tions of the forests to the people. In co-operation with the Bureau of Chemistry investigations were undertaken of native tan extracts and their comparative values in tanning, of Philippine gum products and possibly additions to the present list of native woods suitable for the production of paper pulp. A Co-operative study of insects which injure forests was begun with the Division of Entomology. Successful efforts were made to discover a less injurious method of turpentine orcharding than that hitherto employed, and the Bureau predicted a general introduction of an improved method which will be of notable value in maintaining the source of the turpentine industry.

The Secretary of Agriculture, in his report for the year ending June 30, 1902, made an earnest plea for the proposed Appalachian Forest Preserve. He stated that the water power, at an aggregate annual value of $20,000,000, is being gradually destroyed through increasing irregularity in the flow; that the soils washed down from the mountain slopes are rendering annually less navigable the Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi and other rivers. These are the results of the deforestation of these mountain slopes. He stated that the rate of land erosion on these slopes from which the forest cover has been removed is as great now in a single year as during ten centuries when covered with primeval forests. The National and State Forestry Associations are as follows:

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS.

American Forestry Association.-President, Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture; Secretary (corresponding), F. H. Newell, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. Society of American Foresters.-President, Gifford Pinchot, Washington, D. C.; Secretary, George B. Sudworth, Washington, D. C. STATE ORGANIZATIONS.

(Prepared from the latest reports of the Postmaster-General and from special information supplied by the

Department.)

At the close of the fiscal year 1902 there were 1,350 lines of travelling post offices, covering 178.796 miles in length. The number of clerks employed was 9,731, annual travel by them in cars 221,589,999 miles. To accomplish this. 3.785 cars and apartments were used on the steam roads, beside 24 cars on the It is electric lines under the supervision of the Railway Mail Service, and 83 apartments on steamboats. estimated that these clerks handled 15,062,830,640 pieces of ordinary mail and 24.174,174 packages and cases of registered mail. The errors by clerks in handling the mail as reported indicate but 1 error made for every 11,502 pieces correctly distributed.

There were 286 casualties to mail cars last year, in which either mail or clerks were injured. Nine clerks were killed and 88 seriously and 302 slightly injured. The postal receipts from the principal post offices in the country for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1902, were as follows:

DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDERS ISSUED IN THE DIFFERENT STATES AND TER

States and Territories,

Fiscal years,

DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDERS.-Continued.

The number of domestic orders issued during the year was 40,474,327; the number of international money orders, 1,311,111.

Of the whole number of post offices at the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1902, 4,731 were Presidential, showing an increase over the previous year of 266; 71,193 were fourth-class, showing a decrease of 1,286, due to the extension of rural free delivery.

In the year 1790 there were 75 post offices in operation. At that time the population of the thirteen States which then constituted the Union was, in round numbers, 3,930,000 people, served by 75 post offices, an average of 1 office to 52,400 people. Since that time the offices have been multiplied over 1,000 times, while the population has multiplied over 20 times.

STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS, EXPENDITURES AND MILEAGE-1875 TO 1902.
Receipts and Expenditures.

Mileage.

United States Land Office Statistics.

(The report for 1902 prepared for The American Almanac by the United States Land Office.)

May 20, 1862, to June 30, 1902.)

The receipts of the General Land Office for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1902, were: From disposal of public lands, $5,880,088.65; from disposal of Indian lands, $288,666.68; from depredations on public lands, $41.415.97; from sales of timber under acts of 1891 and 1897, $27,478.70; from sales of Government property, $1.014.45; for furnishing copies of records and plots, $23,262.73; total, $6,261,927.18. This is an increase over 1901 of $1,289,766.39.

HOMESTEADS IN THE UNITED STATES.

(Table showing the number and area of final homestead entries made from the passage of the Homestead Act, May 20, 1862, to June 30, 1902.)

AREA OF PUBLIC LANDS UNAPPROPRIATED AND UNRESERVED, SUBJECT TO ENTRY AND SETTLEMENT IN STATES AND TERRITORIES, JULY 1, 1902.

(a) The unreserved lands in Alaska are mostly unsurveyed and unappropriated. The following statement shows the land area, expressed in square miles and acres in States and Territories having public lands; the total of public lands surveyed up to June 30, 1902, and the public lands remaining unsurveyed within each State:

total

area of

*There were 91,212 acres resurveyed in Cheyenne and Cherry counties, Neb., not counted in this column. †This estimate is of a very general nature and affords no index to the disposal volume of land remaining, nor the amount available for agricultural purposes. It includes Indian and other public reservations, unsurveyed private land claims, as well as surveyed private land claims in the districts of Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico; the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections reserved for common schools; unsurveyed lands embraced in railroad, swamp lands and other grants; the great mountain areas; the areas of unsurveyed rivers and lakes, and large areas wholly unproductive and unavailable for ordinary purposes. TABLE SHOWING THE LAND AND WATER AREA OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

(c)

97,878 3,692,125 12,362,960,000

(a) 674 square miles of Lake Michigan included. (b) 230 square miles of Lake Michigan included. 16,653 square miles of Lake Superior, 12,292 square miles of Lake Michigan, 9,925 square miles of Lake Huron, and 460 square miles of Lakes Erie and St. Clair included. (d) 2,514 square miles of Lake Superior included. (e) 3,140 square miles of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie included. (f) 3,443 square miles of Lake Erie included. (g) 891 square miles of Lake Erie included. (h) 2,378 square miles of Lake Superior and 7,500 square miles of Lake Michigan included.

The area of Lake Michigan is included in the table, and so much of the areas of Lakes Superior, Huron, St. Clair, Erie, and Ontario as is within the jurisdiction of the United States.

For the States bordering the oceans the general shore line is taken as boundary, thus including the areas of bays, inlets, etc.