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Throughout the work of inquiry, correspondence and lecture work the aim has been to show that forestry has for its foundation the industrial welfare to as great or greater extent than any other feature of general interest now before the public mind. There is not an issue of any publication for general public reading but what is more or less filled with articles treating of some of the phases of forestry and their bearing upon some vital public interest. There is no one question of public interest more fully discussed and collaborated.

The Board fully appreciates that forestry advancement in Indi-
ana can only be a successful accomplishment by the thorough edu-
cation and the formation of a new mind. For more than a hun-

dred years in Indiana the minds of the people have been directed
toward removing the forests from the land in order to devote the
soil to intense agricultural pursuits. The forestry movement is the
natural outgrowth of the too persistent effort to clear the land for
agricultural purposes, with no thought of a future consequence.
Before a successful forestry movement can be established a new
mind must be formed. There must be a facing about and a march-
ing in the opposite direction. This can only be accomplished by
the education of the generations to the realization of such facts. It
will take time to do it. All the efforts, therefore, of the Board
are directed to accomplish this aim. Legislation and guardianship
can be but elementray factors to this end.

The number of inspections and recommendations made from the
office the past year were greater in number than of any former year
and were of a better grade, being mostly for farm woodlots. The
requests for advice for fencing post plantings continue to be sought
extensively, and indicate that Catalpa Speciosa and Black Locust
for consideration in planting are equally valued. The sales re-
ported by nurserymen indicate that throughout the State these
trees are being planted in large numbers.

As stated in last year's report, a closer systematic organization of the work by counties is necessary for the better doing of the work. The Secretary, in addition to the office work, is superintendent of the work of experiments at the Forest Reservation, and cannot do as close work in the counties as is needed. An assistant for such work must be secured. Much good work is done, but advice is by correspondence instead of personal visits, and frequently not all the facts are known and the best results are not reached in the community.

The Board feels, however, that actual facts for data from things

done at the Reservation will go further as evidence and will be of more value in the future to stimulate forestry than anything else, and it so directed its efforts there the past year, and it trusts the future results will bear out the policy. No other current topic before the people is as much discussed and written upon as forestry. It is a subject also having less intelligent criticisms but as many isms of aerial magnitude as any, and it behooves seekers of wisdom and truth to be cautious as to the plans and policies adopted in their forestry conduct. No State in the Union has produced a better quality and quantity of hardwoods than Indiana. Her lumber and the finished products from the same have at all times been upon the pinnacle of commercial value. The past is the best guide to the future. What Indiana has produced she can reproduce, and every evidence goes to show that Indiana's soil will naturally produce trees if only encouraged to do so, and that its tendencies are to reforest with the valuable hardwoods most abundantly. In view of all these facts the Board suggests to those desiring to grow trees to stick to our native kinds and turn a deaf ear to experimental trees, unnatural and unacclimated to our State conditions, until fully satisfied, after diligent inquiry, that they will give good results, and the evidence can be shown.

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., September 7, 1907.

Indiana State Board of Forestry:

Honorable Sirs-I have the honor to submit herewith, subject to your approval, a report compiled during the months of July, August and September of the present year, upon "Various Forest Conditions," as studied throughout the State of Indiana. The drawings and photographs accompanying same are deemed necessary to the better understanding of the report.

The time spent under salary was the months of July, August and the first week of September; seven weeks of which were consumed in actual field investigations, and three weeks in preparing drawings and compiling complete report.

The total territory investigated consisted of nine counties, located in northern, central and southern Indiana, respectively, as follows: Starke, Marshall and Kosciusko; Clinton, Howard and Grant; Orange, Martin and Washington.

Two weeks were spent in each of the above named localities, or on an average of four days in each county. This was indeed a

short period of time in which to cover a county with any degree of thoroughness, and in fact, it could not be done. Many times the progress of the work was exceedingly slow and retarded by the many and varied conditions presenting themselves, where the report had to include such a wide range of observations. The remaining week of field operations was devoted to obtaining photographs of private forest plantings in the regions surrounding Fort Wayne and South Bend.

I wish to express my appreciation of the favors shown me by your Secretary, W. H. Freeman, and also to say that the work now being carried on, not only upon the Reservation but throughout various parts of the State, cannot be too highly commended, or too strongly encouraged.

I would beg to be corrected for any statement contained herein to which you may object. Respectfully,

INTRODUCTION.

FRED A. MILLER.

The contents of this report will be found under two distinct and separate heads: (1) Insect Pests of Indiana Timbers and Timber Trees; and (2) Growth and Development of the Oaks, Hickories and Ash, as Influenced by Soils and Other Important. Ecological Factors.

The need of the investigations included under the first head was suggested by the ever-increasing demand for structural timbers and timbers used in many of our leading industries. That the supply of such stock is daily decreasing is acknowledged by all; and in this early stage of the forest policy, everything possible is being done by both national and state governments that this condition may not long continue. Special attention is being given to a determination of the most suitable localities for forest plantings, in order that this end may be most surely and quickly attained.

Natural reproduction and development are essential to the success of such plantings, and localities must be well chosen, that growth may be most rapid and vigorous. See figure 30 for results of a poorly chosen locality on which to plant black walnut. The spoke factories of our southern counties present one of the most glaring examples of the serious condition of one of our most valuable native trees. Already these manufacturers are anxiously discussing the possibilities of the next "cut" of second growth hickory, with which their mills must be constantly supplied. Natural reproduction of the hickory, especially the shellbark, is known to be

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exceedingly slow, and the supply will continue to fall short of meeting the local demand, unless present conditions are immediately altered. Extensive plantings and conservative cutting of the present stand seem to be the only presentable solution. acres of absolutely waste and otherwise worthless land of southern Indiana are the most ideal and in every way the most suitable places for such undertakings. But that such plantings should succeed to the best possible degree, keen discrimination must be made in the selection of suitable localities with regard to soil conditions and other modifying elements. The owners of these waste lands must be appealed to and in some way influenced to such a degree that problems of this kind will be undertaken by them.

The contents of this section of the report consists of a setting forth of facts of a general nature, and in language readily interpreted by the layman, which should in part enable him to keep his waste land covered with the most rapidly growing and most profitable species of our valuable forest trees.

The first part of the report, "Insect Pests of Indiana Timbers and Timber Trees," was suggested by the ravages of many wooddestroying insects, upon our forest trees, some of which are active for a considerable time during each succeeding year, and others of which only make their appearance at irregular periods, leaving their destructive work as the only evidence of their existence.

Recent investigations have shown that oaks, chestnut, hickories, maples, birches, walnuts, cherry, poplar, gums and other of our principal hardwood, or broad-leaved, timber trees are damaged to a far greater extent than is realized by the casual observer. A large percentage of the hardwood timber in nearly all of the States east of the Rocky Mountains is affected, and the United States Forest Service states that the average annual losses from this source could be safely estimated at between fifteen and twenty million dollars.

Insects not only cause a direct loss to the owners of forests, manufacturers and consumers of forest products, but by their continued depredation constantly and surely contribute to the rapid depletion of all hardwood timber forests of the country.