Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/479

Rh and the extent of the timber already cut and the effects of the deforesting; also the relation of the timber supply to transportation, local demands of miners and settlers, and the supply needed for more distant markets.

The examinations of the surveyors and forestry experts are not limited to the present lines of the forest reserves, but, as provided for in the statute authorizing the survey, they include public lands adjacent to the reserves.

It is anticipated that the sixty thousand square miles of forests now included within the reserves can be thoroughly and economically surveyed within five years, provided adequate appropriations are made for the purpose. Nearly enough if not sufficient data for the construction of topographic and forestry maps have been secured during the past field season to permit of an intelligent rectification of the boundaries of most of the reserves containing areas where apparent injury or injustice is being inflicted by the establishment of the reserves.

The progress of the surveys during the short field season was slow, as the reserves comprise some of the most rugged mountain country in the West, much of which is covered with forests. No maps existed of the larger portion of the reserves. The surveys for the topographic and forestry maps of the Black Hills Reserve were completed, and for a considerable portion of the Big Horn Reserve. The forests were examined and the data platted, on Land Office and sketch maps, for the unsurveyed areas of the other suspended reserves, and a large body of information was secured in relation to the extent and character of the forests except on the Olympic Reserve.

The examination of the Priest River and Teton Reserves has been quite thorough, as well as that portion of the Bitter Root Reserve lying in Montana. The Washington Reserve has received the most careful examination in relation to its forest condition, although the topographic mapping and triangulation have been limited to the eastern and western sides of the divide of the Cascade Range. Triangulation has been initiated and extended over most of the Lewis and Clark and Flathead Reserves in Montana, and in the Uinta Reserve triangulation has been carried forward upon the small area mapped.

Late in October and November the surveying parties were withdrawn from the Northern States, owing to the severe weather, and several of them were transferred to southern California, where they are working in the San Gabriel and San Jacinto Reserves.

—Will it pay to maintain Government forest reserves? This question is best answered by referring to what has been done in other countries. The published