THE LESSON OF THE FOREST FIRES. 591 



awakened to the importance of legislative control and the estab- 

 lishment of a forest policy. 



The first important forest movement began with the enact- 

 ment by Congress of the Timber Culture Act of 1873, having 

 reference to the comparatively treeless region west of the Missis- 

 sippi River. By this act the planting to timber of forty acres of 

 land conferred the title to one hundred and sixty acres of the 

 public domain. Even this law was in advance of real knowledge 

 on the subject of forestry and of other conditions. It failed to 

 produce the expected result, and after a few years was repealed. 



The first act of Congress looking toward a definite forest 

 policy, enacted in 187G, required the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 to appoint " some man of approved attainments, with a view of 

 ascertaining the annual amount of consumption, importation, and 

 exportation of timber and other forest products ; the probable 

 supply for future wants ; the means best adapted to the preserva- 

 tion and renewal of forests ; the influence of forests upon climate ; 

 the measures successfully applied in various countries, and to 

 report upon the same." In 1878 Mr. Franklin B. Hough made his 

 first report, a volume of six hundred and fifty pages. He alludes 

 to acts of Congress, passed as early as 1817 and 1837, under which 

 reserves were made of such lands as had a growth of live oak and 

 cedar for shipbuilding purposes ; and that in 1854 the heads of 

 the several land offices were authorized to investigate the repeated 

 spoliations of public timber, to seize any timber found cut with- 

 out authority, and to bring the offenders to the attention of the 

 proper officers of the law. 



Many of the States had before this taken hold of the subject, 

 so far as to offer premiums for the planting, and in some cases 

 exemption from taxes, especially to encourage the planting of 

 trees along the highways, and also laws for the preventing of 

 forest fires. In some of these States, as in Michigan, forestry as 

 a science is taught in the colleges, though as yet no school of 

 forestry has been established, as is done in every country in 

 Europe, in which the general or local government are owners of 

 woodlands. 



State forestry associations have also been formed, Minnesota 

 claiming the first, in 1878. In 1875 a National Forestry Associa- 

 tion was formed, which since 1882 has met yearly, in widely 

 separated localities. All these have been instrumental in arous- 

 ing public interest, in issuing information on forest subjects, and 

 in procuring legislation, especially regarding public reservations. 



This movement has resulted in the enactment of a law by 

 Congress permitting the setting aside, by proclamation of the 

 President, of portions of the public lands, in the Western States 

 and Territories, for permanent forest reservations. Previous to 



