The technical book literature, partly due, no doubt, to the overpowering publication facilities of the federal government, is still scanty, and good textbooks especially are still lacking in most branches. A series of ephemeral popular books answered the demands of earlier days, but outside of Professor _Henry S. Graves’_ volumes on _Forest Mensuration_ and lately on _The Principles of Handling Woodlands_, and a few minor aid books and lecture notes, there is as yet nothing of permanent value to be recorded. The writers’ own publication, _Economics of Forestry_, is intended less for foresters than students of political economy. Three monumental works can be mentioned in the dendrological line, however, namely the 10th volume of the XII Census (1880) on the _Forests of North America_; Micheaux and Nuttall’s _North American Silva_ in 5 volumes, 1865; and C. S. Sargent’s _Silva of the United States_, in 14 magnificent volumes,--three publications which can take rank with any similar literature anywhere. INSULAR POSSESSIONS. The Spanish War, in 1898, brought to the United States new outlying territory, over 150,000 square miles, in three locations, the relationship as regards government varying in the three cases, namely Porto Rico, the Sandwich Islands, and the Philippine Islands, besides several smaller islands in the Pacific Ocean. While the latter are only temporarily under control or tutelage of the United States, and are expected sooner or later to attain complete self government, Hawaii was annexed as a Territory in the same sense as all other Territories, the inhabitants having become citizens of the United States, while Porto Rico is a dependency with partial self-government, but its inhabitants do not enjoy citizenship in the States. All these islands are located in the tropics and hence the composition of the forest is of tropical species. Commercially, the forests of Porto Rico and of Hawaii are relatively of little value, but their protective value is paramount, and a conservative policy is needed in order to preserve the water supply for agricultural use (sugar plantations in Hawaii) and to prevent erosion. For Porto Rico, a beginning of forest policy was made by setting aside, in 1903, the Luquillo Forest Reservation, some 20,000 acres in the Eastern mountainous part of the island, which is under direct control of the United States government. The rest of public lands and forests was placed under the Department of the Interior of the island.