THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF FORESTRY IN 

 THE UNITED STATES. 



By Mary F. Haggerty. 



(concludbd) 



The first Government action, which bears any relation to 

 forestry was taken in 1799, when Congress appropriated 

 $200,000.00 for the purchase and preservation of timber lands 

 to supply ship timber for the Navy. In 1822 it authorized the 

 President to employ the Army and Navy to protect and pre- 

 serve the live oak, and red cedar of the government in Florida. 

 In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established and in 

 1873 Congress passed its Timber Culture Act which gave 

 government land in treeless regions to whomsoever would plant 

 one fourth of his claim with trees. The knowledge that the 

 forests were being destroyed very rapidly, and the work of the 

 different forest associations, which were being formed at this 

 time, led to the passing of the first real forest bill in 1891, 

 which repealed the Timber Culture Act, and authorized the 

 President to reserve timber lands on the public domain. In 

 the beginning this act was met by much just opposition, for 

 though Congress had set apart the lands and their resources, 

 it had made no provision for their use or protection. How- 

 ever, this mistake w^as remedied in 1897, when a law was 

 passed making it possible to use all the lands and give them 

 suitable protection, and it was this act which created the, na- 

 tional forests, or forest reserves. Since 1900 these forests have 

 been carefully surveyed and mapped, and additions are made to 

 them yearly. The increase in 1908 being 17,142,941 acres 

 and that in 1909 26,528,439 acres. The national forests of 

 today consists of about 145,000,000 acres in the United States 

 and 26,500,000 more in Alaska and Porto Rico. Men well 

 trained in the employ of the forest service will, if offered a 



better position financially, leave the government employ and 



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