208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



and Republican presidents, embraced a total area of over sixty 

 million acres of land. Yet notwithstanding that the Bureau 

 of Forestry had all the technical knowledsre necessary to 

 handle these lands in the proper way, it did not have under its 

 control one single acre of forest land in the whole United 

 States. 



Now Congress has changed all that. The Bureau of For- 

 estry has become the Forest Service, because evidently its 

 most important task is going to be the management of that 

 part of the national domain in which forests are to be main- 

 tained and used for the benefit of the people. During this 

 last year the forest area in reservations has increased to a far 

 greater extent than in any previous year, for President Roose- 

 velt is a great supporter of the reserve policy, because as a 

 clear-sighted and far-sighted man of affairs he recognizes the 

 vital importance of this question to the people of the country 

 as a whole. One hundred million acres of land are now under 

 the administration of the Forest Service. That is a greater 

 extent of territory than all New England, New York, and 

 Pennsylvania. It is to be maintained in perpetuity for the use 

 of the people, for the preservation of the timber supply which 

 is absolutely necessary for them and for the protection of 

 water supplies, especially necessary in the West. This work 

 of administering the reserves will ultimately be the main work 

 of the Forest Service, and hence its change of name. 



At the same time, the present work of the Service is broadly 

 along the line of all the work of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture — the work of making the land of this country contribute 

 all that it can to the welfare of the nation. Idle land or waste 

 land is not helping us ; it is not mere expanse of territory, but 

 land which is being well used, which makes vis powerful and 

 prosperous. Our forest lands, on the whole, are not being 

 well used. A forest may be cultivated just as much as a 

 plowed field. A wild forest, even a wild forest in a state of 

 nature, is not equal to a cultivated forest in point of its ability 

 to contribute to the welfare of mankind. We have treated 

 our forests generally as purely natural resources, and have 

 taken their timber without any effort to keep up the supply. 

 Take the pine forests of the Lake States. We have used them 

 up. They have contributed tremendously to the upbuilding of 

 the country. In every little village of New England and in 



