseer of the State forest should be in immediate charge
of grazing operations, and exploitation of the forest forage resource. Where
necessary, herdsman-forest guards might be employed to assist him.

137. The adoption of the grazing system and procedure proposed would.
pave the way also for direct forage exploitation by the State if such should
be deemed advisable.

138. Special measures should be taken to conserve and control the valu-
able drought-tree forage of the inland districts. Its disposal should be regulated
closely under grazing permits carrying royalties approximating as closely as
possible to the real and ascertainable value of the forage.

XVI. AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

(8.) Special Uses.

139. For the disposal of occupancies of portions of State forests for
purposes other than grazing and timber sale, I recommend the adoption of
the revocable annual permit, subject to such conditions and charges as are
advisable in the forest interest. Leasing should be prohibited.

(9.) Forest Pest Control.

Forest pests, such as white ants, borers, mantis, wombats, &e.,
have been responsible for tremendous forest wastage.

140. I recommend the establishment of a section of the Forest Service to
deal with forest pests.

141. I propose that a forest ‘entomologist and zoologist should be
appointed to carry out a systematic investigation with regard to the forest
pests of the State. He might be stationed at the Forest Institute, so that his
services would be available also for instructional purposes.

(10.) The Forest Water Resource.

142. There should be a stocktaking of the water supply resources of the
State forests, with a view to their better protection and development.

143, This work should be done in the course of forest survey, and should
be under the direction of the proposed branch of forest engineering.

(11.) Forest Offences.

Severity in the settlement of forest offences produces frequently
the spirit of the “revanche”; systematic mildness often results in
co-operation.

There has been considerable confusion of thought with regard
to the policy of settling forest offences, and considerable time, trouble,
and friction have been involved.

144, Apart from the penal provisions of the forest laws, there should be
a standardisation of procedure for the departmental settlement of forest offences
on American lines.

145. There should be separate treatment for intentional and unintentional
acts of forest trespass; in the first case, the measure of damage should be the
American one of the “value of the timber in its condition when and where
found,” plus the damage done to the forest: in the second case, the measure
should be “ the difference in the value of the area before and after the trespass.”

146. Departmental procedure should provide for an analysis of the breach
in accordance with this policy ; district foresters should be authorised to settle

first offence cases without recourse to legal proceedings, where the damage is
below £25.

(12.) Office Methods.

147, I recommend as a measure of labour saving, the adoption at both
head and district offices of the cardless vertical filing system, with a subjective
classification arranged on a self-indexing basis.

148. Office work should be reduced as far as possible by the decentralisa-
tion of authority. District foresters should be given enlarged powers of district
management ; officers should be relieved, to the greatest degree practicable,
of the burden of investigating and reporting upon appeals or complaints.

AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS. XVIE.

149. The carbon copy system of communication should be availed of
largely.

150. The adoption of the United States of America Forest Service Promise
Card Box and “ follow up” system is recommended.

151. Letter-size paper should be adopted as a standard size in lieu of the
ancient cumbersome and uneconomical foolscap.

152. A great deal of time, labour, and material would be saved by the
elimination from all official correspondence of the department of the formal
phraseology “I have the honour to be, Sir,” “ Your Obedient Servant,” and
the replacement by “ Yours faithfully.”

153. District forestry offices should be supplied with mimeographs for
circularising purposes.

(13.) Forest Bookkeeping.

154. The payment of all royalties and charges in advance of operation
is a feature of the United States of America system, which should be adopted,
at all events, to the extent of requiring deposits equal to a month’s timber
cut.

155. The concentration of revenue collection at the district forestry offices,
under the American system, would reduce bookkeeping work and the possi-
bility of mistake or fraud. The system is recommended. It is virtually the
Queensland system.

156. In establishing an accounting plan for the Forest Service the card
system should be adopted as the basis.

157. A detailed cost-keeping scheme for the entire Forest Service should
be drawn up and put into operation.

158. District financial management should be based on a system of appro-
priations and allotments consequent upon the submission of annual estimates.

(14.) Publicity and Publications.

The virtues of publicity in forestry work should be recognised.
“Tt is desirable that all proper opportunities should be afforded the
public to understand the work of the Forest Service and the principles
and application of forestry.”

159. District foresters should be authorised to supply forestry information
for publication, with the proviso that controversy, self-advertisement, and
partisan discussion of questions of policy, as well as criticisms of any other
department, are to be avoided.

160. Addresses by forest officers on-forestry matters should be encouraged,
provided there is some administrative control thereof.

161. Forest libraries for the use of the local staff should be established at
each district office; forestry works, periodicals, scientific journals, and forest
photographs should be furnished to such libraries.

162. The publication of forestry information through the medium of
departmental bulletins, pamphlets, reviews, and general news, should be
widely extended.

(15.) Timber Conversion and Utilisation.

163. The adoption of scientific power logging should be encouraged, where
the stand warrants, and where it will not be of detriment to the forest. The
method of logging should be subject to Forest Service approval.

L

XVIII AUSTRALIAN RECOMMENDATIONS.

164, American sawmilling machinery and methods are commended to
notice in connection with the establishment of State sawmills.

165. The establishment of State timber seasoning works is recommended,
with a view to extending the utilisation of the less durable indigenous species.

166. The trial of the Holt caterpillar gasoline tractor is recommended for
the exploitation of sandy forests like the Pilliga Forest of New South Wales.

167. The substitution of the white ant-resistant cypress pine for non-
resistant imported softwoods should be encouraged in all Government contracts ,
so, also, second-class hoop pine and “ tops.”

168. The extended utilisation of other non-developed species should be
encouraged by direct Government use, and by Forest Service publicity
campaigns.

169. A small experimental sawing and seasoning plant might be attached
to the Forest Institute in connection with the working of the school forest.
That forest should be handled as a model area for the guidance of the timber
industry.

170. The scientific grading of native timbers should be encouraged.

GENERAL.

A tremendous task lies ahead of the budding Australian forestry adminis-
trations—a task involving patient and determined organisation. It is necessary
that the difficulties be faced at once. Not everything can be done until larger
funds and powers are available, but there is much foundational and planning
work that may be initiated forthwith. A general survey of the foregoing
suggestions will serve to indicate what can and what cannot be commenced at
the present time.

The future of Australian forestry depends very greatly on the steps that
are taken to-day. No combatant can afford to postpone measures of prepara-
tion until after the declaration of war.

The fact that the Australian forest resource is very limited (we have, for
the equivalent area, less than one-tenth the extent of the Tnited States of
America forest) makes it essential that we should develop that resource in the
most intensive fashion, and spare no effort to improve and perpetuate it.

United States of America, with ten times the Australian forest area, spends
upon its forestry scheme three times as much as the forests are returning
at present in revenue.

The practice of forestry in Europe and America has shown that increased
expenditure means vastly increased profits. France spends 4s. per acre per
annum, and gets 7s. 3d. return. Wurtemburg spends 8s. 4d. and gets 27s. 6d.

It is necessary that we should devote for some years to come a generous
part of the forest revenue to the rehabilitation of forestry in Australia and
reinvestment in the forest. business. And every possible means should be
employed to secure the utmost return for that expenditure.

BrisBANE.

By AvurHoriry: AnrtHony James CummMiINnG, GOVERNMENT PRINTER.

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