Daily inter mountain., 1900-11-26
REP0RT IS MADE.
FINDINGS CT PHILIPPINE BUREAU
ARE GIVEN OUT.
ISLAND TREES ARE DISCUSSED
Interesting Information Comes From
the War Department-Tin,be
Covers Large Area.

Washington, Nov. 2e.-The division of
customs and insular affairs of the war
department has made public a summary
OF the first report of the Philippine bu-
reau of forestry, organized in its pres
eht form under an order of the military
governor.
It's forestry work was confined to as
ceTtaining the conditions of the records
received from the Spanish government.
under which that bureau had not only
the care of the forests, but also the sur
vey of the publ, lands
Inc laws in force at the time of Amer
lcan occupation are said to be in line
with the most advanced foreign legisla-
dlon OF Europe. but Were not fully en-
forced and licensed the cutting of any
ana everything. The result was that
\aiuaole fuboer. guttapercha and ylang-
yang trees We're taken and even the
most valuable used as tirawood. The old
regulations We're Translated and revised
taking effect in their new form on july
l last. They provide for a system of Ii
censing by which permits to cut timber
can be secured. the fees being based
upon the different varieties, of which 1876
are named in the order. After the regu-
additional species of trees became
known and others are being brought to
the knowledge of the bureau almost ev-
cry week. The director Capt. Ahern
estimates the total number of tree spec
ies in the archipelago az nearly 500
There are no pure forests of any one
species, rarely more than three or four
trees of one variety being found group
ed together, so that a lumberman look
ing for a shipload Of one kind of timber
would tind it practically impossible to
cut that and no other and cargoes must
be assembled from different points. Cap
tain Ahearn states that from different
sources of information. he is led to be-
Ileve the public forest lands comprise
from one-fourth to possibly one half the
area of the Philippines, or from twenty
TO forty million acres. There are fully
hVe million acres of virgin forest owned
by the state in the islands of Mindoro
and Paragua. The island of Mindanao,
with an area of some twenty million
acres. is almost entirely covered with
timber and even in the province of Cay
agan. in LuZon, there are more than O.
100000 acres of forest
In many other provinces of LuZon. es-
pecially in the country close to Manila
much timber has been cut. and TO fill
large contracts the lumbermen are oblis-
ed to go quite distance from the city
in order to find a suitable tract. Capt
Ahern mentions tracts of virgin forests
to be seen on the southern islands, where
from ten to twenty thousand cubic feet
of magnificent timber per. acre was
standing, with trees more than one hum
dred and fifty feet in height the trunks
clear of branches for sixty feet and
more than four feet in diameter. He
states that III these forests there are
millions of cubic feet of timber. which
should be cut out in order to thin this
dense growth 50 that the maximum an
nual growth could be obtained.
There are a large variety of valuable
gum. rubber and gutta percha trees. sew
entaen dye-woods and the ylang-ylang.
the oil from the blossoms of the latter
tree is the base of so many perfumes.
There are no forest roads or river drive
ways in the islands considered worthy
of mentioning. At present the trees are
felled far from any road and hauled out
very slowly by one or more caribaos,
with the result that many tracts are left
untOuCh he'd.