230 ANNUAL EEP0RTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



were as voices crying in the wilderness. Their warnings were, on 

 the whole, rather less productive of results than had been similar 

 warnings in colonial days. 



Unquestionably one reason why predictions of direful consequences 

 in store if waste were not curtailed aroused little interest was the 

 fact that the cry of " Avolf " was so old. The history not merely of 

 agitation but of legislation with regard to forests reaches back into 

 ihe early days of settlement along the Atlantic coast. Laws for the 

 care and protection of forests were placed upon the statute books of 

 several of the Colonies. 



Late in the eighteenth and early in the nineteenth century agricul- 

 tural societies in Massachusetts and New York acted on behalf of 

 forest protection and promotion of the growth of forests. Between 

 1799 and 1831 Congress legislated again and again with a view to 

 insuring the maintenance of supplies of live oak. In 1867 horti- 

 cultural and agricultural societies in Wisconsin appointed a com- 

 mittee to report on the results of forest destruction. Laws for the 

 encouragement of tree planting were passed between 1868 and 1874 

 in nine Western and two Eastern States. In 1869 the board of agri- 

 culture of the State of Maine took action toward the formulation of 

 a forest policy. Arbor Day was instituted in 1872. In 1873 Congress 

 passed the first timber-culture act. The American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science appointed in the same year a committee 

 to memorialize Congress and State legislatures upon the importance 

 of promoting the cultivation of timber and the preservation of 

 forests. The American Forestry Association was founded in 1872 

 and the Pennsylvania Forestry Association in 1876. The latter year 

 marked the inauguration of forest work by the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



These are scattered examj)les of organized action to meet either 

 a recognized or a supposed danger. That forest destruction was pro- 

 ceeding apace and threatened serious consequences had been the dec- 

 laration of some observers from early days down. Those who govern 

 their course by rule of thumb instead of by a careful analysis of condi- 

 tions, and therefore hold that only what has happened will happen, 

 were inclined to be more than skeptical concerning the existence of 

 this particular wolf. The alarm had been raised too often. Cas- 

 sandra prophecies of the approach of a timber shortage were generally 

 received with tolerant incredulity when they did not call forth out- 

 spoken contempt. 



FEAR or WOOD FAMINE IS RECENT. 



The opinion was still commonly advanced that the forests of the 

 country were inexhaustible. Practical men who had had sufficient 

 opportunities of ob.icrvation to know the contrary were content in 



